MLB FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The first week of the Major League Baseball season is now complete, and while it usually does no good to draw conclusions based on such a small sample size, there are definitely some early developments that are worth following:

The Serpent Strikes?

During our extensive team-by-team offseason review/regular season preview, I picked the Diamondbacks as a team capable of surprising the NL West this year. I felt this way because this team can flat out hit, and they have lived up to this reputation for the most part over their first 6 games. They are second to only the Phillies in runs scored (41), although that number is inflated by their 15 run outburst against the Pirates on Sunday. Now, Kelly Johnson isn’t going to post a 1.426 OPS over the course of an entire season, however it looks like Chris Young is poised to fulfill the promise he has shown in the past, and the D-Backs have scored all these runs without much help from Mark Reynolds or Stephen Drew (.770 and .682 OPS, respectively). Once those two guys get going and they get Miguel Montero back from injury, this lineup will do some serious damage.

Slow Starts

While it is obviously impossible for every team to get off to a good start, there are a few high-profile cellar dwellers whose names pop out.

Many people (read: non-Mets fans) don’t expect much from the Mets this year, and the Mets delivered on this lack of promise this past week with a 2-4 homestand against the Marlins and Nationals. I honestly thought a lot of people were writing off the Mets a little too quickly after what was an injury plagued season a year ago. Let’s just say I could be wrong. With a six game road trip to Colorado and St. Louis coming up this week, the Mets are already looking at a serious uphill climb if they want to hang with the Phillies (and Braves) this season.

Another interesting development this past week was the struggles of the two LA teams. The Dodgers got off to a shaky start on the road by losing 2 out of 3 to both the Pirates and Marlins, while the Angels were outscored by a total of 20 runs over their first 7 games, all played at home (against the Twins and A’s). Honestly the Angels’ situation is more alarming, as that run differential is by far the worst of any team in the league that has a win (sorry Houston). They have been positively lit up thus far, and their beleaguered pitchers will be rewarded this week with a trip to Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers on the other hand get to figure things out at home this week, albeit against the aforementioned Diamondbacks and the 5-1 Giants, one of the young season’s most impressive teams thus far, so they may also be in danger of slipping further down the standings.

-The BOMB