We went into the opening weekend of the 2024 MLB season simply ecstatic that baseball was back, knowing full well that it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than a few days to reveal the true essence and experience of the long season.
Ah, but then pitches were thrown, bats were swung, statistics were posted, and, when put to the test by results unfolding right in front of us, we couldn’t help ourselves:
Don’t feel alone. We all do it. So in an early season tradition unlike any other, we went on X (the World Capital of Overreactions) to see how people were responding to various outcomes from the first weekend and to issue judgment on whether their observations are appropriate or, um, a bit much.
(Some posts have been edited for clarity and grammar and whatnot.)
“Juan Soto: Made for New York.” — @Norsea_
Well, first of all, Soto’s fantastic first impression (9-for-17 with a go-ahead HR on Saturday and the game-winning knock off the great Josh Hader on Sunday) came in Houston, not New York. But anyway, here is an incomplete list of places Soto was made to play baseball:
New York
Houston
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Washington, D.C. (sorry for the reminder, Nats fans)
Chicago
Los Angeles
Minneapolis (.476 career average at Target Field!)
Philadelphia
London
San Diego (sorry for the reminder, Padres fans)
De Soto, Missouri
De Soto, Kansas
De Soto, Iowa
Soto del Real, Spain
Jupiter (the city in Florida)
Jupiter (the planet)
Cooperstown
New Yorkers are a particularly parochial sort who presume that players have to prove they can handle the prestige and pressures that come with the pinstripes.
But this isn’t Joey Gallo we’re talking about here, OK? This is a guy who is the same age Aaron Judge was in his Rookie of the Year season, and he’s already accrued almost 30 career WAR. So let’s flip this around and see if New York (Yankees or Mets) is made for Juan Soto and can entice him to stay beyond this season, or if the Big Apple will be relegated to a brief, single-season mention on his (seemingly inevitable) Hall of Fame plaque.
Verdict: Overreaction (but more general praise of Soto as an AL MVP in the making is an acceptable reaction)
“[The Astros are] dead on arrival this year. Oh well, it was a good run. They won’t win 80 games this year, and getting Josh Hader was a total waste.” — @jbwynn5
And here’s the other half of the Yankees’ wonderful weekend.
Houston’s run is going to come to an end eventually. And maybe, with the rotation perhaps overly reliant on the triumphant return of a 41-year-old coming off a sore shoulder in Justin Verlander and the bullpen having gained Hader but lost a lot of other key innings, that will happen this year. The strength of the Rangers and Mariners means the Astros can’t just waltz their way into October.
But for now, the Astros have still earned our assumption that they could finish fifth in the AL West and still somehow reach the ALCS. Old habits die hard.
“Wait. I thought the Phillies were ranked #1 for best bullpen. Good job, bullpen! You only gave up nine runs in two innings.” — @JalenReagorSZN
Who was foolish enough to list the Phillies at No. 1 among bullpens?
Oh, wait… it was me! But not really. If you were astute enough to actually, you know, read that piece (or the fine print at the bottom of the @MLB social post listing the “top bullpens”), you would note that this was based entirely on FanGraphs’ preseason bullpen WAR projections. The point was to discuss why those projections might be right or wrong, and, well, if the entire season were built out of Opening Day, they would have been very, very wrong about the Phillies.
But obviously, the only thing more ridiculous than trying to predict or project bullpen performance is drawing conclusions from one weekend in which the ‘pen allowed 15 runs in 11 2/3 innings. This is not the disastrous Phillies bullpen of 2020 or 2021. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. It has depth in power arms and…
This article was originally published by a www.mlb.com . Read the Original article here. .