Press Box: Making some judgments early in MLB season

Brandon Marsh of the Phillies celebrates after scoring the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Saturday's game against the Reds in Philadelphia. (Associated Press)
Brandon Marsh of the Phillies celebrates after scoring the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Saturday's game against the Reds in Philadelphia. (Associated Press)

Two weeks into baseball season, we’re slightly past the “hope springs eternal” feeling of opening day for many teams.

But it’s never too early to start overreacting to April trends.

Is the pitch clock the best thing to happen to baseball in 100 years? Maybe. Games are about a half hour shorter with the same amount of total action and less adjusting of batting gloves and stepping out of the box or off the mound. It’s quicker to get to the action without losing much of anything.

Are the Tampa Bay Rays the best team in baseball? Again, maybe. They remain undefeated at 8-0 after an 11-0 win Saturday and haven’t won by fewer than four runs in any game.

Are the Cardinals the worst team in baseball? Once again, maybe. Entering Saturday, they were one win above the worst record in the league, which is held by the Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s at 2-6 as of print time Saturday night.

Are the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds and the Boston Red Sox’s Adam Duvall the best hitters in the league? One more time, maybe. They are tied at the top of the offensive leaderboard in Wins Above Replacement on ESPN, Duvall is hitting .483 and Reynolds is tied for the league lead in home runs with five, while Duvall has four.

I love overreactions. They’re fun, they provide storylines in the early part of the season and can give hope or despair to fans who might not feel it otherwise.

The thing about them to remember though, they’re all nonsense.

Early returns on the pitch clock are good. I was resistant to the idea of adding a clock to a game that has always prided itself on not having one, but became a full believer less than a week into the season. Same with the other new rules. The shift ban seems to be raising batting averages above where they were at this point last season and the bigger bases and pick off limits are allowing for more stolen bases, which is a trend I’m very happy to see. I hope we get back to the days of multiple players stealing 50 or 60 (or significantly more) bags per season.

All of the outcomes we’ve seen so far are fun. But no it’s not the best thing to ever happen to baseball.

The Rays are good, we knew they would be because they always are, but they have also only played the Tigers, Nationals and A’s, so lets maybe wait until they play a team that’s not going to lose 100 games to crown them the best.

The Cardinals are also good, I know it hasn’t been the best time watching them yet, but they have multiple MVP winners or candidates in the lineup, a very fun rookie in Jordan Walker (who I hope ends up at or near the top of N.L. Rookie of the Year voting because he seems like a fun kid and the Cardinals haven’t had a home-grown superstar in a while) and haven’t ended under .500 since 2007 or missed the playoffs since 2018.

Reynolds is a great center fielder, who I would expect to be traded at the deadline (although I didn’t expect him to still be a Pirate at the start of the season, so grain of salt) and Duvall is fine, but no, neither of them are likely MVP candidates.

I have been a Seattle Mariners fan my whole life and up until the past couple of seasons, I didn’t really get to root for them to win much. I’m sure Kansas City Royals fans can relate (maybe not Cardinals fans), but if you know you’re team will be terrible you have to find other ways to make the season fun and overreacting to early-season trends can bring some intrigue into games that feel like they don’t mean much.

Baseball is entertainment, we don’t have to take it so seriously all the time. As long as you can recognize it’s an overreaction, have fun with it.

Call the Rays the best team in baseball, despair over the Cardinals’ tough start. Crown Reynolds the early-season MVP and Walker the Rookie of the Year.

It’s all for fun and only matters as much as we say it does.

So have fun with it while you can and overreact as much as you want to. Just be sure to realize it’s all an overreaction and more than likely most of what’s happening across the majors right now isn’t going to stick through the year.

But some of it might.