Opening Weekend Opinions

So the first weekend of the season is in the books and I feel comfortable calling it “eventful.”  I don’t remember who said it after the Opener but the Orioles and Red Sox looked very much like the fourth and fifth placed teams they are widely predicted to be.  With that said some random thoughts;

Good:

- OK, the Boston Red Sox are going to score some runs.  The offense was both impressive and relentless.  Say what you want about Kiké Hernandez but he’s a hell of a hitter to have batting ninth.  At full health this line up looks like it will rake.  Masataka Yoshida has really done nothing but impress since he started raking for the Japanese WBC team. 

- Also the revamped bullpen looked strong. Put aside the mess on Thursday and take note of the guys who should be expected to pitch important innings.  Kenley Jansen, John Schreiber and Chris Martin all looked solid and Tanner Houck was very good until he seemed to run out of steam in his start.  For all the criticism Alex Cora seemed to be taking for going to Zack Kelly in the 4th the other day when your starters don’t go deep and it’s 7-1 in the 4th that’s who you go to.  If the Sox’ season depends on Zack Kelly and Kaleb Ort the season is sunk.

- The pitch timer (and take note MLB does NOT want it called a “clock” even though that’s what it is) is a resounding success in my mind.  The best line I read this weekend was “I hate everything about it except that it works.”  That game Thursday would have been four hours a year ago with Kluber and other pitchers struggling to throw strikes then kicking around the mound.  Getting it done in 3:10 was a huge win for the fans.  As was noted, it’s not giving us less baseball, it’s giving us less non-baseball.  I think there are some tweaks necessary but so far so good in my opinion.

- Raimel Tapia’s hair is glorious.

Bad:

- The starting pitching was kind of the great nightmare wasn’t it?  I think there is a case to be made that the guys who will be the Sox two best starters this year (Garrett Whitlock and Brayan Bello) are not there yet but still, the Sox need more.  Whatever we expect from Klubot and Chris Sale this year I think we can expect better than that.

- What in god’s name was with the Orioles running wild?  Sox pitchers seem completely buffaloed by how to hold runner.  I’m coaching 11 year olds playing on a diamond with leads for the first time who are less confused than the Sox hurlers.

- The one reliever of significance that had a tough outing was Richard Bleier.  At the moment he’s the lefty option out there and he did not do the job on Sunday.

Ugly:

- The pregame ceremony on Thursday was…off.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  If you’d been living in Pauly Shore’s biodome and just showed up on March 30th with no information from the outside world about the off-season you’d have known something was off with the carmine hose.  The crowd was reserved and when the second or third biggest ovation of the player introductions go to the manager it’s either a really good or really bad sign.

Beyond that the honorary stuff was off.  Michelle Brooks-Thompson is a marvelous, gifted singer. She has also done the anthem or GBA roughly a bajazillion times at Fenway.  “Who’s the least special singer we can get” seems to have been the question.  Then the first pitch; Devin McCourty, David Ortiz, Shawn Thornton, Dana Barros?  I mean, the whole “bring all the teams together is nice enough but there was nothing special there.  Dana Barros? I mean I loved the little dude and Shawn Thornton was a fan fave but those two guys don’t quite measure up to McCourty and Ortiz.  Even Papi, I mean he’s an automatic standing ovation but it’s not like Bill Buckner coming out in 2008 is it?

On top of that the desperate attempts to generate enthusiasm (e.g. “the player who will spend the next decade in Boston” while introducing Devers) felt well, desperate.  Look, we know where we are with this team.  Don’t sugarcoat it.

- Holy crap was it cold on Thursday.  I haven’t thawed out yet.

- It’s not really good, bad or ugly but I’ll put it here.  The elimination of the shift really was not noticeable.  Small sample sizes etc…but BABIP is up a bit, .317 through action on Saturday night vs. .290 a year ago.