The Week That Was: April 2–9

From big time home runs to walk off walks to diving catches, there has been no shortage of things to watch early in the 2017 season.

SI.com

Baseball is back. From the first pitch thrown by Chris Archer on Opening Day against the Yankees on April 2, to the last pitch thrown Sunday night by Addison Reed against the Miami Marlins, the first week of baseball has seemingly flown by.

Standings

Playoff Odds

Standout Performers

American League West:

• Nomar Mazara, RF, Texas Rangers: 10 H, 2 HR, 0 BB, 18 TB
• Dallas Keuchel, SP, Houston Astros: 14 IP, 8 K, 3 BB, 1 ER

National League West:

• Yasiel Puig, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers: 7 H, 3 HR, 5 BB, 18 TB
• Madison Bumgarner, SP, San Francisco Giants: 15 IP, 16 K, 2 BB, 5 ER

American League Central:

• Jason Castro, C, Minnesota Twins: 4 H, 1 HR, 6 BB, 8 TB
• Justin Verlander, SP, Detroit Tigers: 6.1 IP, 10 K, 2 BB, 2 ER

National League Central:

• Travis Shaw, 3B, Milwaukee Brewers: 7 H, 1 HR, 4 BB, 16 TB
• Brandon Finnegan, SP, Cincinnati Reds: 7 IP, 9 K, 1 BB, 0 ER

American League East:

• Chase Headley, 3B, New York Yankees: 7 H, 1 HR, 4 BB, 11 TB
• Chris Archer, SP, Tampa Bay Rays: 14.2 IP, 13 K, 4 BB, 4 ER

National League East:

• J.T. Realmuto, C, Miami Marlins: 11 H, 2 HR, 2 BB, 19 TB
• Noah Syndergaard, SP, New York Mets: 13 IP, 16 K, 0 BB, 1 ER

Injury Report

• Los Angeles Angels starter Garrett Richards was placed on the 10-day disabled list on April 6 with a right biceps strain. This is obviously concerning given the fact he avoided Tommy John surgery last year, but the Angels appear optimistic about his health going forward.
• In other AL West injury news, Houston Astros right-hander Collin McHugh has been shut down for six additional weeks from April 8. This represents a big blow to an Astro team looking to make a playoff run in 2017.
• Josh Donaldson left the Blue Jays game early on Sunday with what was called right calf tightness. The Jays appear to have dodged a bullet, as Donaldson will avoid the DL and be listed as day-to-day.
• In Dodgers injury news, left-hander Rich Hill has once again gone to the disabled list with a blister, an injury that has become very common over the last few years for the veteran hurler. He is slated to miss only 10 days and could be back for the Dodgers on April 16.
• The Nationals also appear to have dodged a more serious injury as Trea Turner will only miss a few days after pulling his right hamstring on April 8.
• The Yankees got a scare on Saturday when young phenom Gary Sánchez left the game against the Orioles with a biceps injury. Sánchez has been placed on the 10-day DL and will be reevaluated after those 10 days have passed.

Three Big Storylines

Stellar Debuts

Over the last two seasons, the baseball world has been taken over by young talent. From Kris Bryant to Carlos Correa to Francisco Lindor to Corey Seager, baseball has quite rapidly come to be dominated by new players. Through the first week of 2017, things don’t appear to be changing on that front.

With eight days of baseball now done, there has been no shortage of talented rookies impressing their teams and leaving opposing teams flustered.

Manuel Margot — two home runs and three doubles with the San Diego Padres. Kyle Freeland — one earned run and six strikeouts over six innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Antonio Senzatela — five shutout innings and six strikeouts for the Colorado Rockies. Amir Garrett — six shutout innings for the Cincinnati Reds. And the list goes on. 2015 and 2016 both saw a strong influx of rookie talent. 2017 looks to be no different.

Surprise Teams

There is never a shortage of surprises during the baseball season. Prior to the first pitch on Opening Day, we all think we know which teams are going to be good, and which teams are going to be bad. This year was supposed to be a similar story, although there has already been quite a few surprises.

It’s still early in the season, but we have already had our fair share of surprising teams.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have more wins than any other team in baseball. Who saw that one coming? The D’backs, Angels, Twins, Orioles, Cubs, and Marlins sit atop their divisions. Before Opening Day, only one of those teams would make sense as a division leader. This doesn’t mean much given that only five to seven games have been played by each team, but it’s still a rather interesting sight.

In other interesting early season standings, the Seattle Mariners (1–6), Toronto Blue Jays (1–5), and San Francisco Giants (2–5), three preseason playoff favorites all find themselves in rather precarious positions early in the season. All can still recover, but getting off to a slow start is never a good thing for a team, especially one with serious playoff aspirations.

Velocity is up… sort of?

With Opening Day kicking off last Sunday, several baseball writers and analysts were noticing something rather strange: There seemed to be a significant uptick in velocity by several pitchers in the first few games of the season. A similar thing happened during part two of Opening Day on Monday, with velocity being up around the league.

Dave Cameron covered this velocity spike in more depth over at Fangraphs, and basically came to the conclusion that MLB is measuring pitcher velocity, using their Statcast tracking in a different way than they have in years past. In previous years, PITCHF/x was used to measure velocity at a defined point along the trajectory of the ball to home plate. Now, MLB has made a full transition to using Statcast in ballparks to measure pitcher velocity, and the ball is now being measured using Trackman directly out of the pitcher’s hand, leading to an uptick of about one mile per hour on average. This has obviously led to some confusion among people measuring pitcher velocity and changes in velocity, but this appears to be a more accurate way of measurement going forward.

Play of the Week

Hit of the Week

Pitch(es) of the Week

Matchups to Watch: April 10–16

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs: April 10–13

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals: April 10–12

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox: April 14–16

Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians: April 14–16