FanPost

Opening Week Takeaways

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

March Madness is now over ladies and gentlemen. Please stop bragging about your good, but mostly bad, brackets and pay attention to your glorious country's favorite pastime, Baseball. It's not even been a week into the season, but most opening series games are now down in the history books and along with them come takeaways for each team in the league.

Some of these takeaways will have already shaped the future of the team you frantically root for, while other are still fogged up about what is next for a ball club. However, I'm more than certain that these takeaways will end up holding truth once the season comes to an end.

The Padres and Angels are Slowly Con-caving

Ok, maybe I'm a bit harsh on the Angels on this one. They can at least score a run, unlike the Padres. The Dodgers absolutely embarrassed the Padres in their opening series, with Clayton Kershaw, Scott Kazmir, and Kenta Maeda combining to throw 19 shutout innings and only allowing 7 hits to the squeamish Padres offense. The Dodgers also scored 25 runs over games on the Padres' pitching staff, including 15 runs on Opening Day.

Oh, let's not forget that Andrew Cashner gave up a dinger to Kenta Maeda last night (more on that later). As for the Angels, the Cubs only allowed one run to their offense and Mike Trout and Albert Pujols are a combined 0-for-11 to start the season. So yeah, the offense for both teams seems to be optional to start the season.

The Oakland A's Still Suck at One-Run Games

If there is any good news for the Athletics, it's that they saw Sonny Gray pitch last night and won the game. However, the A's have had each of their games this year decided by one run. Coincidence? Not really. As you know, the A's are 20-37 since the start of last year in 1-run games, including a 1-2 mark this year.

The bullpen was the major contributor last year, but this year not so much, apart from Doolittle's blunder Tuesday Night. In fact, the A's bullpen is a lot better, as they sealed a win with Ryan Madson closing it out last night, along with 6.1 scoreless innings on Monday after Rich Hill's blunder. Only bad news for Athletics and their fans, however, is that they still are not very good at one-run games.

Kenta Maeda Hit a Dinger

Like I said, Kenta Maeda hit a dinger off Cashner last night, all while throwing 6 shutout innings and allowing 5 hits (Maeda had a 1-hitter at the time of his dinger). Maeda is the first ever foreign-born pitcher to hit a MLB Home Run, and is also the first pitcher since Tommy Milone in 2011 to homer in their MLB debut. Joon Lee (@iamjoonlee) gives you a look at Maeda's dinger here:

One day, I hope to be able to be as happy as the Dodgers' dugout was after this, as well as Maeda himself.

A Story-Book Beginning

The puns won't stop until this kid stops hitting dinger. Which might end up being never. The Colorado Rockies' new SS Trevor Story is now in the record books, becoming the first ever player to hit 4 HR's in his first 3 career games. Might I add as well, he didn't do this in Coors Field.

His 4 dingers all happened at Chase Field, with two of them coming off of new D-Backs ace Zack Greinke. Most teams struggle to even take Greinke deep twice in one game nowadays, so it's safe to say that Story's story will continue to write itself (sorry, not sorry). Courtesy of MLB's Cut4, here are all his HR's in vine form:

Just imagine what this kid could do at Coors Field.

Robbie Cano is Back, and He's Got Company Too

The Robinson Cano of Yankees past is now back and better than ever. While Cano didn't hit his 4th dinger until June 26th last year, he already has the same total this year in 3 games. And he's not alone; of the 5 players to hit a home run in each game this season, Cano joins the aforementioned Trevor Story, David Ortiz, Victor Martinez, and Carlos Correa in a select group of spectacular hitters.

While Cano is returning to past form and Trevor Story continues to start one heck of a career, Big Papi is starting to mash his way into retirement, V-Mart is returning to MVP caliber, and Carlos Correa is continuing to show why he's the best young SS in the game right now. I can't wait to see how this season unfolds!

The Phillies Rotation is Better, but The Bullpen is Worse

Sure, the Phillies have only played two games against the Cincinnati Reds this year. They have lost both, unsurprisingly. But Jeremy Hellickson and Aaron Nola have starred in a dismal ball club so far. The Phillies, as of now, have the 3rd best rotation in the big leagues so far in ERA, but the bullpen is dead last in that category, and even features a pitcher with an infinite ERA in offseason acquisition David Hernandez.

The Phillies rotation currently boasts a 0.69 ERA, whereas the bullpen owns a 18.90 ERA. The Phillies' bullpen has only made 10 outs and has allowed 11 baserunners. Yikes. Maybe the Padres can get their first run of the season on that Phillies bullpen next week.

Last But Not Least, Baseball Is Back!

Enjoy it, savior it, do whatever the heck you want with it. Baseball is back and you're going to enjoy a great 2016 season!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of MLBDD's writers or editors.

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