After months of hypothesis about how new guidelines will change the sport and a spring coaching stuffed with quick video games and loads of flubs, opening day of the 2023 Main League Baseball season is lastly right here. And for the primary time since 1968, each M.L.B. group is beginning its season on the identical day.
The story traces are plentiful, even past the brand new guidelines. And with greater than 12 hours of reside baseball anticipated, there ought to be one thing for everybody.
The New Guidelines: Stroman Will get Dinged
It seems like hyperbole, however M.L.B.’s three main rule adjustments for this season — a pitch clock, a ban on shifts and a few tweaks to encourage extra stolen bases — are maybe probably the most sweeping single-season adjustments in trendy baseball historical past. (Switching to overhand pitching within the late nineteenth century was most likely extra excessive, however let’s put that apart.)
Whereas a ban on defensive shifts will undoubtedly increase some batting averages — Anthony Rizzo of the Yankees needs to be glad — and everybody appears to agree that a rise in stolen bases could be good, the massive factor is unquestionably the pitch clock. In spring coaching, it decreased the typical sport time by 25 minutes and bought principally optimistic suggestions, even when there have been various awkward moments when an automated strike reared its ugly head.
What to Know About M.L.B.’s New Guidelines
The primary official pitch clock violation in main league historical past within the third inning of a cold sport in Chicago when Marcus Stroman of the Cubs bought an automated ball known as on him for taking too lengthy to ship a pitch to Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers.
As for the results of that clock on the sport? The Yankees, whose video games averaged a serious league-high 3 hours 13 minutes final season, beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-0, within the first sport of the day. Complete time? 2 hours 33 minutes.
Anthony Volpe’s Debut
Anthony Volpe could have entered spring coaching as one thing of an extended shot to make the Yankees, however he left it because the group’s beginning shortstop, and he bought a serious endorsement when the membership assigned him No. 11. For these unfamiliar with Yankees traditions, that’s the lowest jersey quantity the group has not retired. So it’s secure to say the group thinks Volpe, 21, has a brilliant future.
As anticipated, he began for the Yankees on Thursday, taking part in shortstop and batting ninth. He went 0 for two with a stroll.
What are you able to count on from him? In Keith Legislation’s annual Prime 100 M.L.B. Prospects listing for The Athletic, he ranked Volpe because the eighth-best prospect in baseball and described a participant who sounds a complete lot like Derek Jeter — the shortstop Volpe grew up rooting for in New Jersey.
Volpe has an exquisite right-handed swing — I don’t know why anybody would attempt to mess with it — that produces quite a lot of high quality contact and retains the ball within the air for extra-base energy, though I feel he’ll settle in as extra of a high-doubles man who may hit 20 homers than a 30-homer man. He’s a 55-60 runner however it performs up on the bases as a result of he has nice instincts each for studying pitchers and studying conditions. Whereas at shortstop, he’s bought nice arms and will get himself into the correct place to make performs greater than most shortstops I see. I caught quite a lot of Volpe final yr, and he was taking part in a distinct sport than his teammates.
Prime Pitching Matchups Galore
The brand new guidelines are designed to hurry up the sport and enhance the motion. However these adjustments is perhaps arduous to identify on opening day since there are such a lot of video games that includes ace-level starters.
The Mets have Max Scherzer going towards Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins. In order that’s three Cy Younger Awards (Scherzer) going up towards final yr’s unanimous winner of the award within the N.L. (Alcantara).
Earlier within the day, the Yankees put Gerrit Cole up towards a serious breakout candidate in Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants. Spherical 1 went to Cole, who struck out 11 batters in six scoreless innings. Webb struck out 12 however allowed 4 earned runs and exited with a runner on base and no outs within the seventh inning.
Day 1 of Shohei Ohtani’s Contract Yr
After a season by which he turned the primary participant in M.L.B. historical past to qualify for each the batting title and the E.R.A. title — take that, Babe Ruth — Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels got here to an settlement on a one-year, $30 million contract that averted Ohtani, baseball’s solely two-way star, going to arbitration. However with no long-term settlement in place, Ohtani is formally in a contract yr, and the Angels should be hoping their varied roster adjustments will make the group extra aggressive. He has made it clear he’ll stroll away to seek out an opportunity to win.
Final yr, it was Aaron Choose who stepped up and delivered a season for the ages earlier than his free-agent negotiations. He was rewarded with a nine-year, $360 million contract. If Ohtani performs the way in which he did within the final two seasons, he may make that Choose contract look tiny by comparability.
A Rain Delay in San Diego?
It is going to be chilly in Chicago when the Cubs host the Milwaukee Brewers right this moment, and it gained’t be far more nice within the Bronx (Yankees-Giants) or Boston (Purple Sox-Orioles), however the one place affected by rain, to this point, is … San Diego?
The Padres have been scheduled to start out their opener towards the Colorado Rockies at 1:10 p.m. Pacific, however a rainstorm — the most recent in a collection of them in the previous few months — has pushed their begin to 6:40 native time.
It’s actually a brand new period in San Diego. The group is so standard that it put a cap on season ticket gross sales.