I love baseball
Baseball season has started, the dark days of Spring Training are behind us, and 162 games are ahead.
My attempt with this blog is to serve as a sort of companion to the episode uploaded during the week. With that said, I will go over some of the highlights of what I discussed.
The series with the San Francisco Giants went very well: 7–0, 3–0, and 3–1. While I am excited that we swept the series, you can see the decline after playing the same team multiple times. It's something to be aware of. The Giants obviously made some changes after each game; we did not.
Ryan Weathers made his big league debut on 3/30 against the Seattle Mariners and looked very good: 4 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, giving up only 1 run. Social media exploded when Blackburn blew the game, which was hilarious to watch. It's early in the season, so I am not particularly worried about Blackburn, but I was getting flashbacks to Devin Williams from last season.
ABS has to be God’s gift to the MLB. The Yankees are 5-for-5 on ABS against the Mariners, with Caballero having 2 successful challenges, and Stanton and Chisholm each having 1. This is definitely going to change the game, with Castillo of the Mariners throwing an extra 9 pitches, leading to the Yankees moving through their batting lineup quicker.
The player spotlight this week is none other than the Burrito Man, Austin Wells. The 26-year-old alumnus from the University of Arizona has shown poise in his fourth season behind the plate. As I continue to watch Wells, I am extremely impressed with his confidence and maturity as a catcher. Wells has had enormous success with the ABS, going 3-for-3 in challenges so far. I know this will certainly help the Yanks as the season progresses.
An area of improvement I would like to see from Wells is his batting record. The catcher is currently sporting a .219 AVG, .275 OBP, and a .712 OPS, showing a slight dip in productivity over the last two seasons.
I would be remiss if I did not call out Wells’ appearance in the World Baseball Classic with the Dominican Republic. I’m sure he had as great a time playing and being with the team as the internet had discussing his heritage.
That is all for now—I’ll see you... on the field.