TWIB Notes

It's Opening Day in Major League Baseball today--and I have a few thoughts on the upcoming season:

--First off, why is Opening Day on a Thursday?  I have become accustomed to this being part of the best week of the sports year.  You could count on the Final Four on Saturday night, Opening Day games Monday afternoon, the NCAA National Championship game Monday night and then Masters Week takes over from there.  Once again, tradition takes a back seat to money.

--I predict that time-saving efforts by Major League Baseball to shorten game times will be a miserable failure.  The growth of Advance Analytics has led to more pitching changes, selective pitching patterns, more foul balls and batters working the count in every at-bat.  It has been that, and not pitchers having to walk in from the bullpen or too much time between pitchers getting the ball from the catcher and getting ready to throw again.  Of course, the game would speed up immediately if umpires called more strikes--and hitters came up to the plate ready to swing.

--While Ryan Braun is still promoted as the "face of the franchise", this year the Milwaukee Brewers will be Travis Shaw's team.  The hard-nosed third baseman is younger, healthier and more productive than Braun has been for the last five years.  And he's that kind of "old school" that you want your team to play like every day.  I expect him to have an even bigger year than he did last season.

--So how will the Brewers end up doing this year?  A number of experts pick them to be one of the National League Wild Cards--with the Cubs expected to win the National League Central.  Teams that "come out of nowhere" one season--like the Brewers did last year--tend to slip back a little bit the next.  That may be the result of young guys struggling to meet higher expectations, or older guys not having career years that they had the season before.  And I think that may befall the Crew this year.  Their bullpen is great--but I think the starting pitching is a bit fragile.  Getting Jimmy Nelson back at the level he was pitching before hurting himself running the bases late last year will help immensely--but we still aren't sure what the timeline is for his return.  The Brewers outfield might be the best in the National League--and they lead MLB in guys that play first base--but I still don't see where they improved their situational hitting or their baserunning--which was the worst in baseball last year.  I'll give the Brewers a winning record again this year, but I think they will miss the playoffs by a game again in October.

--Until late last week, this Two Cents was going to be about the San Francisco Giants return to baseball supremacy--but then Madison Bumgarner broke his pitching hand after being hit by a line drive in a meaningless spring training game--so this will be another lost season for them.  May as well hand the Yankees the World Series Trophy right now.