This Weekend in Baseball

5 Highlights from the weekend in Baseball

1. Christian Yelich is so hot right now. The 27 year old couldn't have asked for a better start, continuing off his MVP season last year. He's homered in 4 straight games (five if you count the Brewers last playoff game) and even added a walk-off double to power the Brewers past the Cardinals 5-4. They tell you never to extrapolate data, but I'm pretty sure Yelich is going for 162 dingers. He's got an absurd .500/.667/1.583 through 4.

2. The Harper Experiment is off to a red hot start. Harper is doing exactly what he was advertised to do in Philly. Hit monster home-runs and walk often. Can someone say three true outcomes? He's got 2 home-runs, 4 walks and 3 strikeouts, so 9 of his 13 PA's fall under that category. And his home-runs have been absolute moonshots, his latest one having a 114 MPH exit velocity. The Phillies whole offense, not just Harper, is humming right now to the tune of 23 runs in their first series against the perennially good Braves, showing the impact a star in the middle of the lineup can have. Hoskins is playing extremely well right behind Harper, McCutcheon is slugging .727, Realmuto has been offensively excellent and Maikel Franco is benefitting a lot from the reduced attention. The Phillies could not have prayed for a better start, they are the only undefeated team remaining, and the Phillies crowd will not let you forget it.

3. Josh Hader has an Immaculate Inning. One of the coolest, and rarest pitching achievements was, well, achieved on Saturday. Brewers closer Josh Hader got an immaculate Inning, aka three batters, all struck out, on 9 pitches. He is the 94th person to do it in the history of baseball (which means this feat usually happens 0-1 times per year. However it is becoming more frequent in this era, with 4 last year and 8 in 2017. To me, besides a perfect game, this has got to be one of the best, if not the best pitching achievement. And he did it to finish the game, which is extra cool.

4. AL Power Houses have a slow start. The Yankees, Red Sox and Astros, the three leading candidates to win the American League, have limped out of opening weekend. They are a combined 3-8, and they weren't even up against the best competition. Boston dropped 1-3 to Seattle, Yankees lost a series to the Orioles and Houston fell to the Rays. The AL east in general looks like something out of Twilight Zone, with Tampa and the Orioles at the top and Boston and New York at the bottom. While no one expects this to last, I'm enjoying the knee-jerk overreactions and panicking that is so synonymous with opening week. "The Sale resigning was a mistake! Stanton is a waste of money! Trade Altuve!" Good times.

5. Tigers break an ignominious streak. Up until Sunday's game the Tigers had gone three games without scoring in regulation. The only inning they had scored in was in extra innings in their first game against the Blue Jays. 1/28, not a great ratio. But they broke it to Sunday to move to 2-2 so it's not so bad. But the Tigers have to be one of the most wasteful franchises of the last few decades. They had 4 pitchers that either had won or eventually would win a Cy Young in Verlander, Scherzer, Porcello and Price on the same staff (and Anibal Sanchez and Doug Fister at points, no slouches either), a triple crown winner in Miguel Cabrera, a couple years of prime Prince Fielder and more. They had an MVP or Cy Young or both 3 straight years and only had a world series sweep loss to show for it. Disappointing to say the least.