Advertisement

Who’s hot and who’s not? Clayton Kershaw one of MLB's early surprises

The warm feeling of nostalgia that comes when MLB teams wear their throwback uniforms and connect the past with the present is one of the things that makes baseball great.

But even better is when vintage ballplayers turn back the clock to give us a glimpse of how they performed in their primes.

That theme has been a pleasantly recurring one as the 2022 season has begun.

Topping the list is Los Angeles Dodgers ace and three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw, who merely retired all 21 batters he faced in his first start of the season. Although he had thrown just 80 pitches, manager Dave Roberts pulled Kershaw with the perfect game intact.

Clayton Kershaw was all smiles after retiring all 21 Twins hitters he faced in his first start of the 2022 season.
Clayton Kershaw was all smiles after retiring all 21 Twins hitters he faced in his first start of the 2022 season.

Roberts' decision sparked a bit of an uproar, but it was the right call. Kershaw even agreed. There’s no reason to push a 34-year-old with an extensive injury history any further in 38-degree Minneapolis weather.

Almost as impressive, 39-year-old Justin Verlander has been magnificent in his first two outings of the season – after missing all of 2021 and pitching only once in 2020.

Verlander, a two-time Cy Young winner, struck out eight over eight shutout innings on Saturday in Seattle to lower his ERA to 0.69.

NiIGNTENGALE'S NOTEBOOK: Verlander focused on Astros title after nearly leaving in offseason

MLB POWER RANKINGS: Mets, Giants looking like strong contenders

Along with some solid starts from pitchers Adam Wainwright (age 40) and Zack Greinke (38) and slugger Albert Pujols (42), the “boring old guys” strategy has paid some early dividends for fantasy managers who implemented it.

Slow starts aplenty

On the other hand, some of this year’s most promising rookies haven’t quite hit the ground running.

-- Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals had a clutch go-ahead RBI double in his major league debut but hit just .156/.182/.281 with 11 strikeouts and one walk in his first eight games.

-- Josh Lowe of the Rays slashed .138/.265/.207 in nine games, without a home run or a stolen base.

-- Bryson Stott of the Phillies has seen action at three infield positions, but not much in the batter’s box, with a slash line of .154/.185/.192.

-- C.J. Abrams of the Padres has played second, short and right field while hitting .115 in his first nine games.

-- And Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners started 4-for-32 (.125) with 16 whiffs, three walks and a .356 OPS.

While it’s true that Abrams and Rodriguez, both 21, jumped directly from Class AA last year to the majors, the others had little left to prove in the minor leagues. Though the results haven’t been great so far, the incentive for teams to have their best players in the majors to start the season is a positive one.

It’s not as if a few weeks at Class AAA would have made any difference in their performances. If these youngsters are going to experience growing pains when they first arrive in the majors, they might as well have them in April instead of May or July or September.

Sure, there has to be some concern for these rookies’ fantasy managers (and real-life managers as well), but they’re not the only ones off to slow starts.

The Arizona Diamondbacks hit .152/.284/.264 as a team over their first nine games. The Cincinnati Reds posted a major league low .539 OPS in their first 10 games.

Individually, Eddie Rosario of the Braves – the 2021 NLCS MVP and a career .273 hitter – started the season 1-for-29 (.034). The Reds’ Tommy Pham (.038 average) was hitless in his first 22 at-bats and Joey Votto posted a .118 average to go with a .250 on-base percentage.

Kyle Tucker (.121), Marcus Semien (.128), Carlos Correa (.133), Paul Goldschmidt (.138), Kyle Schwarber (.139) and Jose Altuve (.156) are among 60 major league regulars with sub-.200 batting averages after the first full week of the season.

How long before it’s officially time to panic on these slow starters? Perhaps the leash is shorter for the rookies because they can be optioned to the minors if their struggles continue. However, if any of the veterans listed above had a similar 10-game slump in the middle of the season, we might not even notice.

While there are some metrics (strikeout rate, contact rate, walk rate) that do begin to show some statistical significance fairly quickly, I generally try not to make any reactionary moves until at least a month into the regular season to allow some of the randomness in the early going to even out.

I’ve often wished I’d written down some of the poor starts some of my key players have experienced in the past, just as a simple reminder that better days are almost certainly on the way.

COVID still having an impact

While we don’t have an abbreviated regular season or games played in stadiums with limited seating capacities as we did the past two seasons, the presence of the coronavirus and its variants hasn’t completely gone away.

New York Mets outfielders Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha tested positive before their series against the Diamondbacks and were unable to return for a minimum of five days. Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger also tested positive over the weekend. The Boston Red Sox also put multiple players on the COVID list early this week.

The Mets and Yankees were fortunate to have a new policy take effect before the start of the season that exempted athletes and entertainers from the city’s COVID-19 restrictions. However, that isn’t the case for MLB teams traveling to Toronto.

This past weekend, the Blue Jays hosted the Oakland Athletics – who were without outfielder Stephen Piscotty (COVID list), as well as catcher Austin Allen and relievers A.J. Puk and Kirby Snead (restricted list).

The restricted list is for players who are not fully vaccinated and are not allowed to cross the border into Canada. (While some may argue that gives the Jays an unfair advantage, the reverse holds true for Jays players entering the U.S. It’s just that everyone on Toronto’s roster has been vaccinated.)

The Jays are on the road this week but will return for an extended homestand against the Red Sox, Astros and Yankees starting April 25.

Sox right-hander Tanner Houck already told The Boston Globe he would not take his scheduled turn in the rotation, presumably because he will be put on the restricted list. Manager Alex Cora also told reporters Houck is not the only Red Sox player who will miss the series in Toronto.

While it’s been the subject of much speculation and debate leading up to the start of the season, we’re going to find out fairly soon which players – possibly some very important ones – have not yet been vaccinated.

With this being the final year of the unbalanced schedule and all AL East teams playing nine or 10 games in Toronto, there could be some significant implications.

Follow Gardner on Twitter @SteveAGardner

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fantasy baseball: Clayton Kershaw perfect, rookies struggling early