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10 winners and losers from first week of MLB action

Courtesy of Jennifer Stewart, USA Today Sports

The MLB season is a week old, and already we’re seeing some big developments.

While teams, fans, and players everywhere would do well to remember that there is still a long way to go and a lot of baseball to be played, the first week of baseball has definitely given us some notable highlights and lowlights.

So, which teams and players have supplied the highlights and lowlights? That’s what we’re here to answer.

These are the biggest winners and losers from the first week of MLB action.

Winner: Trevor Story

The biggest story of the week has to be Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies. In addition to giving us dozens of puns, Story has had a record setting run in his first six games.

The Rockies shortstop already broke the record for most consecutive games with a home run to start a career and added on to it, finishing at four straight games. While Story went homerless in his fifth game, he came back strong in the sixth. No player, rookie or otherwise, has ever started a season with seven homers in six games, until now.

With every swing of the bat, Story is not only making Rockies fans forget about old shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, but also Jose Reyes, who’s currently serving a leave of absence.

Story is currently on pace to hit about 189 home runs this season, so it’s safe to say that some regression will occur. But even when that happens, it’s hard to see him getting benched.

It’s been a pretty spectacular start for a guy who, before this, was not even ranked as one of the top-10 prospects in his own organization.

Loser: Baseball fans

The good news is that baseball’s back, and that’s a very good thing for fans everywhere.

Unfortunately, we’re barely a week into the season and we won’t be seeing A.J. Pollock for at least half of the season or Kyle Schwarber for the entire season.

This is bad news for the Arizona Diamonbacks. Chicago Cubs and fans of both franchises. But it’s also bad for every baseball fan. These are two of the best, most exciting players in MLB, and the game suffers when players of that caliber miss so much time.

Big injuries happens in every sport, and certainly opponents are not going to feel bad for these two teams. Still, those injuries are a bummer for fans of good baseball.

Winner: Baltimore Orioles

Apr 10, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado (13) celebrates after hitting a home run in the second inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Every team has played four games, and all but two (Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers) have played five. But the Baltimore Orioles close out the first week as the only undefeated team in baseball.

Now, what does it mean? Looking at it from a big picture perspective, not that much.

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are both 3-2. Even the last place Tampa Bay Rays are only 3.5 games back at 2-4. With over 150 games left, a five-game winning streak to open the season doesn’t amount to a whole heck of a lot.

Still, it’s not entirely irrelevant. The AL East figures to be a highly competitive division. So a strong run, even if it is early, is definitely nice to have.

If nothing else, MLB’s only undefeated team has to be recognized as one of the winners of the first week of MLB action.

Losers: Minnesota Twins & Atlanta Braves

The Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves are the only winless teams, so it’d be hard to credibly say that they’re not two of the MLB’s biggest losers of the week.

Things are definitely worse for the Twins. The Braves were not expected to be all that competitive in 2016. While an 0-5 week is certainly frustrating, it’s not that far off of what they’re expected to do. Prior to the start of the season, a good year for Atlanta would have been about 72-90 while a bad season would have been closer to 62-100. An 0-5 week is certainly bad, but nothing has really changed from the 90-100 loss expectations.

Minnesota, on the other hand, was a solid 83-79 in 2015. They didn’t enter the 2016 season as a perfect team, but there was no real reason to believe they couldn’t have another winning record and at least be a darkhorse playoff contender.

That’s still possible, but the AL Central is a strong division and Minnesota is the only team currently sporting a losing record. Their loss on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals highlighted the differences between the two teams. Teams like Kansas City just find ways to win, while the Twins looked like a team that just finds ways to lose.

There’s obviously a long time to go and a lot of baseball to play, but the Twins have certainly dug a hole for themselves.

Winner: Pitchers who rake

Kenta Maeda of the Los Angeles Dodgers got the party going in his first start, hitting a home run against the San Diego Padres.

Madison Bumgarner joined the party on Saturday, taking Clayton Kershaw deep. Not to be outdone, reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta went deep for the Cubs against Shelby Miller and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Not a bad week for fans of old school National League baseball.

Loser: Arizona Diamondbacks

Zach Grienke, Diamondbacks

While they’re not quite on par with the winless Twins and Braves, the Diamondbacks have had a rough go of things, posting a 2-5 record over their first seven games. That mark looks even worse when we remember that they haven’t even gone on the road yet.

Unfortunately, Arizona’s Week from Hell doesn’t even begin to stop there.

As we’ve already gone over, they’ll be without star A.J. Pollock for at least the first half of the season.

As far as their competition goes, the San Francisco Giants or Los Angeles have both shown some flaws, but the Giants are 5-2 and the Dodgers are 4-3. Teams that can win while they’re still figuring things out are generally tough to compete with.

Lastly, Arizona’s two big offseason acquisitions were Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller. Each man has started twice. They’ve thrown a combined 21 innings and the two sport an ERA/WHIP of 9.00 and 1.81.

If the Diamondbacks are going to figure it out, they should do it quickly. Arizona is headed out on a 10-game road trip that includes three games in Los Angeles and four in San Francisco. If they don’t right the ship quickly, it’ll get late really early in the desert.

Winner: Manny Machado

We knew that Manny Machado was good. A season ago, he showed us that he could be good for 162 games. But Machado isn’t playing good right now. He’s playing great.

Like his team, Machado is starting the season at a blistering pace. He’s hit three home runs already and slashed at an astonishing .429/.455/.905.

Now, we’re not delusional. Like Story, we know that this pace won’t hold for a full season.

But Machado has always been an immensely talented player. For more than a year now, he’s put that talent together and generated fantastic numbers.

We don’t want to overreact to five games, but based on what we’ve seen so far, Machado is looking like an MVP. Don’t be surprised if it happens.

Loser: Dodgers bullpen

Los Angeles started the season on the right track, shutting out the San Diego Padres three times. Their four-game series in San Francisco, however, was not as friendly.

The Dodgers lost three of the four games at AT&T Park, and their bullpen was a big reason why. In the four games in San Francisco, Los Angeles relievers blew a no-hitter, had an ERA/WHIP of 10.12/2.06 in 10.2 innings and went 1-2.

On one hand, this isn’t that big of a deal. No, you never want to lose three of four to a division rival, especially when all of the games were winnable. Still, it’s a road series against a good opponent, and pitchers tend to start the season relatively slow.

On the other hand, bullpen struggles are precisely what kept the Dodgers from winning in the playoffs from 2013-2015. They either blew games or their futility forced Los Angeles to extend starting pitchers like Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke a little too deep into games, which had the same impact.

After about the seventh inning, the Dodgers bullpen should be fine. There aren’t many closers as good as Kenley Jansen. But if the Giants series, along with the last few years, are any indicator then Los Angeles’ middle to long relief spots need a lot of help. If that isn’t locked down, the Dodgers can expect another disappointing finish in 2016.

Winner: Tyler White

The bad news for Tyler White is that he went 0-for-3 on Sunday.

The good news is that he’s still off to a torrid start, slashing at .556/.591/1.167 with three home runs and nine RBI.

Also, like Story, White’s accomplishments are aided by his relatively unknown status. Entering the season, White ranked as only the 13th best prospect in the Houston Astros organization.

In terms of their win-loss record, the first week wasn’t that great for the 2-4 Astros. But from a big picture point of view, it was a great week, as they might have found a genuine star player with White.

Loser: Los Angeles Angels

The Angels have definitely had better weeks. Although they did cap this one off with a 3-1 win over the Texas Rangers, the Halos have still stumbled to a 2-4 record. The only team with a worse run differential (18 runs) is the aforementioned (winless) Braves.

Things have also been rough for two of the Angels best players, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. The two have no home runs and have a combined slash line of .159/.224/.182.

The good news for the Angels is that they might have picked the right week to slump. The only AL West team to post a winning record this week was the 4-3 Oakland Athletics, who the Angels trail by only 1.5 games.

Still, Los Angeles is another team that’s built to win now. It is early and the struggles could be worse, but they’re definitely one of the losers from the first week of MLB action.

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