5 things to remember from the first month

It has now been more than a month since the best baseball league in the world began its 2023 season and there are already many surprises. If the Rays have obviously hit the headlines with their great start to the season, certain individuals at bat or pitching have also distinguished themselves while certain franchises are disappointing or have not yet found their cruising speed. Focus on the five lessons of this first month of competition in MLB.

The Tampa Bay Rays, much more than a surprise

Some teams are often used to starting their seasons well, but this was not the case for the Rays, far from being favorites in the American League East.

However, it is simply their first thirteen meetings that the players of the Florida franchise have won. Well beyond this fabulous record at the start of the season, the Rays have also shown great solidity at home by chaining fourteen wins in a row. The numbers speak for themselves:

• 61 Home Runs scored, 19 conceded
• A difference of 103 cumulative runs on their start to the season

If it is necessary to qualify this balance sheet by recalling that the first victories were against affordable teams including the Athletics and the White Sox, the regularity both in pitching and batting in Tampa Bay continues to impress MLB observers.

Relying on quality pitchers including a very consistent Jeffrey Springs on the three games he started despite his absence now recorded until the end of the season, the Rays have seen many pitchers rise to the occasion while Tyler Glasnow should return to the mound shortly.

At bat, Wander Franco, Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe were sparkling like Randy Arozarena who assumed his status as offensive leader.

Read also: MLB, the complete results of the 2023 season

Ronald Acuña Jr., an expected and very successful return

Recently named the National League’s Most Outstanding Player, the outfielder has the most stolen bases in the league and is on .352 hit ratio.

With a stat line of .352 / .440 / .546 that speaks for itself, Ronald Acuña’s start to the season is all the more reassuring as the one who has scored 26 runs for the Atlanta Braves since the start of the season seemed far from his standards last season after a ligament injury in 2021.

Yankees: a start to the season weighed down by a worrying attack

While we shouldn’t attempt to draw comparisons with the best teams in the rich history of the New York franchise, the disappointment of the Yankees’ start to the season is on par with their magnificent 99-win season last year.

Pitching is one of the reasons for the fragility of the Yankees due in particular to the absences of Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino, but the very high performance of Gerrit Cole, cited as the best « Starting Pitcher » of the month of April could have allowed New Yorkers to get back on the right track.

But the biggest concern remains in the batting abilities of the field players in the striped tunic who have clearly lacked teeth since March 30. If Aaron Judge returns to human standards, far from his Home-Runs record of last season, players including Hicks, Cabrera or even Stanton are still far from effective when the bases are full.

Hope remains in New York where the team is able to quickly raise the bar thanks to its rookie Anthony Volpe who has just scored his first career HR or Gleyber Torres who remains on good standards at the start of the regular season.

Read also: Aaron Judge, NL East, Angels … six questions about the 2023 MLB season

Volpe, Carroll, Outman and Yoshida have already confirmed their status as promising rookies

After a month of competition, the new faces of MLB have largely confirmed the hopes placed in them and many are already installed as starters in their respective franchises.

Without being exhaustive, the list could include Hunter Brown (Astros), Tanner Bibee (Guardians) and Kodai Senga (Mets) among pitchers while Anthony Volpe (Yankees), Josh Jung (Rangers), Masataka Yoshida (Red Sox), Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks) and James Outman (Dodgers) are very high quality batsmen despite their inexperience.

James Outman of the Dodgers can easily endorse the costume of the best rookie of this month of April, thirty days that he concluded with a line of statistics of .290/.371/.624 and already seven Home-Runs. At 25, he remains on a season in AAA with 106 RBI and participates in the offensive festival of his Los Angeles franchise.

Corbin Carroll is also another great revelation from last month when he first distinguished himself by his ability to steal bases (already ten times). The 22-year-old batsman already has a .309 hitting average, the twelfth-best record in the entire National League.

The Athletics are still not a baseball team

It’s been several seasons since the Oakland franchise has struggled to do well in MLB. Without a prospect capable of taking the franchise to a new dimension and with a lot of difficulty in pitching in particular, the Athletics have already suffered 24 losses in thirty games this season.

With no recorded wins for their pitchers’ fifteen starts, their inability to show consistency and win back-to-back successes is symptomatic of their nearly non-existent ambitions.

At the same time, it is also a complex context for the franchise which has formalized positioning itself on land in Las Vegas and could quickly position itself to move to Nevada to build a whole different story?

Read also: MLB, the complete calendar for the 2023 season