Cincinnati Reds @ New York Mets - 12-2-0
Well, no surprise here. The Reds roll in their season opener, but things were closer than they actually appeared. The Mets put up quite a fight in the offensive categories, but the Reds superior pitching tipped the scales. All in all, this was a heck of a start for the Reds, and the Mets come away with some positives on the offensive side of the ball, but need to get that pitching staff in order.
MVP: Joey Votto had an absolutely monstrous Opening Week. He hit .455 with an OPS of 1.275 and 2 HRs. The 2010 MVP starts 2011 with a bang and helped lead the Reds to a big first win.
Goat: Mike Pelfrey was, to put it lightly, pretty darn awful for the Mets this week. In 2 starts, he pitched to a gaudy ERA of 15.63 and a WHIP over 2.60. Talk about awful. He barely managed to pitch over 6 innings combined in his two starts. To put this in perspective, the Reds RP Drew Storen pitched more innings out of the bullpen during the whole Opening Week. Go figure.
Philadelphia Phillies @ Atlanta Braves - 8-6-0
Chalk up a huge road win for the Fightin' Phils. In what was a close matchup throughout, the Phillies managed to edge by the Braves in their opening match-up. The Phillies managed to take most of the major offensive categories, losing just SBs and RBIs, and managed to sneak out the 2 deciding cats with victories in Saves, Holds, and K's.
MVP: The Flyin' Hawaiian Shane Victorino gets the nod in this match-up. Hitting over .400 for the week and scoring 8 runs, while swiping 2 bags will do that for you. Sprinkle in 7 RBIs and 21 TBs and the Flyin' Hawaiian really lived up to his nickname for the Phils this week.
Goat: The trio of Derek Jeter, Ben Zobrist, and Alex Rios had a combined 1 HR and 8 RBIs (one more than Victorino). They also just had 29 TBs (8 more than Victorino) and each hit barely over .200 (Zobrist hit under .200) and had OPS's in the .500 range. The Braves need better production out of this bunch if they want to compete weekly in the offensive categories.
Colorado Rockies @ Arizona Diamondbacks - 7-7-0
One week into the season, and we've already got our first tie. The Diamondbacks pulled out a nice little upset here even though they didn't win, playing to a draw with the defending league champs. Arizona took most of the offensive cats, and managed to sneak out the Wins and Holds cats to get by with the tie.
MVP: Although Dan Haren and Clayton Kershaw were both filthy, I got to go with Jeff Francis here. He definitely pitched like it was 2007 and helped solidify the Rockies hold on the pitching categories, pitching to the tune of a 1.98 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP and 2 QS.
Goat: Matt Wieters had a terrible Opening Week here in the ADBL hitting under .200 and barely posting an OPS over .500. Wieters had just 5 hits and 2 RBIs with no dingers. Definitely a disappointing start to the year for the Arizona catcher.
San Francisco Giants @ Los Angeles Dodgers - 3-10-1
Finally a home team comes away with a victory here. The Dodgers were the lone NL team to come away with a win during the ADBL's Opening Week. It's not that the Giants played poorly, but the Dodgers started the year off on an absolute tear, and probably would've beat just about anyone here in the ADBL.
MVP: Jered Weaver was an absolute stud here in his first couple of starts. He chalked up 27 K's in just 20 IP. His ERA was just 0.87 and his WHIP was the exact same miniscule 0.87. The man was an absolute beast.
Goat: After a breakout campaign last year, Casey McGehee had a terrible start to the 2011 season. With an average barely above the Mendoza line and an OPS under .500, the Giants 3B definitely would like to forget his start to the season. He had just 7 hits and 1 run scored.
New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays - 1-12-1
Tampa starts off the year with a rather easy win in week 1, as the Yankees struggled to get going out of the gate. The Rays were red hot, and their pitching was absolutely outstanding. The Yankees fell behind early and were unable to dig themselves out of their early hole. Definitely, a convincing win for the Rays and they will be a force to be reckoned with come 2011.
MVP: Matt Kemp came out like a man on a mission hitting a robust .438 and posting an OPS of 1.170, swiping 7 bags and collecting 21 TBs.
Goat: The Yankees starting rotation was absolutely atrocious, especially Phil Hughes. In two starts, the righty allowed 11 ER in just 6 IP posting an ugly ERA of 16.50 and a generous 2.67 WHIP.
Boston Red Sox @ Chicago White Sox - 7-6-1
In another quality match-up pitting two evenly matched AL East teams, the Red Sox squeak by the White Sox by a hair. This game could've gone either way, but the Red Sox managed to get by because of a dominating performance in the pitching categories.
MVP: Welcome back Josh Beckett. The Boston righty posted a miniscule 2.08 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, including a dominating effort against the Yankees. The Texan whiffed 14 hitters in just 13 innings, while allowing just 12 base-runners in two starts.
Goat: Chone Figgins got off to terrible start last year, and this year is no different. Hitting below the Mendoza line and posting an OPS barely over .420 with just 5 hits.
Kansas City Royals @ Detroit Tigers - 3-11-0
An early season favorite comes away with a pretty solid victory in Week 1, as the Tigers squeal by the Royals. Even though they came away with a resounding victory on paper, a closer look at the numbers show that the Royals put up a pretty good fight, as most of the categories were very closely contested. The Tigers will have to play better than they did in this opening week if they want to come away with more victories in the future.
MVP: It was more of the same for Chris Carpenter, as the veteran righty continues to pitch extremely well for the Tigers. he posted an ERA just over 2 and a WHIP under 1 in his first 2 starts of the season, both of which were quality starts.
Goat: Can the real Scott Kazmir please stand up? What has happened to this once promising lefty? In just 1.2 IP, he managed to allow 5 runs, 5 hits, 2 BBs, and strikeout a whopping 0 batters. When all's said and done, that is an ERA of 27.00 and a WHIP that is equal to the price of gas 4.20. At least, he can't hurt the Royals staff any longer, he's now on the 15-Day DL with a 'back' injury. Carpenter on the other hand, had 2 walks in 13 IP and King Felix had 3 in 16 IP. Go figure.
Los Angeles Angels @ Texas Rangers - 8-6-0
Total domination by the Angels in the offensive categories coupled with 15 Saves helped power the Angels to a nice opening week victory. Despite a good showing from the Rangers pitching staff, the Angels offense managed to sneak by in all of the hitting categories and get them by for a win.
MVP: Billy Butler got off to one heck of a 2011 campaign posting an average just a tick under .400 and an OPS of 1.179. Couple that with 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, and 7 runs scored, on top of 22 TBs, and it's easy to see why the Angels took the offensive cats.
Goat: No one was really that terrible in this game, but Alcides Escobar gets the dubious honor of being dubbed this game's Goat collecting just 6 hits in 30 ABs, and scoring just 2 runs. It's easy to see why the Rangers offense struggled to keep up with the Halos when their burner on the base paths struggled to get on.
Intersting Tid-Bits from Week 1:
- Road Teams took half of the match-ups and had the advantage going into week 1 if you throw in the tie between the Rockies and D-Backs.
- The Angels had more saves (15) than any other teams had in their match-ups combined.
- The Rockies scored the fewest runs (28), the Giants, D-Backs, and Braves had the fewest HRs (5), Rockies also had the fewest TBs (102), Royals had the fewest number of RBIs with 32, Red Sox had the fewest SBs with 2, and the Rockies also had the lowest team AVG and OPS
- The Yankees had the worst team ERA and the Phillies had the worst WHIP.
As the weeks go on, I will keep track of Season Highs for Teams in some Cats, as well as individual highs.
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