MLB Bullets Welcomes The Season

Two days without Cubs baseball is awful. How did I go all winter without it? There are a ton of links today and there were probably another dozen more that I could have included as well. I know none of you are going to read them all, so I suggest dividing the work up amongst yourselves and then reporting back to each other.

• After Opening Day, it's time for knee-jerk reactions based on a tiny sample size! David Schoenfield has six observations from Opening Day.
• AJ Cassavell also has six reactions to Opening Day.
• Oh yeah? Well, Michael Baumann has ten reactions to Opening Day.
• Dave Cameron isn't basing this on Opening Day, but he has five things that he believes about the 2015 season.
• Grant Brisbee used Opening Day to confirm all of his preconceived notions.
• John Tuscano says that Opening Day confirms his belief that the Phillies are terrible.
• Hanley Ramirez made a big impression in his Red Sox debut as Boston destroyed the Phillies.
• Mat Latos made a big impression in his Marlins debut--a bad big impression as he didn't make it out of the first inning. Matt Snyder puts Latos' terrible start in context.
• Andrew Simon lists 11 players who overcame the odds and made an Opening Day roster.
• Matt Eddy has nine surprising names on Opening Day rosters. Some overlap there. Read both and decide whose list is more shocking.
• An almost unheard-of nine Rule 5 picks made Opening Day rosters. Two more are on the disabled list and one is serving a suspension. Only one returned to his original team.
• Alex Rodriguez returned to Yankee Stadium to loud cheers and applause.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka has come pretty close to abandoning his four-seam fastball.
• Ben Lindbergh looks at Tanaka's strategy of abandoning his fastball to try to make it through the season without undergoing Tommy John surgery.
• Johnette Howard is very worried about Tanaka.
• John Harper just thinks that Tanaka should go ahead and have the Tommy John surgery now rather than pitch like this.
• C.J. Nitkowski, pretty much alone, isn't worried about Tanaka's drop in velocity.
• Tanaka isn't the only pitcher whose velocity is down. Jered Weaver's fastball only averaged 84.3 mph on Opening Day.
• Jeff Sullivan thinks Weaver is headed for disaster.
• Doug Padilla is worried about Jeff Samardzija's control.
• Twins outfielder Torii Hunter blasted umpire Joe West after West refused to ask for help on a game-ending called third strike. Hunter will likely be fined.
• Jon Paul Morosi said it was a bad call, Hunter was right to be angry and that West should have asked for help. Morosi also wonders why the first or third base umpires don't make all check swing calls.
• The Diamondbacks don't know what to do with their new Cuban slugger Yasmany Tomas.
• Yankees prospect Ty Hensley will have Tommy John surgery. So add him to the casualty lists.
• Matt Cain is already on the disabled list with elbow troubles.
• Jenrry Mejia is also on the disabled list with elbow inflammation.
• The Red Sox and Rick Porcello agreed to a four-year extension, taking him off next winter's free agent market.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks signing Porcello was a smart move by the Red Sox.
• Rob Neyer thinks the Padres paid a big price to acquire Craig Kimbrel: taking on Melvin Upton.
• Padres GM A.J. Preller isn't done yet. Now he's looking to acquire a shortstop. Yes, there has been Starlin Castro speculation.
• Tyler Drenon writes that you may think Scott Boras is a greedy, money-grabbing villain, but he's battling a group of 30 greedy, money-grabbing villains who are even richer than he is.
• Some catchers, even those who score well, aren't so sure about the value of "pitch framing."
• Russell Carleton looks at the tipping point of when a team should stop trying to win a blowout and just play for tomorrow.
• Contrary to an original report, MLB thinks it's OK if you livestream a game you're attending.
• Many fans were delayed at getting into Opening Day by the new metal detectors, which Craig Calcaterra (and I) think do nothing to make any of us safer.
• Because baseball is dying, MLB set a new record for Spring Training attendance in 2015.
• The Empire State Building celebrated Opening Day by lighting up in the colors of each major league team.
• Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna thought he made a spectacular catch. Except he didn't.
• And finally, watch Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre look embarrassed when he remembered the new "pace of play" rules and ran back into the box. It's a small sample size, but the average length of games on Opening Day 2015 was 20 minutes shorter than 2014.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.