The month of April has arrived opening up the start of the 2015 Major League Baseball season in the National League. As the kids sat around waiting for the Easter Bunny to arrive, most adult sports fans sat patiently waiting for that opening game of the season featuring the Chicago Cubs taking on the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley field.
That officially opened the first week of the season while the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamond Backs wrapped up the playoff the first week in the National League. As we look at around to gauge which teams were the real winners and losers it is very even in all of the divisions in the NL.
One early on favorite is the Atlanta Braves who got off to one of the hotter starts in all of baseball picking up five wins over their first six games. This came after the team elected to part ways with a few big names this offseason. On the opposite end the Washington Nationals might have gotten off to the worst start simply based on how much success the team is expecting to have this year.
While the Nationals don’t have the worst record in the league, they did however finish the week just 2-4. Another team that finds themselves on the loser list to start the season is the defending World Series Champions the San Francisco Giants. The Giants started the season picking up three of four games before losing three straight.
These are just a few of the winners and losers of the first week of the 2015 MLB season. Here are the rest of the winners and losers around the American League.
Winners:
Atlanta Braves: While it is still early the fans of Atlanta should be pleasantly happy after the team’s 5-1 start to the season. The team traded away Justin Upton, Melvin Upton, Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis and the latest to join the list Craig Kimbrel. Despite the moves, the team got off to a fast start something management has to like as they prepare for their move into a new ballpark.
Cincinnati Reds: The Reds have looked good over the first week despite losing back to back games to end the week. The team has seen some solid play from a variety of players including first baseman Joey Votto. Now if the team can keep up this production they could compete for the NL Central crown.
Colorado Rockies: All offseason all the news in the division was geared to the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. This allowed many to simply forget how good the Rockies could be if their key guys in the lineup stay healthy including Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki. The Rockies went 4-2 over their first six games allowing just 22 runs in those six contests.
Adrian Gonzalez: The Dodgers first baseman got off to a record setting performance becoming the first player in Major League History with five home runs over the course of his team’s first three games. Currently after his hot first week, Gonzalez is hitting .609 with three doubles, five home runs, seven runs driven in and four walks.
Julio Teheran: Teheran deserves much of the success for the Braves hot start. The Braves right hander picked up a win in both of his starts during the first week of the season. In those two contests, the Braves starter went 12 innings allowing just two earned runs while striking out nine hitters.
Losers:
Miami Marlins: The Marlins who some experts had a sleeper pick inside the NL East division picked up just one win over their first six games. The major concern early on has been the team’s ability to manufacture runs only scoring 18 runs while allowing 35 runs.
Milwaukee Brewers: The Brewers joined the Marlins with the worst record in the National League over the first week winning just one of their first six games. Much like the Marlins troubles the team has had a difficulty scoring runs as they were outscored by 19 runs in those six contests.
Chicago Cubs: While the team has gotten off to a hot start going 4-2 over their first week much of the news leading up to the game was the demotion of Kris Bryant. Nonetheless the Cubs make it to this list for neither of those situations but more so for the inconvenience with the teams public restrooms on opening day due to construction.
Starling Marte: The Pirates talented young outfielder got off to a slow start over the team’s first six games picking up just three hits in 22 at bats. The bigger concern has come from his 12 total strikeouts. In total Marte posted four multi strikeout games over the first six games of the season.
Curtis Granderson: Despite his solid spring training the New York Mets outfielder has gotten off to a terrible slow start. In his first six games, Granderson hit just .063 with one hit in his first 16 at bats for the Mets. The Mets will need the veteran outfielder to turn it around if they want to compete in the NL East.
Kyle Lohse: After a solid 2014 campaign, Lohse has gotten off to a terrible start in 2015. The veteran starter made two starts over the first week combining to throw 9.2 innings for the club. In that stretch, Lohse allowed three home runs and 12 runs scored jumping his earned run average up to 11.17 for the season.