Opening Day was for the bats and the birthday boy. We saw quite the offensive explosion to start the season, and from an MLB perspective, this is gearing up to be an exciting season.
Let's start with me, because why wouldn't I start there?
"He's going to be the best catcher in baseball," JV said, envious of his rival and Opening Day party host.
But the party host was envious of the birthday boy.
Parker has the best scores in the double-matchup week after one day — so let's overreact like he did when Ian Happ opened the season with a home run in his first at-bat.
Dansby Swanson had three of his 14 hits and one of his eight RBIs. His pitching wasn't out of this world, but the 3.86 ERA with 2 wins, 2 saves and 2 IRS which was enough to give him a 14-6-4 lead over the Slammers and 11-6-7 over the Stantonians.
The JLB brothers could have cut that gap a little more had they started CJ Cron and Travis d'Arnaud. The two combined for eight hits and seven RBIs on the bench. Cron went 4-for-5 with 2 HRs and 5 RBIs, and d'Arnaud went 4-for-5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs.
Hard to blame them for benching the two. It's just one of those things that happens early in the year as everyone figures out who to start daily.
The rest of the big hitters on Thursday weren't benched because they have easily earned that every-day starting gig.
George Springer wasn't too far behind Rutschman going 5-for-6 with five singles, four runs scored and an RBI for the Dude.
Teammate Bo Bichette also picked up four hits yesterday, going 4-for-6 with 2 runs scored and an RBI for the Sex Panthers who led the JLB with 16 hits on Opening Day.
Catchers were on fire all around the League, too, as Will Smith went 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs and JT Realmuto went 3-for-5 with a double, triple, and RBI and a stolen base.
I'd go on and on, but everyone on Slack just started talking about the great starts and duds, so why waste words on all the double-digit strikeout guys like Shohei Ohtani, Dylan Cease, Gerrit Cole and Logan Webb.
Nothing beats the Hunter Renfroe catch, though. Too bad it doesn't count for any fantasy points.
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