I’m getting excited.
Are you? I admit I’m almost always excited when Opening Day comes around.
It’s about Matt Harvey. Harvey has star power, and that’s going to be fun. Whether or not he is an MVP candidate or not, he’ll pitch well because he’s a talented pitcher. He’ll be interesting and exciting as well, and he’ll piss people off. All that makes for good entertainment.
It’s about Juan Lagares, who even in Spring Training was impressing opposing announcers making plays in center field. While Lagares might not be great at the plate, I have confidence in him driving the ball occasionally and playing well enough to be an extremely valuable all-around player.
It’s about David Wright being back and healthy. Sure, he might not stay like that, but I have hope he will. He’s a Mets legend we have the privilege of still watching, and I’m going to enjoy that. He did seem to be a little looser this spring, but of course it’s spring training and most people feel pretty good. Outside of strictly gameplay, I’ve seen a few stories this spring about the Mets doing something ‘at Wright’s suggestion’. Seems like he’s taking this captain thing seriously.
What about Lucas Duda, our quirky big-man with the lumberjack swing? Jacob deGrom’s hair, and his pitching? The varied amount of hard throwers in the bullpen? The impending promotion of even more talented starting pitching?
The Nationals are certainly going to present a challenge, but they’ve shown plenty of signs of injury too.
The Marlins made a lot of changes, and have a lot of young players, but change for change’s sake isn’t always good change and just because a player is young and has talent doesn’t mean he becomes a useful major leaguer overnight. The Marlins will probably be what the Marlins usually are; pesky but ultimately an average team.
The Braves and Phillies are barely worth mentioning.
It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be without some struggle.
But it IS going to be fun.
Baseball is back!