Opening day has finally arrived (I dont count the random over seas games that happened in the middle of spring training), and after one game, we have no idea if the new Miami Marlins stadium is going to be a pitcher’s park or a hitter’s park (I do know that I was genuinely bothered by the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali, being rolled out like that to hand-off the the opening pitch. It was very sad.). From my perspective, the ballpark looked like it was hard to get one into the stands (if you follow my twitter, I joked that the players must have a “bounty” on the first home run in the new stadium from the way they were trying to get one out), but the ground balls had a lot of speed on them and snuck out of the infield a few times. After some adjustments, I think it will end up favoring pitching.
Now the big question some of us are asking is, should we pick up Kyle Lohse? My quick, without looking into anything answer is yes; however, I looked into Lohse’s numbers. First off, I was kind of surprised that he is 33 years old. If you watched this game, his career GB% of 41.8 should not surprise you and a pitcher’s park would play into this stat. His 4.04 xFIP compared to his 3.39 ERA last season definitely puts me off. Finally we get to his low strikeout rate. In 188.1 innings pitched last season, Lohse had only 111 strikeouts. These numbers do not jump out at me as a “must add” kind of guy.
Just remember, this is the first game of the season and guys like Lohse are going to emerge in the next couple of weeks that we immediately want to drop proven guys for. Hopefully, we can steer clear of the Kyle Lohse’s of this season (remember a couple of seasons ago when Jordan Schafer started off hot in the first two weeks?) and actually grab guys that will be fantasy relevant this season.
A few notes from this game:
Did Josh Johnson look rusty or what? He was getting the pitch count in his favor, but he could not get the strikeout. He may need a month or so under his belt to get going, but I still think he is in store for a monster rebound season
Giancarlo Stanton looks poised for a monster season. He could have easily had two home runs off of Lohse. Don’t hang your shoulders over the box score.
Rafael Furcal had a terrible season last year but looked very impressive against the Marlins going 3-for-5, with an RBI and steal. He is owned in less than 6 percent of leagues. That should change.
