Unpredictability is What Makes Baseball Great

By Dan Schlossberg

Joaquin Andujar was right. Asked for a one-word description of baseball, he said, “Youneverknow.”

Less than a week into the new season, that point was made more than a dozen times.

The New York Yankees, supposedly crushed by the elbow injury that sidelined Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, reeled off five straight wins — three of them in the home of their hated arch-rivals, the Houston Astros.

Seeking to reach their eighth straight American League Championship Series, the Astros struggled at the start until a total unknown named Ronel Blanco beat the Blue Jays April 1 with the earliest no-hitter in baseball history.

Houston ace Justin Verlander, the oldest and highest-paid player in the majors, sat on the sidelines with a shoulder injury while trying to figure how and when he could continue his march to 300 wins (he has 257).

Justin Verlander leads all pitchers with 257 wins but has also passed his 41st birthday.Photo byWikimedia

The 41-year-old Verlander, traded back to the Astros by the Mets last August, apparently escaped Flushing just in time, as the 2024 team lost four straight at the start of the season.

The only sure thing in the American League West is a last-place finish by the Oakland Athletics, playing a lame-duck year or two before moving into a new stadium in Las Vegas. But the A’s made news this week by demoting Esteury Perez, who led the American League with 67 stolen bases last year but doesn’t do anything else well.

In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers made headlines for all the wrong reasons: a gambling scandal allegedly involving newly-signed superstar Shohei Ohtani; an infield defense so undependable that MVP contender Mookie Betts moved from right field to shortstop in a stop-gap measure; and an injured list dominated by starting pitchers Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and Ohtani.

The Mets were a mess, making only one hit [a Starling Marte homer] against Milwaukee on Opening Day, then dropping four straight, including a 10-inning, 5-0 defeat by Detroit that ruined a nine-inning scoreless duel.

Pittsburgh pirated five straight wins for the first time in four decades, surprising fans who expected another cellar-dwelling season, while the cross-state Phillies gave up a combined 20 runs in consecutive games started by highly-paid aces Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.

Braves lefties Max Fried and Chris Sale have a spring training chat about pitching.

National League batting champion Luis Arraez somehow went 0-for-6 in the first game of the Miami Marlins, while journeyman Nick Martini — only slightly better in the power department — delivered a pair of home runs for the Cincinnati Reds.

Nor could anybody have predicted that Atlanta’s Max Fried, normally a control artist, would have a 40-pitch first inning in Philadelphia that he couldn’t escape — the first time in some 126 starts that he didn’t survive the initial frame.

Jesse Chavez, starting his fifth different stint with the Braves, relieved Fried and picked up the win, continuing a string of excellence in an Atlanta uniform after failing to hook on with the woeful White Sox during spring training.

The only team with two 40-year-old pitchers (Chavez and Charlie Morton), the Braves picked up wins from both in a three-day span.

While all this was going on, players like Brandon Belt and Tommy Pham were still looking for 2024 teams. So were Wil Myers, Jean Segura, Jonathan Schoop, A.J. Pollock, Zack Greinke, Noah Syndergaard, Aaron Loup, Brad Hand, Mark Melancon, and Vince Velasquez.

That proves that being a free agent is not necessarily a panacea for all — especially when more teams are paying payroll than enlarging it.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is national baseball writer for forbes.com, columnist for MLBreport.com and Sports Collectors Digest, contributor to USA TODAY Sports Weekly, writer for Memories & Dreams, and weekend editor for Here’s The Pitch. He’s now on a speaking tour to promote his latest book, Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron. E.mail ballauthor@gmail.com for more information.