Listen, we know it's tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn't easy. It's okay, though, we're going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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The Giants won the World Series in 2014 (thanks, even year!), and even though they lost Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse to free agency, they entered 2015 with a chance to repeat. While the offense didn’t see any upgrades, other than the potential for a full season of Brandon Belt, the rotation had seen some boosts in the form of a full season of Jake Peavy combined with a healthy summer from the team’s former, pre-Madison Bumgarner ace, Matt Cain. Then, the injuries happened.
Peavy was officially scratched from his first start with back tightness, and Cain, who underwent elbow surgery to remove bone chips last year, needed to undergo an MRI to check on the tightness in that same forearm and will also miss his first start. Now, neither injury seems serious now, and the Giants do have pitching depth, but elbows and backs can get serious in a hurry, especially for pitchers who need to be feeling close to 100 percent in order to properly repeat their mechanics and avoid further, cascading pain.
San Francisco can lean on Ryan Vogelsong and Yusmeiro Petit while Peavy and Cain rest up (in the case of Petti, only if there’s a larger injury to cover for), but it’s a bit disconcerting that the Giants are dipping into that depth already in a division that won’t allow for much struggling. They are far from doomed -- there are 161 regular season games left, you know -- but in a rotation that was already relying on 39-year-old Tim Hudson and the depressing version of Tim Lincecum, there is only so much room for error.
- Rick Porcello signed a four-year, $82.5 million extension with the Red Sox that will begin in 2016. The groundballing 26-year-old explained his decision to eschew free agency in favor of staying with a club he’s never officially pitched for in a piece at the Players’ Tribune, citing Boston’s expectation -- not their goal, but expectation -- to win as a deciding factor.
- Sonny Gray was close to an Opening Day no-hitter, but he and the Athletics had to settle for a one-hitter over 8 innings in their first victory of the season.
- Major League Baseball is aware they haven’t paid enough attention to domestic violence in the past, and after seeing what the NFL went through in 2014, they are making sure that changes.
- Hanley Ramirez, who added 25 pounds of muscle this offseason after learning he would play left field instead of shortstop, hit two homers (including a grand slam) on Opening Day and then danced the afternoon away with David Ortiz.
- We focus on the return of the stars and our favorite teams on Opening Day, but there are stories of lesser-known players who merit our attention as well.
- With Rick Porcello extended, is it clear the Cardinals made a mistake by not buying out additional seasons of their own mid-rotation guy in Lance Lynn?
- Many teams have a day off on Tuesday, so occupy yourself by imagining the hundreds of items on this list of things we enjoy about baseball.
- Sonny Gray’s almost no-no was pretty good, but was an actual no-hitter the best Opening Day start of all-time? Grant Brisbee narrowed it down to that and two other eye-popping games.
- The WWE celebrated Baseball’s Opening Day by creating baseball logos for your favorite wrestlers.
- The Marlins suffered the first rain delay of 2015, even though their stadium has a retractable roof.
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