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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There are so many games in a baseball season that it’s occasionally tough to pick out any individual contest as must-see. The stakes generally aren’t high enough at any one point for a single game, but on occasion, importance and weight and all that can be tossed out the window when the players involved are great enough. So, on Thursday at 1:05 pm Eastern, you might want to switch on your television or MLB.tv and watch the Mets and Nationals face-off, because that entails Matt Harvey taking on Stephen Strasburg.
Harvey is making his first regular season start since late-August of 2013, as that whole Tommy John surgery thing got in the way last summer. He was hitting the high-90s with regularity in spring training games and looking like his usual, strikeout-happy self, and that alone made even the most pessimistic Mets’ fans hearts grow three sizes. Harvey will take on another flame-throwing TJ-survivor in Strasburg. While Strasburg isn’t the unquestioned ace of the Nats’ staff the way Harvey is for the Mets, that has more to do with who his teammates are than his own performance: almost every team in the league would be thrilled if Strasburg was their top starter. “Almost,” because pitchers like Harvey exist.
Yes, it’s early in 2015, and the Nationals are likely going to crush the Mets in the long run, but today is Matt Harvey Day and Stephen Strasburg Day: two baseball holidays combined as one for our amusement. Remember to tilt that monitor so your boss can’t see, and enjoy the strikeouts.
- MLB is running a Franchise Four campaign right now to let fans decide on the four most significant impact players in every teams' history. It's a slap in the face for the Nationals, who have to choose from among a slew of Expos players who never put on a uniform in Washington.
- Jonathan Papelbon does not feel like a Phillie, as he was "born and raised" a Red Sox guy in the game. He'll probably get killed for this, but can you blame the closer on a team that's rebuilding, for feeling like things didn't work out as planned?
- It's minor league baseball's Opening Day, a joyous occasion for fans who live in places that did not get snowed on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. In a related story, I have to dig my Portland Sea Dogs winter gloves out of storage for a baseball game in Maine this evening.
- Brett Lawrie's Tuesday night was rough, to the point where Grant Brisbee felt the need to dissect the 12 pitches that saw Lawrie strike out four times.
- Baseball is starting to recognize the importance of resting its players over the course of the long, 162-game season.
- Adrian Gonzalez is the first player ever with five home runs through his team's first three games. That seems hard to believe for a whole lot of reasons, but baseball likes to surprise us.
- Giancarlo Stanton is known for dingers, but he can play a wonderful right field, too, as we were all reminded on Wednesday.
- The Rick Porcello extension might have made life a little harder for the Orioles, who want to retain Chris Tillman.
- Justin Verlander was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He almost got to 2,000 career innings without hitting the DL, but couldn't hold out the extra 22 frames. And if that weren't enough for the Tigers, Joe Nathan got sent to the DL after Wednesday's game, although fans might not be so broke up about his stint.
- America is losing the First Pitch Wars with Japan, the latest to outdo MLB with its amazing opening ceremonies: this is a choreographed, 14-arm first pitch performed by a Japanese band fronted by a former MMA fighter.
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