Week in Review: Baseball's Opening Week

The 2013 baseball season is in full swing, and after Opening Week there are a lot of things to be excited for. There were a lot more stories in the first week of the baseball season but these are the ones that really stuck with me. My week in review looks at the most important stories from Opening week in baseball. 

• When the Atlanta Braves added the Upton brothers to their outfield, they knew that they had the potential to do big things for not only the team but for the entire city of Atlanta. The Braves ended the first week of action 5-1 but none more exciting than the win on Saturday. Down 5-4 to the Chicago Cubs in the bottom of the 9th inning, B.J. Upton hit his first home run of the season to straightaway center field to tie the game. Two batters later his younger brother did the same exact thing, only to win the game for the Braves. It was the first time in history that a pair of brothers to hit home runs in the same inning to not only tie the game up, but to win the game as well. 

                                           B.J. Upton ties the game in the ninth with a solo homer and brother Justin beats the Cubs with a walk off shot.

• I like to think that Phillies can still be a threat in the National League. But the fact is, unless Roy Halladay is pitching only 4 to 5 innings while giving up 6 runs, the Phillies will fall out of contention faster than Marlins did when they let go of all there star players over the summer. Halladay is the glue that cements the once dominant Philly rotation and without him to his former CY Young level, they stand no chance against the beasts of the NL East in the Braves and Nationals. There are signs of life in Doc's pitching. Last Wednesday, the veteran struck out 10 batters in a little over 4 innings of work. If he somehow learns to bring his fastball velocity up again, he can lead the Phillies to be contenders again. 

• The biggest surprise of the week to me was definitely the Colorado Rockies and their torrid start to the season. There is no doubt that they have an incredibly talented lineup with Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Toluwitzki, and Dexter Fowler leading the charge but I never thought their pitching would be as good as it has been when it relies on the offense. Like the Braves, the Rockies are a team that has potential to lead the Majors in statistical offensive categories. If their pitching shows signs of life like it did last week, they could make some noise in the National League West division.  A 5-1 record is no joke to start the season, I expect them to cool down but I could be wrong, especially with the way the offense is looking.

• I expected the Houston Astros to suck. But not as bad as they were the first week of the season. Not only did they strikeout a record amount of times in the season opening series against their cross state rivals, the Texas Rangers but playing their next series in the week against the Oakland Athletics was no fun either. This is going to be a very long season for the Astros. For a team that earns less all together than Alex Rodriguez does in one whole year, the Astros deserve credit for doing what they do for as little as they get paid. The Astros move from the NL to the AL was going to be a tough one, but this team is getting manhandled every almost every single night, and it's really sad to see.

I know that there were a lot of stories in the Opening Week of the 2013 baseball season so let me hear yours. 

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