hWe’re not half way through the opening slate of games, but several things have caught my eyes from afar. What do Paul Skenes, Mathew Boyd, and Logan Webb have in common? Each was a starting pitcher for Team USA in the recently completed WBC and each was squashed like a bug in their team’s season opener. I bet several folks lost a bundle betting that parlay.

The obvious conclusion is that these were one-off’s and the creme will rise to the top. The funny thing is that I like all three guys, but I have to call them out for rancid performances. As certain as I am that Bill Bonham had the best coif among the ’73 Cubs rotation I know that if Skenes had gone 7 with only two runs, he’d be awarded his second CY. Instead he couldn’t get out of the first against the Mets. Worse though was presumptive ace, Boyd getting whomped by the Nats, and mostly by nobodies. Webb at least lost to the Yankees.

What surprised me most about the Yankees win was how the marketing arm of MLB called out Herman Munster for his historically crappy game. He is the first reigning MVP to strike out four times in the first game of the following season.

Thankfully for conventional fans, some big name starters had more predictable and sound first starts. No doubt the media will use as many superlatives as humanly possible. It’s a cheap default position to state the “only one of 162 nonsense” when something goes sideways, but the lesson of Tuffy Rhodes and ridiculous expectations is but a funny story outside of Wrigleyville. I know it doesn’t figure in the metrics of WAR, but does contributing to a loss affect one’s overall WAR?

Luckily for me, I only heard the last few innings of the Cubs debacle on the way home from work. Tracking the majority of the game online was brutal, numbers without commentary.