Introduction
Believe it or not, but we are a little over 10% of the way through the baseball season with most of the teams having played 18 or 19 games so far. That’s not enough time or opportunities to make any kind of definitive statements about any player or team, but it does feel like the first meaningful milestone of the season. It also makes for easy (mathematical) extrapolations that are only really possible at the beginning of the season when there’s plenty of statistical noise making any true patterns.
So I decided to look through the roster to see if I could find the most ridiculous full-season extrapolations to this point in the season. Obviously, I feel pretty confident that these extrapolations won’t bear out for the full season, but if we can’t have fun while we’re watching baseball, then what’s the point of all this? Plus, even if the extrapolations don’t exactly come to fruition, they highlight some of the excellent starts some of the players have put together that position them excellently for the rest of the season.
Corbin Carroll Creates 20/30/60 Club
Corbin Carroll has been the undisputed offensive catalyst of the team in the early going as expected contributors like Gabriel Moreno and Jordan Lawlar are on the IL and others like Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo have yet to get going. By itself, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Carroll has been a complete offensive powerhouse essentially since he debuted back in 2022 and showed last year that he’s capable of carrying an offense if needed. In these opening weeks though, he’s been on another level – especially when it comes to extra base hits. He’s currently on pace to hit 20 home runs, 30 triples, and 60 doubles. It’s the second number though that’s particularly striking. For context, the all-time record for single season triples is 36, held by household name Owen Wilson all the way back in 1912, but the live ball era record of 26 is held by Kiki Cuyler from 1925. If I had to put money on any player matching or exceeding Curtis Granderson’s more recent record of 26 triple baggers, it would absolutely be Carroll.
Jose Fernandez earns zero walks
Speaking of speedy youngsters, Jose Fernandez has approached the game with a passion and exuberance that has been infectious as a fan since he made his debut at the end of March in the fifth game of the season. He’s already gotten plenty of firsts out of the way including his first hit, home run, RBI, etc. One of the few firsts he has yet to achieve? His first base on balls. This is clearly the case of small sample sizes as he has just two measly at bats with three balls, but is still noteworthy. He wasn’t exactly a walk magnet in the minors with 105 free passes to 372 strikeouts, but you’d expect at least one walk through his first couple weeks just by happenstance.
Michael Soroka strikes out 230 batters
On the other side of the roster, Michael Soroka has been one of the most pleasant surprises on the team in the early going. At the time of the signing, I thought it was a savvy pickup as his floor still probably resides around a multi-inning reliever or swingman capable of a spot start similar to the role he filled with the Nationals, Cubs, and White Sox over the last two years. But instead, he’s looked more like the pitcher who finished sixth in Cy Young voting back in 2019 with the Braves when he pitched to a 2.68 ERA and struck out 142 batters on the season. Incredibly, he’s actually nearly doubled his strikeout rate (per nine innings) from that season from 7.3 to 13.2, but I still don’t think he’s likely to threaten any of the records for a single season strikeout total. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be an extremely valuable piece of this team.
