After not getting to see really any of ST with my own eyes, I finally got to see this team play yesterday. One game is not nearly enough to draw conclusions but here are some way too early impressions.
-Julio Tehran looked good but has to figure out how to keep the ball in the park. He's hanging too many pitches in the zone and needs to figure it out if he wants to be anything more than a middle of the rotation starter.
-Winkler looked awesome. I expect hitters to get better looks at him once the book gets out on him more. They definitely had trouble picking up the ball off of him yesterday. However, that arm slot will always be tough on right handers. I see no reason why we should have to worry about offering him back to the Rockies.
-Adonis Garcia's power is for real. He smoked that ball he hit out. Whether he'll keep hitting balls out will depend on whether or not he can force pitchers to work in the zone. All the power in the world doesn't help you when you chase pitches you can't reach.
-Hector Olivera could very well be in for some more struggles. He looked a lot like the inept hitter weakly grounding out and popping the ball up last year. The bat wrap is still bad and it's making his swing longer than it needs to be. I had gotten progressively more optimistic as the spring went along but watching him hit yesterday brought a lot of pessimism back.
-This team has no chemistry yet. I'm not talking about personalities meshing, I'm talking about guys trusting each other to make plays, knowing what they have to do, and knowing what their teammates are going to do. With all the turnover this isn't surprising. Still, it's annoying to watch.
-This team isn't good enough to make mistakes or catch any bad luck. The Braves should have won that game. However, poor defensive plays and some rotten luck sunk them. This kind of stuff happens to every team but the good teams are good enough to overcome it. The Braves aren't. The second Grilli didn't get the strike call on the 1-0 pitch to Werth, it was like the rest of the inning was pre-ordained.
-Fredi is still Fredi. I have no idea why we put the shift on for Ramos after walking Werth. Down by one, Ramos just wanted to get a hit and get Werth into scoring position with no outs. You were offering him a single and he took it.
So what are everyone else's way too early impressions after the first game?