From Last Night:

• Mariners become the first team to ever score 4+ runs while getting just one hit as they beat the Astros in a game in which Bedard left the game without allowing a hit after 6.1 IP
• Indians waste a solid start by Kluber, fall to the Twins
• Kuroda shuts down the Sox, Yanks edge past Lackey
• Rays stay hot against the Jays
• Greinke and Gio pitch great, but the Nats take it in 10

What I’m Watching Today:

• Lee, Harvey…Oswald? at Citi Field (1p Eastern)
• Kershaw takes on Zimmermann in DC (130p Eastern)
• Felix goes to Houston, strikeout warning in effect (2p Eastern)
• Wainwright goes against the Padres (2p Eastern)

The Big Question:

• Who’s regretting the offseason now?

Something I noticed last night was that 11:25pm, the Blue Jays, Royals, and Angels (the 3 AL teams that made big moves this offseason) all have the same number of wins as the Mariners. All at 45. The lesson here is that big moves don’t make a good team. I’m not knocking what the Blue Jays did, but the Angels and Royals made poor moves. To recap, the Angels gave $125 million to Josh Hamilton (which is risky in itself) instead of doing anything to improve their pitching staff and the Royals traded away a great young hitter for a starting pitcher who can’t help the team win because they don’t score any runs. Even if Shields and Myers were a good swap in terms of dollars and value, it certainly didn’t make sense to trade from a weakness to get more pitching when that new pitching was only enough to make you a .500 team. Setting that aside, my point is that the national media latched onto the big moves and called these teams the big winners in the offseason. That was silly. You have to look at the whole picture and the whole picture almost always favors the club that adds complimentary pieces instead of big names. The media chases stories, MLB teams should chase wins. Remember that next time you’re reading offseason winners and losers. Texas “had a terrible offseason” if you listened to the writers. Funny how that works out.