Now that the baseball season is here, the sports book is full daily of many exciting matchups to occupy casual and intense sports fans alike. Spring means championships are on the line too, and NBA playoff odds are available as the season comes to a close. While the NBA and NHL near and end, baseball has a long road ahead.
The season is not yet two weeks old, but there are two teams who are asserting their dominance and quelling any potential concerns they may have had coming into the season.
One of those teams is the San Francisco Giants. The pitching was going to be the strength of the team coming into the year, and they have lived up to the hype. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are in fine form, and Barry Zito seems to have bounced back from an underachieving year and won both his starts with a 2.25 ERA. The team hitting, however, has been a bigger surprise. The Giants are third in batting average and on base percentage, and fourth in runs scored. Benjie Molina has led the way so far with a .455 average and seven RBI, with Edgar Renteria and Pablo Sandoval also emerging as offensive leaders. With their strong starting pitching, they have a shot as winning against any opponent. And should they hitting continue, they can string together a lot of victories and contend for the wide open NL West division crown.
To the American League, the reigning World Champion New York Yankees were predicted by many to contend and repeat, provided their older players could continue the success they had last year. Namely, Andy Pettitte, 37, Derek Jeter, 35, and Jorge Posada, 38. So far, they have proven they still have the talent to play at an extremely high level. Posada leads the team in batting average, while Jeter is batting .300 and hit a home run in the Yankees home opener. Pettitte, meanwhile, who has the most pressure swirling around him as the team's third starter, has had two impressive starts, posting a .075 ERA with 10 strikeouts. The Yankees are as great as expected, and will contend for a World Series yet again.
