Thoughts from the opening weekend including the Marlins

The Opening Day weekend was definitely historic as even despite injuries, the Miami Marlins won three out of four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the series in style. This was an amazing start to the season. A historic one too with three walk-off victories in a row. It's definitely promising for the season, even though it's still hard to see The Fish going on a playoff run. Is Peter Bendix and Bruce Sherman's experiment working?

The Miami Marlins impressed on Opening Day weekend.

Winning three out of four games is no small matter. It certainly makes the Miami Marlins look good, though the Pittsburgh Pirates are also hardly expected to contend this season. The Fish are actually in first place in the NL East, which is very nice to see. On the flip side, the Atlanta Braves lost all four of their opening games against the San Diego Padres. The lineup hasn't looked elite so far.

It's too early to have low expectations for Atlanta, but it's certainly telling that they're simply not as good as expected. I'm now more of a believer in the Philadelphia Phillies winning the division. The New York Mets haven't been impressive as I also expected. They lost two out of three against the Houston Astros, though again it's still early and the season just begun. Still, neither the bottom of their lineup or their pitching look that good.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been utterly dominant, going 5-0 to start the season. They certainly look every bit the favorites to win it all that they were expected to be before the season. On the other side, their 2024 World Series opponents the New York Yankees showed that their lineup isn't nearly as bad as was expected. They're 3-0, after sweeping their opening series with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The St. Louis Cardinals have started the season undefeated as well, going 3-0 so far. I did predict that they would be better than expected this season. I see their chances of winning the NL Central to have improved, though I still see the Chicago Cubs as the favorites.

So will the Miami Marlins now make the playoffs? That's way too early to predict, but it at least could be a more fun season than we had thought going in.