MLB: 5 Cold Starts to ’16 season That Will Thaw

Every year it takes some players a little longer than others to realize that spring training is over and the regular season has began. That said, a lot can go into a player, whether it be a batter or a pitcher, into having a cold start to the season.

There is the simple reason they just can’t get into a rhythm they are comfortable, or there is the fact they aren’t getting a lot of help for their teammates. Also, don’t forget there is a chance that weather in some areas of the country can cause issues this time of the year for players in the majors.

That may sound like excuses to some for these players, but even the best in baseball can have a bad few weeks before flipping the switch and playing up their their normal standard of play.

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Currently the majors has two potential Most Valuable Player candidates who are batting under .250 with a combined four home runs entering games on Sunday. There are also potential Cy Young Award winners who have very high ERA’s including one right-handed pitcher who has over an 8.00 ERA.

None of this really matters a couple weeks into the season, as here is a look at two pitchers and three batters who aren’t off to the best of starts in ’16, but will eventually get things turned around sooner rather than later.

Remember, the MLB season is a marathon, not a sprint.

Next: Lucas Duda

• Mike Trout, Centerfield, Los Angeles Angels

There is never any need to sweat over the play of American League Most Valuable Player candidate Mike Trout, even with his current numbers entering Sunday’s game.

Trout has 39 at-bats this season, and with that he’s batting .200 with nine hits, four runs, four RBIs and one home run, which for the superstar Trout has become in the game, just isn’t going to cut it for his standards set.

Last season Trout was second in the AL MVP vote with a .299 average as he built a second-place resume of 41 home runs and 90 RBIs. His MVP season of ’14 saw him bat .287 with 36 home runs and 111 RBIs.

Other numbers for Trout thus far in ’16 include: a .326 on-base percentage (it was .402 last season) and a .359 slugging percentage, and compared to his ’15 season it is down as that was .590. His OPS isn’t near his career mark thus far either. In ’16 Trout has a .685 OPS, but his career average is .952, and looking back to last year he had his best number in that category of his career at .991.

Remember, Trout is still just 24 years old, so makes he’s trying to do too much at the plate early on this season. We all know of any player on this list of “cold starts” Trout will be the player who turns things around the quickest (and the best), making us forget that the first couple weeks of the season ever existed.

Next: Paul Goldschmidt

• Paul Goldschmidt, First Base, Arizona Diamondbacks

In 44 at-bats for the ’16 season Paul Goldschmidt, who was second in the National League Most Valuable Player voting last year, is batting .205, well under his .321 average of a year ago. But like with Mike Trout, I can’t fathom that batting average number staying that low for much longer.

This season, Goldschmidt has nine hits, with five runs, three home runs, along with a .352 on-base percentage, a .829 OPS and a .477 slugging percentage. Some players would love those numbers, but compared to his career averages for Goldschmidt (.298 BA, .394 OBP, .534 SLG, .928 OPS) they are low, and we all know if he wants to be in the NL MVP race he’s numbers must move up, and there is no doubt they will.

It doesn’t help Goldschmidt his teams isn’t the greatest and he doesn’t have the best protection in the order around him, but like I said with the other two hitters on this list, we are just two weeks into the season.

The greats of the game, and Goldschmidt is one of those elite type of players, will find ways to adjust to his surroundings and what pitches he gets his way on a nightly basis. The Diamondbacks are underachieving in ’16 considering their offseason signings, and for the perennial power hitter, he will be closer to his ’15 numbers of a .321 batting average and 110 RBIs before we’ll be able to blink.

Next: Shelby Miller

• Shelby Miller, Right-Handed Pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks

The offseason signing of right-handed pitcher Shelby Miller was supposed to help take the Arizona Diamondbacks to the next level in the NL West, but instead they’ve stayed pat, and Miller hasn’t brought what he’s had before in the past with him out West.

On Saturday night Miller had a strange injury where he cut himself on his follow through (baseball is a strange game sometimes) and had to leave the game early, adding to his forgettable early season.

Thus far is his three trips to the mound, Miller is 0-1 with a 8.53 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched. He has nine strikeouts in those aforementioned starts, and has a WHIP of 1.82, which is a tad bit higher than his career average of 1.25.

Miller’s ERA is through the roof right now at the 8.53 number, but it is only worth repeating because he’s coming off a season where it was 3.02 (33 games), and his career mark is 3.34, so that is a bit of a difference in the grand scheme of the game.

Don’t worry Diamondbacks fans, even though two of your players are on this list, that just means the team can only go up from here, right? Miller is too good of a pitcher to have that high of an ERA, or his other ’16 current numbers that include: 17 hits allowed, 12 earned runs, five home runs allowed, and three doubles allowed.

Though Miller doesn’t have a quality start yet, he still most likely has another start or two this month, and if he can just some luck going his way, he’ll be fine in the long run of the ’16 season.

Next: Jose Fernandez

• Jose Fernandez, Right-Handed Pitcher, Miami Marlins

In seasons where Jose Fernandez, the ace of the Miami Marlins pitching staff, has made at least eight starts, he’s never had an ERA above 3.00, and though he’s worked his way out of some injury situations in recent memory, his start to the ’16 season isn’t anything to bite your finger nails over.

Thus far this season, Fernandez has a record of 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in 10.2 innings pitched. He’s not pitched out of the sixth inning this season, and his two starts have basically been polar opposites of each other.

In his first start of the season against the Detroit Tigers, Fernandez allowed five earned runs in 5.2 innings pitched, a game where he also allowed one home run, one walk, but did strikeout 13 batters on 106 total pitches, 72 for strikes.

His second start of ’16 saw him allow just one unearned run on 90 pitches against the New York Mets on April 12, a game where he pitched five innings as the Marlins must be watching his pitch count early on as he totaled 90 pitches in the no-decision.

For his 49-game career, Fernandez has built an ERA of 2.49 in a total of 299.2 innings pitched. He has 354 career strikeouts, and if gets back to his form of the ’13 season, a year where he was an All-Star, he’ll really get back to being a “star” in the majors.

More call to the pen: MLB Power Rankings: Week 1 Surprises

This is another player who I’m not worried about the “cold” start to the ’16 season, as he’s already proven maybe the first start of the year was a bit of a fluke as he has to gain poise for the season, showing that in his second start.

Once he gets into more of a deal where he can go deeper into games, we should see an improved Fernandez, and not the player we saw in the first start of the season, but more like the numbers he produced in start two.