- The new baseball season is upon us which means the return of the MLB Pick One Challenge! We have 10 participants so far with the inaugural champion stepping down to try to do his worst Rob Manfred impression.
- Our most picked game of the afternoon was Cardinals/Pirates garnering five total selections, three to St. Louis and two to Pittsburgh.
- Albert Pujols was one of those five and was also the only player to be double selected on Opening Day. Both Al and Buddy went with the returning Cardinals legend. Al even went as far as to use his Home Run Hero chip for the month of April with JT Brubaker on the bump for the Pirates. Regrettably, despite the Cardinals scoring nine runs Pujols blanked in his return to the Gateway City.
- Pujols was one of three Cardinals to blank in their Opening Day onslaught. That list also unfortunately included Nate's pick Paul DeJong.
- For the Pirates, it was 50/50 joy as while Colin's pick Ben Gamel blanked, Lenny's selection Yoshi Tsutsugo opened his account with a pair of singles to account for 33% of Pittsburgh's hits.
- Keeping it in the NL Central, Pavli started off with a single from Milwaukee's Kolten Wong whose fifth inning single was immediately wiped out on the base paths by a double play. The Brewers would eventually fall to the Cubs.
- Josh Bell may no longer be in the NL Central, but he too had an Opening Day single in Washington netting Joseph a solitary point on the afternoon.
- Scott is running away with the Premier League Pick One at the time of this recap, but could only manage a sliver of the daily bronze medal in baseball as his pick Whit Merrifield also collected just a single total base on Opening Day against Cleveland.
- It was boom and bust for the defending American League champion Astros over their two selections from the late contest. Ryan filled the bust quota with Jose Altuve who however in victory whiffed three times against Shohei Ohtani and company.
- Bringing the boom component was Matt with our day's top scorer Chas McCormick. McCormick didn't make his Pick One debut last year until the ALCS so him getting a pair of doubles on Opening Day is a fresh change of pace for the outfielder.
- Optimally, Austin Riley, one of eight Braves completed picked out a season ago, would have been the best pick with three hits for six total bases against the Reds including a two-run home run in the eighth inning.
Image Credits: Player Photos (Baseball Reference)