7 of our favorite bonkers early-season stats

We’re more than a week into the regular season and plenty of storylines and stats have already grabbed our attention.

While we’re dealing with small samples, that doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting trends and developments that have taken place. With that in mind, we asked seven of our writers about their favorite fun early-season stats.

Here’s what they had to say.

The Rays have Aroldis Chapman's fastball … but not Chapman

Aroldis Chapman's fastball set the bar for a generation of flamethrowers. Now we have another fastball that looks just like it.

Rays rookie reliever Mason Montgomery has it. The young southpaw is averaging just under 100 mph on his fastball this season, and he's already touched 102, something only three other left-handers in the pitch tracking era have done.

But this is the most interesting part: Montgomery's fastball profiles almost identically to Chapman's fastball from some of his most overpowering seasons with the Reds, Cubs and Yankees. The extreme velocity from the left side … the rising movement that generates swings and misses … the release extension down the mound that makes a triple-digit heater seem even faster … they're all there for Montgomery like they were for Chapman.

Montgomery's 4-seamer, 2025:

• 99.8 mph / 8" total drop / 6" run / +19" IVB ("rise") / 6.7 feet extension

Chapman's 4-seamer, 2015-17:

• 100.4 mph / 9" total drop / 7" run / +18" IVB ("rise") / 6.8 feet extension

That's eerie. And pretty cool.

-- David Adler

The Pirates’ prodigious pilfering prowess

Pirates are in the news for stealing things -- is it the 19th century again? OK, maybe not, but the Bucs’ basestealing so far in 2025 is reaching levels not seen since the late 1800s. The Pirates have racked up 20 steals through Saturday, the most in the Major Leagues by five and on pace for a Modern Era-record 360 thefts in a full season. (The AL/NL record of 441 stolen bases by the 1896 Orioles isn’t likely to be broken anytime soon.) Pittsburgh’s average of 2.22 steals per game is higher than the MLB average for steals in every season on record but two -- 1887-88, when clubs were roughly averaging three steals per game.

So what’s the Pirates’ secret? For one, 6-foot-7 shortstop Oneil Cruz, who leads MLB with seven steals in the team’s first nine games. That’s a casual 126-steal pace over 162 games, although suffice it to say, it would be pretty hard for even the speedy Cruz to keep that up. Six other Bucs have at least one steal, including Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who is tied for third in the Majors with four. It won’t be easy for Pittsburgh to sustain a pace this blistering on the basepaths, but it’s sure been fun so far.

-- Theo DeRosa

Gilbert’s untouchable splitter

If you have one of baseball’s most dominant pitches, why not throw it more? That has been Logan Gilbert’s approach through two starts in 2025, as the righty has relied more heavily on his splitter, doubling his usage rate.

Gilbert’s splitter was one of the keys to his career year in 2024, ranking among the best individual pitches in whiff rate (50.6%), batting average against (.101) and strikeout rate (59.6%). The early returns suggest the pitch could be just as good -- or better -- in 2025, even with the increased exposure.

Gilbert is getting more depth with his splitter in 2025, ranking fourth among splitter users with 42 inches of average drop and 1.9 inches of induced vertical break. His side-to-side movement also has been more unpredictable -- he has generated six K’s on splitters with arm-side run and four K's on splitters that have cut to his glove side. Last year, all but one of his 62 splitter K’s came on pitches that moved to the arm side.

The results speak for themselves: hitters have gone 0-for-14 with 10 K’s and a 56.7% whiff rate against Gilbert’s splitter so far in 2025. If this continues, it could spark yet another leap for the 27-year-old right-hander, who has 18 strikeouts with just one walk in 12 innings overall this season.

-- Thomas Harrigan

California dreaming

With the Padres starting at 7-0 and Dodgers at 8-0, this is the fifth season in MLB history where multiple teams started 7-0 or better. They joined the 2003 Royals (9-0) and Giants (7-0), 1982 Braves (13-0) and White Sox (8-0), 1962 Pirates (10-0) and Cardinals (7-0) and 1884 St. Louis Maroons (20-0) and New York Gothams (12-0).

The Dodgers are the first defending World Series champs to start a season 8-0 or better, surpassing the 1933 Yankees. It was also the third-best start to a season in Dodgers history, trailing 1955 (10-0) and 1940 (9-0).

And the Giants would like a word, too. With the Dodgers, Padres and Giants, this is the first time at least three teams in the same division started 6-1 or better through seven games (divisions since 1969), per Elias. And with the Giants winning again on Saturday to move to 7-1, it's just the third time three teams in the same league started the season 7-1 or better, joining the 2003 American League.

-- Sarah Langs

Jacob Wilson’s steadfast determination to put every ball in play

In an era of the three true outcomes (strikeouts, walks and home runs), Jacob Wilson’s profile is a drastic dichotomy to the average MLB player.

Drafted sixth overall by the A’s in the 2023 Draft, Wilson has already made the jump to everyday big league shortstop and is producing in his own unique way. While it’s only nine games, Wilson is slashing .364/.364/.606 with no strikeouts or walks.

To not have a single strikeout or walk through 33 plate appearances is almost hard to fathom, and Wilson’s strikeout-less streak didn’t just begin this season. According to the MLB Network research team, Wilson hasn’t struck out in his last 55 plate appearances since last season, the longest active streak in the Majors.

Wilson also has an active 10-game streak where he's recorded a hit while not striking out or walking, something only four players have done in the Wild Card era (since 1995):

• Ichiro Suzuki, 12 games (2012)
• Miguel Tejada, 11 games (2009)
• Cristian Guzmán, 11 games (2008)
• Tony Gwynn, 11 games (1999)

Wilson has taken 50 swings this season and whiffed just two times, matching his season home run total. Wilson was a highly-touted prospect thanks to his excellent shortstop defense and elite contact ability, but even this level of bat-to-ball skills is beyond anything baseball pundits could’ve envisioned. If the start of this season is any indication, perhaps Wilson will enter the Luis Arraez/Steven Kwan tier of contact kings.

-- Brent Maguire

Yankees take “Bronx Bombers” moniker to record-setting level

With two more home runs in Saturday’s win over the Pirates, the Yankees have 25 homers -- the most by any team in MLB history through the first eight games of a season. You’ve likely heard a lot about torpedo bats and how New York pummeled Brewers pitching during its first series of the season -- highlighted by a franchise-record nine homers on March 29. But the reasons for the Yanks’ power barrage extend far beyond that.

Six Yankees have multiple home runs this season, and some of the names on that list are a little surprising. Anthony Volpe, with four long balls, is already one-third of the way to his 2024 homer total. Trent Grisham has three dingers in just 17 at-bats. Ben Rice, who has gone deep twice, looks like he is in the early stages of a breakout season thanks to a new-look swing.

And then, of course, there is the reigning AL MVP. Remember when Aaron Judge’s start to the 2024 season was so poor that he was getting booed inside Yankee Stadium? Well, he’s not dealing with any early-season struggles this year. Judge is slashing an absurd .364/.447/1.000 with an MLB-high six homers and keeps finding ways to put his name in the record book. Also, Judge isn’t using a torpedo bat. His reasoning is sound.

Add it all up, and you get a Bronx Bombers squad that is bashing at a rate we’ve never seen before.

-- Brian Murphy

Brewers pitchers ride a wild rollercoaster

Bernie Brewer’s slide at Milwaukee’s American Family Field can be a wild ride -- seriously, underestimate it at your peril -- but it has nothing on what Brewers pitchers have experienced early this season. After a 4-2 Opening Day loss at Yankee Stadium, the Brew Crew’s staff jumped on one of the most whiplash-inducing seven-game stretches you will ever see.

As noted above, the Yankees and their Torpedo bats teed off on Milwaukee over the final two games in the Bronx, and that trend continued in the team’s home opener against the Royals on Monday. The three-game damage? 25 innings pitched, 41 hits, 43 runs (41 earned), 17 walks and a whopping 15 homers. Even factoring in that relatively ho-hum season opener, the Brewers joined the 1954 Cardinals as the only teams since at least 1901 to allow 47 total runs over their first four games of a season (and the first to allow 17 homers).

But then … the barrage stopped as dramatically as it started. Over the Brewers’ next four games (two against the Royals and two against the Reds), they pitched two shutouts. Overall in that span: 38 innings pitched, 15 hits, four runs (one earned), 11 walks and not a single homer. It was just the third four-game span (within a single season) in Brewers history in which their pitchers allowed just one earned run. How’s that for a response?

To keep us on our toes, the Brewers then proceeded to allow 11 runs to the Reds on Saturday.

-- Andrew Simon