Is there a weak spot in baseball's Death Star?
No one in Los Angeles is exactly panicking over the Dodgers' start. After 21 games, they're on pace to win 115 and are still the best team on paper.
But they were in third place in the NL West earlier this week, which was not something many envisioned even this early in the season. It's a testament to the strength of the NL West.
Recall, the Padres nearly knocked the Dodgers out of the postseason last year, and they sat in first place entering the weekend. The resurgent Giants are in the top three in run differential. The Diamondbacks were in fourth place in the division entering the weekend, but would be in first in three other divisions.
The Dodgers will almost certainly make the playoffs, but winning the division and advancing to the World Series might not be so easy.
Their division odds dropped from 83.8% in the preseason to 74.6% entering the weekend, according to FanGraphs. Their chances to win a World Series dropped from 23.2% in preseason to 21.2% entering play Friday.
And they have one glaring weakness working against their aspirations of not just building a dynasty but earning a playoff bye and an easier path to a title this season: They're the oldest team in baseball, by far, on the position player side at 31.3 years. The MLB average is 28.3.
Freddie Freeman is 35 and still dealing with a balky ankle following offseason surgery. Max Muncy at 34 is showing some decline with a strikeout rate above 35%.
Mookie Betts is such an exceptional athlete that he might fend off Father Time for longer than most, but his age (32) is when we typically begin to see skills degrade. Injury risk also increases for older players.
For as much credit as the Dodgers receive for being a player development machine, they have only two homegrown players in their lineup: catcher Will Smith (now 30) and outfielder Andy Pages, an uneven performer to date. Most of their stars were acquired through free agency or trade.
The Dodgers have led the majors in days lost to injury in each of the last two seasons, mostly coming from the pitching side. Star free-agent acquisition Blake Snell is already on the IL this season.
They are still the most talented team, but they're an aging one with severe injury risk in the rotation.
The NL West might be a little more interesting than many thought.
MLB's new data, and what it tells us about Tork
Last year, MLB unveiled new data to the public from its Statcast tracking system: bat speed and swing length metrics.
While the data revelations might be becoming more granular, MLB keeps delivering new numbers to quantify players' traits and skills.
New this year is a visualization tool for a batter's positioning in the box: how deep they stand, how close to the plate they are, and how open or closed their stances are.
There are interesting insights, particularly for one early-season turnaround story, Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson (.288/.386/.630 line with six homers).
Torkelson looked to be fading from the Tigers' plans early this spring after deep struggles a year ago. But the 2020 No. 1 pick has reclaimed a middle-of-the-lineup position and is helping the club to an early lead in the AL Central.
His early breakout coincides with a much deeper stance in the batter's box, about 5.8 inches deeper than last season, the fifth-biggest change among the 193 batters qualified and tracked over the last two seasons. The distance is measured from the front of home plate to the midpoint of the batter's stance. Perhaps allowing the ball to travel for those extra few milliseconds is contributing to Torkelson's excellent start.
Torkelson is also more open in his stance, moving from a nearly neutral position (minus-1.8 degrees) to being more open than the MLB average (minus-15.7 degrees). That is the eighth-largest change.
That might explain his 59% pull rate and 92.9 mph average exit velocity this season, which would be career highs.
Another player off to a surprising start, the Blue Jays' George Springer, is standing 2 inches back in the box and has opened his stance by 5 degrees.
The Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton owns the most closed stance (plus-12 degrees) over the last two years, while Rafael Devers (minus-63.1 degrees) is the most open.
It's interesting to learn which batters most obviously disregard the back line of the box (the Angels' Kyren Paris, the Braves' Ozzie Albies, and the Mariners' J.P. Crawford), which batters crowd the plate the most (Albies again), and which batter stands nearest the pitcher (the Astros' Jose Altuve).
Maybe there's not too much to take from this information, but it's another area for teams and players to explore.
Jays passed a big test
The Blue Jays' hot start was important for a number of reasons, but one was that April promised to be one of their most difficult stretches of schedule - at least on paper.
Now that they've weathered most of it, their strength of schedule for the rest of the season ranks in the middle of the pack at .498 per Tankathon.
One can also argue the AL East is weaker than a year ago as Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes are in the NL, Gerrit Cole is out for the year, Giancarlo Stanton has no timetable to return, and in Tampa, Shane McClanahan and Josh Lowe are out indefinitely.
Moreover, that many of the Jays' core bats have not been incredibly productive to date means the early-season stretch is about as good as the team could have hoped for - including a resurgent Chris Bassitt.
Is Bassitt's start sustainable? He probably won't sustain a sub-1.00 ERA or strikeout and walk rates like this (31 strikeouts and five walks in his first 23 innings), but that he doubled his splitter usage and is throwing an elevated cutter against lefties, which have crushed him in recent years, suggests some improvement is real.
The Jays have a long way to go, but at least they've gotten out of the gate well.
Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA forecast gives the Jays the best AL East chances (35.6%), slightly ahead of the Yankees, and a 70% chance to reach the playoffs.
Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.
