There is less and less time left until the grand premiere of a new season of Major League Baseball (MLB). For the second consecutive year, the league decided that the 30 franchises would participate in the famous ‘Opening day’, an event in which the teams play their first game of the campaign.
While it is true that the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres have already debuted in the 2024 Seoul Series, this Thursday, March 28, there will be many actions to comment on during the extensive MLB day.
That is why La Estrella de Panamá participated in a round table with the talents of the ESPN television network; Ernesto Jerez, Luis Alfredo Álvarez, Caro Guillen and Guillermo Celis to talk a little about what will be the premiere of the new MLB season.
One of the topics that was touched on was the role that Latin Americans will have this year in the league and some that could surprise with their teams. For journalist Guillen, one of them would be Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Braves. She in turn believed that the Venezuelan team could win the 2024 World Series.
“If the core remains, it can be a dangerous team. “They are the team to beat in the American League and they have a lot of depth,” Jerez said.
While Jerez had the same opinion as his colleague and mentioned that “the Braves have speed. In recent years there has been talk about power, but I would like Latin Americans to also stand out.”
Celis, for his part, argued that “it is important that Central Americans continue adding and arriving.” Finally, Álvarez spoke about the role that the Boston Red Sox can play and assured that “they will be in the fight.”
At the moment there is a lot of discussion about the investigation against Shohei Ohtani for alleged illegal betting.
The Dodgers’ brand new reinforcement, who signed a 10-year contract for the sum of 700 million dollars, is in the eye of the hurricane and under investigation by the MLB after being investigated for making alleged bets. The Japanese has categorically denied these accusations, but so far the investigations are continuing.
Baseball player Shohei Ohtani. ALLISON DINNER / EFE
Regarding this, Guillen stressed that “we must be clear about the rule [sobre las apuestas en la liga]. I believe that the MLB will not protect the player even if he is the star of the league. This makes a lot of noise and more so because of his contract that he signed with the Dodgers.”
Álvarez took the words and indicated that he believes in Ohtani’s innocence. “It would be premature to rule anything. “I believe in his innocence and I give him the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
Celis was the most forceful of all and assured that a strong hand must be taken if the Japanese is found guilty in such a case. “You can’t have warm water with Ohtani. The rules are the rule, we don’t know what will happen, but the rule is there to be fulfilled. Baseball will not end due to his absence,” he argued.
A survey was recently conducted among MLB players about which franchise could become champion of the 2024 World Series. According to them; The Dodgers, Braves, Orioles, Phillies and Yankees (in that order) could be crowned this year.
In relation to these candidates, Celis said that “there is no surprise” with the order of the possible champions and added the Astros among the candidates for the title. He also said that “the San Francisco Giants strengthened well for this campaign.”
Finally, Jerez highlighted that he would like to see the two teams that competed in the 2023 World Series in the final, that is, the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. “This would reinforce the rivalry and that is important, that is what sport is about,” he said.
Some of the featured games on this ‘Opening day’ are Yankees-Astros, Angels-Orioles, Cardinals-Dodgers, Braves-Phillies, among others.
2024-03-26 21:30:09
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