10 Biggest Takeaways from the 2015 MLB Season's 1st Week of Action

The 2015 Major League Baseball season isn't quite into the grind just yet, but it's on its way there. They've been playing games for a whole (business) week!

That's obviously not much time in the grand scheme of a 162-game season. But since it means we know more about what's what in 2015 than we did before, let's talk about what we've seen and learned so far.

Ahead of you are 10 takeaways from the opening week of the 2015 MLB season, ranging from standout performances to early trends. They're ranked from least interesting to most interesting, as measured by my personal and therefore ironclad opinion.

Step into the box whenever you're ready.

10. The Budding Padres vs. Dodgers Rivalry Could Be Lots of Fun

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If you're looking for a fun, exciting new rivalry to sink your teeth into in 2015, here's an early-season recommendation: The San Diego Padres vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.

They've been NL West rivals for years, but it was evident during the offseason that they had a chance to take things to the next level in 2015. The Dodgers overhauled their roster as part of an effort to maintain control of the division, but the Padres carried out an even bigger roster overhaul that was clearly designed to give them a shot at the champs.

Thus, the stage was set for a season full of epic battles, and the first series of the year between the two lived up to the hype.

The first game, a 6-3 Dodgers victory, was a back-and-forth affair that was won on a clutch home run by Dodgers newcomer Jimmy Rollins. The second game, a 7-3 Padres victory, was won with a four-run ninth-inning rally and nailed down by new Padres closer Craig Kimbrel. The third game, a 7-4 Dodgers victory, was closer than Adrian Gonzalez's three-homer outburst would lead you to believe.

In short, there was plenty of high drama to be found. And both clubs seemed to feed off of it, as there was no shortage of energy on either side. It was a dandy of a series.

And that was just Act 1. From here on out, this rivalry may only get better.

9. Don't Blink When Billy Hamilton Is on Base

Gary Landers/Associated Press

If you want to see the fastest thing on television, don't bother watching The Flash. You're better off tuning in to Cincinnati Reds games.

That's where you'll find Billy Hamilton, who has launched himself into a season that's already one for the base-stealing record books. The 24-year-old swiped seven bases in Cincinnati's first four games. As High Heat Stats MLB notes on Twitter, the only other player to do that was Vince Coleman in 1987.

This puts Hamilton on pace to steal 284 bases, which would break Rickey Henderson's modern record of 130 by more than 150 steals. This, of course, would be the troll-y way of noting that, no, Hamilton's probably not going to keep up his current pace.

Still, it wouldn't be surprising if his (literally) fast start does lead to something big. Hamilton was regarded in his prospect days as maybe the fastest player in baseball history, and now he says his technique has improved since last year's 56-for-79 showing in the stolen-base department.

"I've been getting a lot of good jumps already," Hamilton told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. "I feel like my jumps are way better than they were last year. I feel like I'm reading the pitchers better so that's a good thing. I'm just looking forward to getting better over there."

It's early yet, but you can see Hamilton getting better. Provided you don't blink, anyway.

8. Alex Rodriguez Might Be the Best Reason to Watch the Yankees

If you've been waiting for Alex Rodriguez's return to baseball in 2015 to become an embarrassing sideshow, well, it still hasn't happened yet.

A-Rod OPS'd .866 in spring training, and the very early returns in the regular season include a .946 OPS and his first home run since 2013. Had a deep drive in Wednesday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays not died at the warning track, he'd have two home runs.

To be sure, A-Rod doesn't look like his vintage self. His swing still looks like it's all upper body, which is no surprise given that he's 39 and playing on surgically repaired hips and knees. He's also been striking out a lot.

He has looked good, though. Good enough, even, to potentially be the best thing the New York Yankees have going for them this year.

Outside of A-Rod's strong start, the Yankees don't have much to write home about. Their offense has looked mediocre. On the pitching side of things, Masahiro Tanaka looks broken, CC Sabathia still looks old and Dellin Betances doesn't look like his 2014 self.

That leaves us to wonder if the Yankees' motto this year could eventually be "At least we have A-Rod back." It's a funny world we live in. A funny world, indeed.

7. The Cleveland Indians Front 3 Is Downright Nasty

Patric Schneider/Associated Press

Here's some free advice: You need to watch the Cleveland Indians on days when Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer are pitching.

That much is definitely clear after what they did to the Houston Astros in the Tribe's season-opening three-game series. Combined, the three right-handers pitched 19.2 innings, allowed only two earned runs on six hits and eight walks (five by Bauer) and struck out 28.

Granted, this was against the Astros. They've been swinging through air like gangbusters for several years now and have all the parts needed to continue the tradition. They'll be striking out a ton in 2015.

All the same, the early domination of Kluber, Carrasco and Bauer isn't coming out of nowhere.

They're a big reason why, according to FanGraphs, the Indians had the best starting pitching of any team in baseball in the second half of 2014. Kluber rode his hot second half to the American League Cy Young Award, and Carrasco and Bauer joined him in missing plenty of bats down the stretch.

So don't call it an early-season fluke. Kluber, Carrasco and Bauer have been at it for a while now, and it should be loads of fun to watch them continue to mow down batters in 2015.

6. Matt Harvey Looks Like Matt Harvey

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

A new national holiday was born in 2013. That would be Harvey Day, which was celebrated every time New York Mets ace Matt Harvey took the hill.

After a year off from observances in 2014 due to Harvey's Tommy John operation, Harvey Day was finally celebrated again on Thursday. And boy, was it a grand ol' time.

Harvey pitched six shutout innings against the Washington Nationals, allowing only four hits and a walk and striking out nine. He wasn't altogether perfect, but he proved he still has his mid-to-high-90s fastball and array of mind-boggling secondary pitches.

"It's one of the toughest at-bats I've ever had," said Nationals star Bryce Harper after Harvey struck him out three times, via Bill Ladson of MLB.com. "He is very tough out there. He is a very good pitcher."

Harper also said that "everybody knows" that Harvey is going to win a Cy Young. To that end, his outing on Thursday was a reminder that he definitely could have won it in 2013 if he'd stayed healthy. He was arguably baseball's best pitcher, posting a 2.27 ERA and 6.16 K/BB ratio through 178.1 innings.

The pitcher who did that was the pitcher who inspired Harvey Day, and he looks like he's back. Long live Harvey. Long live Harvey Day.

5. Beware the Power-Hitting Kansas City Royals

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There go those power-hitting Kansas City Royals again.

Wait, what? No. That doesn't sound right. It should be, "Here come the power-hitting Kansas City Royals."

It sure looks that way. The Royals have started their American League pennant defense off by banging six home runs, tying them with the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles for the high-dinger mark in the AL. This power surge has been put to good use, too, as the Royals are 4-0.

The phrase "out of character" comes to mind. Indeed, it was the Royals' lack of power that stood out in 2014, as they slugged .376 as a team and hit an MLB-low 95 home runs. After a performance like that, their early-season power outburst looks like the flukiest of flukes.

Or maybe not. The Royals did find some extra juice in the postseason last year, after all, and Vahe Gregorian of The Kansas City Star noted that power was an early theme for them in spring training.

If Kansas City's power doesn't turn out to be a fluke, its offense is going to be first-viewing-of-The-Shining levels of frightening. The Royals were already renowned for their ability to make contact and run the bases. If power is now being added to the equation, their offense will become MLB's new gold standard.

4. Adrian Gonzalez Has Gone Retro

The Adrian Gonzalez of right now is part Adrian Gonzalez of yesteryear, and part Babe Ruth.

This is to say he's hitting lots of dingers. Yes, lots and lots of dingers.

The 32-year-old first baseman slugged homers in each of the Dodgers' first two games against the Padres and then three in the third game. That gave him five for the series, making him the first player in MLB history to hit five home runs in his first three games.

Gonzalez isn't going to stay on this pace, of course, but there might actually be something to his early-season power outburst. The elite power he once had before a 2010 right shoulder operation has been slowly creeping back in recent years, and the power he's shown this season is emblematic of how he's embraced a pull-power approach.

Unless you ask him, of course.

"I'm still not a home-run hitter," Gonzalez told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. "I just try to hit line drives. If they go over the fence, they go over the fence."

Whatever you say, Adrian. Whatever you say.

3. For Now, the Detroit Tigers Are a Juggernaut

Mark Duncan/Associated Press

After an offseason that featured Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello departing and watching Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez undergoing surgery, the Detroit Tigers didn't seem to have the tightest grip on their AL Central crown heading into 2015.

Or so it seemed, anyway. The Tigers have won their first four games and looked good doing so.

Rather than severely downgraded, Detroit's pitching has looked nigh untouchable. In shutting down the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians, Tigers pitchers opened the season without an earned run through 32 innings. As Jason Beck of MLB.com and many others noted, that ties a modern-era record.

Not to be outdone, the Tigers offense is also clicking early. It dropped 22 runs on the Twins and eight more on the Indians. Their 30 runs rank second behind only the Oakland A's, and their 53 hits are tied with Oakland atop MLB.

All told, the Tigers own a 4-0 record that's coupled with a plus-25 run differential. No other team has a run differential better than plus-19.

It's only four games, but in these four games, the Tigers have been several different kinds of awesome. So, maybe their grip on their AL Central crown is tighter than we thought.

2. The Pace-of-Play Rules Appear to Be Working

Eric Risberg/Associated Press

If you missed it, Major League Baseball aims to speed things up. In February, the league announced new pace-of-play initiatives designed to cut down the league's ever-expanding average game time.

And so far, it's working.

Scott Boeck of USA Today provided the relevant data on Thursday:

"

Through 35 games this season, the average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 52 minutes.

That's 10 minutes less than the 3:02 average in 2014 through the same number of games. The 3:02 mark was also the full-season average for 2014.

"

Now, it must be said that there is more going on here than just the pace-of-play initiatives. Most notably, the pitching early in the season has been pretty great (more on that in a moment).

That said, the pace-of-play initiatives do seem to be making a difference. The between-innings clock designed to have everyone ready to play when commercials are over seems to be working, and commanding hitters to keep one foot in the box is definitely working. Per the PITCHf/x figures at FanGraphs, the pace in between pitches was down 0.6 seconds from 2014 at the start of Friday's action.

But while this is good, it's not all good. The pace-of-play initiatives may be speeding up the games, but they might also be contributing to a problem that really didn't need to get any worse.

1. The Run-Scoring Environment Has Gone from Bad to Worse

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Though one of baseball's biggest problems may be in the midst of being solved, its other big problem…well, not as much.

Pace of play isn't the only thing that new commissioner Rob Manfred wants to improve. He also wants to improve baseball's run-scoring problem, which has been exacerbated mainly by high velocity, a huge strike zone and an increasing reliance on defensive shifts.

He must not like what he's seeing so far this season. The league's hitters are hitting just .233/.301/.365, which is down from last season's .251/.314/.386 batting line.

Certainly, the frigid weather that has hung over some early games hasn't helped. But it does seem like the pitchers are benefiting from the pace-of-play rules more than hitters. There have already been 17 shutouts and a couple of serious no-hit bids. Meanwhile, the league's strikeout rate has climbed from a record 20.4 percent in 2014 to 21.2 percent.

It could very well be that this is a temporary thing. Once the weather heats up and the batters grow more accustomed to keeping one foot in the box, maybe they'll fight back.

But if they don't, MLB's next project will have to be some run-scoring initiatives.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.