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Top 5 Catches From MLB's First Week

By Ryan Mayer, CBS Local Sports

Baseball season officially opened last week and already we've had a plethora of ridiculous defensive plays.  Recency bias will always mean that we think these plays will be the best of the year, but we'll more than likely forget them in a couple months. In order to try and give them their proper due, let's rank the top defensive plays so far this season.  Culling down the list to 5. 

5) Lorenzo Cain, CF, Kansas City Royals: Cain is known for his speed and exploits with the glove and against the White Sox last week he showed exactly why. With the Royals up 1-0 in the top of the 2nd inning and Adam LaRoche at the plate, LaRoche crushed a pitch from Edinson Volquez to deep right center thinking he had at least a double, if not a round tripper. Well, Cain had other ideas:

4) Adam Eaton, CF, Chicago White Sox: Apparently Eaton saw what Cain did and thought "Anything he can do I can do better." In the fifth inning of the same game with the score still sitting at 1-0, and a runner on third with two outs, Mike Moustakas got a hold of a John Danks' pitch and hit a screaming liner to center. Eaton responded by making a diving over-the-shoulder grab that saved the run. 

3) Mookie Betts, CF, Boston Red Sox: Betts' catch came on opening day at Fenway over the weekend. The reason it overtakes the previous two is because it robbed a home run from Bryce Harper that would have given the Nats a great start. 

2) Nolan Arenado, 3B, Colorado Rockies: Arenado has won the Gold Glove at third base in the National League the past two seasons and after watching his catch last night against the Giants, we might as well just hand him his third straight right now. When fans of the opposing team are worried you're going to hurt yourself and they're trying to help you out/catch you? You know you're playing hard. 

1) George Springer, RF, Houston Astros: Why does Springer get the top spot? The circumstances of his play had the highest stakes of any of the great catches mentioned so far. Bottom of the tenth inning with the game tied, bases loaded, and two outs. Doesn't get much bigger of a spot than that - short of it being a post season game. Go on George, get up there. 

These catches are just 5 of the many great ones already this season and a precursor of many more to come. 

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