Two weeks of MLB are in the books and already some of the cream is rising to the top. With most team having played 10 games early in the season there are certainly some surprises – the Nationals, the Dodgers and the Orioles currently lead their respective Divisions – insane!
A few years ago this would have been a battle of two division leaders, but the Twins have fallen on hard times the last couple years.
The Phillies have all sorts of injury problems, and they have started out the season by winning just one of their first four games.
Virtually nothing was expected out of the New York Mets this year, but they started the season off with a sweep of the Atlanta Braves.
The Miami Marlins have a whole new look this season. No longer are they the “Florida” Marlins, and no longer do they have low expectations.
It is almost that time of year folks – the smell of popcorn and hot dogs is filling the air in 30 North American cities – baseball is here! Every two weeks during the regular season, Dave B will compile a list of teams on the rise and teams on the decline in the Majors.
2011 wasn’t a good season for the Chicago White Sox. The team was expected to compete for the AL Central, but they finished a very disappointing 79-83. There was plenty of drama surrounding the team throughout the year as well.
No one had a better offseason than the Detroit Tigers. While the Tigers won 94 games and beat the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, expectations are much higher this season.
Cleveland burst out of the gates last year to grab a big lead in the AL Central. The Indians actually led the division by seven games after starting 30-15.
It seems like the Kansas City Royals always have tons of young talent, but they haven’t been able to mature into that contender just yet.
Year after year the NL MVP Award is hotly contested, and last season was no different as the award was eventually bestowed upon Ryan Braun. And deserving or not, Braun will be right back in the thick of things this season since his suspension was lifted.
Last year the unthinkable happened in the AL MVP race, and for just the 12th time in the 81 year history of the award it was granted to a pitcher.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong last year for the Minnesota Twins. No team was bit as hard as the Twins by the dreaded injury bug. The team that was a perennial favorite to be at the top of the AL Central standings could only muster up 63 wins.
Although the Los Angeles Dodgers had an “almost” NL MVP winner and a Cy Young winner in 2011, that’s pretty much all they had. Amid the continued ownership turmoil, the team made very few acquisitions during the offseason to better their 82-79 third place finish.
The Rangers did not have a very good off-season, as they lost out on signing prized free agent Prince Fielder and they lost starting pitcher C.J. Wilson to the rival L.A. Angels. The Rangers will have, pretty much, the same team as they did last season, but that is not a bad thing since they came within 1 out of winning the World Series.
The Angels were 10 games over .500 last season, mainly because of their solid pitching, but they still finished 10 games behind the Texas Rangers and they did not make the playoffs. However, this season the Halos have high hopes since they won the free agency sweepstakes signing slugger Albert Pujols.
