surprise Baseball Teams So Far

[buff Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close buff]

Marlins, DRAYS.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Marlins, DRAYS.

The record of the D-Rays is not the least surprising. It's been clear for the last two years that they were on the verge of becoming very, very good. Good enough to be favorites in the AL East with the Red Sox. The only thing that really held them back last year was their pitching, but their young pitchers were clearly on the upswing and they had good help on the way. Adding Garza was a wonderful deal for them; barring injury pitching was clearly going to be a strength for them - Kazmir, Shields, and Garza make a good front-line. Sonnanstine was quite good in the back. The only question was Jackson, but if he flamed out again he was easily replaceable.

To me the biggest surprise team, by far, is the A's.

[kennyw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kennyw]

San Diego Padres

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

The Astros at 16-16 with only 1 real starting pitcher, Roy Oswalt. I think the season is really going to be ugly, but they probably have one of the best hitting line ups in baseball. Can you say 10-8 losses?

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

It's interesting to note the extent to which the "number crunching" teams are moving to the fore. "Number crunching" is a bit of a misnomer; the teams that are numerically inclined are really blending advanced statistical work with traditional scouting, using the two as cross-checks on each other. The teams that rely mostly on the traditional methods are becoming fewer.

These are the teams in baseball that have the most developed number-crunching components - consider them the "Moneyball progeny" if you like:

• Boston
• Oakland
• Cleveland
• Tampa Bay (post-LaMar)
• Arizona
• St. Louis (post-Jocketty)
• Pittsburgh (post-Littlefield)
• New York Yankees
• Texas (since Daniels was hired)

The clubs that are clearly "old-school":

• Anaheim
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Minnesota
• Kansas City
• Chicago (both teams)
• Cincinnati
• Philadelphia
• Houston
• New York Mets
• Atlanta

All teams not listed fall somewhere in the middle.

Although there are strong and weak teams in both groups, a disproportionate number of the currently strong teams are teams that have the most well-developed statistical operations.

BTW - every team, even the old school teams, does at least some advanced number crunching. The differences are the amount of effort devoted to that component of the operation and the relative weight given to the numeric breakdowns.

[Elan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Elan]

I'd have to say that the post-Bonds Giants have been somewhat of a surprise so far. A lot of baseball analysts were calling the Giants offense one of the most anemic in recent history, pre-season, and projecting over 100 losses, which may still happen. But they've actually brought up a number of young guys (Lewis, Velez) that are getting on base and are playing small ball pretty effectively. Coupled with the young arms of Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Correia and Lowry they may be a decent team once again in much shorter than anticipated time. If they hadn't saddled themselves with Zito's monster contract, they'd be looking even more promising going forward.

[buff Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close buff]

elan, I agree with you. Giants are going with youth. There are so many teams including my team the Mets that have no farm system

[Fisch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fisch]

San Diego Padres

Exactly. So far the worst record in baseball.
I love it

[stasik Member Find all posts View Profile Close stasik]

The Indians seem to be screwing the pooch this year. No hitting, the bullpen is lousy. Starting pitching is ok but not enough to cover for their other glaring problems.

This is not a team that made it to within a game of the series. Funny thing is that this is the exact same personnel, they just aren't executing.

[Elan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Elan]

D Rays (coming off a sweep of the BoSox) and Cubs in first place. Every team in the NL West (which produced the NL wildcard last year) under .500. The Indians dead last in the AL Central (even trailing the Royals!) and the Mariners under .400. Quite an interesting year in MLB thus far.........

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

The A's are still hanging and still the biggest surprise IMHO along with the Rays.....and Texas not that far behind. Seattle's implosion was not that much of a surprise...the surprise was everyone predicting them to be in first place just because two to the Angels best starters were injured.

Way to go Rays and Joe Madden.

[Elan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Elan]

The A's are still hanging and still the biggest surprise IMHO along with the Rays.....and Texas not that far behind. Seattle's implosion was not that much of a surprise...the surprise was everyone predicting them to be in first place just because two to the Angels best starters were injured.

Way to go Rays and Joe Madden.

The A's seem to have an infinite source of pitching, and the Rangers an infinite source of hitting. I agree that picking the M's to win the AL West was probably a stretch, but they are 9th in team payroll this year (not that spending money guarantees success, but there's typically a strong correlation to regular season W's). Frankly, I'm just surprised that they're SO bad. Under .400 with that line-up is impressive.............

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Wow!!! The surprise team is the NY Mets. They are going south for an early vacation this year.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Seattle first to be eliminated from contention. Don't you just love the media....they were suposed to be first in the AL West according to the pundits.

Mets still hanging in there.

A's going down in flames.

Yankees will not make the playoffs.....wow.

Will the Red Sox?

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Seattle first to be eliminated from contention. Don't you just love the media....they were suposed to be first in the AL West according to the pundits.

If you believe the media pundits. The best coverage of baseball isn't in the medial