The 2014 baseball season has been full of surprises so far. All you have to do is click the stats tab on MLB.com and you will see names that the common fan has never even heard of. For even more surprises you just have to look at the league standings and see teams that were expect to compete faltering early and teams that had low expectations exceeding those expectations. These are ten of the biggest surprises so far in the 2014 season.
10. Jose Abreu - Chicago White Sox
Abreu has come straight out of Cuba to be not only one of the best rookies of the 2014 season, but one of the best players in all of baseball. It’s not surprising that he’s good, there seemed to be a consensus that Abreu was as good or better than fellow Cuban sluggers Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig, but it is a surprise that he has been this good this fast. He is currently leading all of MLB in home runs and the American League in runs batted in. The White Sox, like the other teams who have taken risks on Cuban defectors in the past few years, have found a player that could be the cornerstone of their franchise for years to come.
9. Johnny Cueto - Cincinnati Reds
It’s not surprising that Cueto has been good, he’s shown that he can be the ace of the Reds staff in the past. For the last two seasons, though, he has struggled to stay healthy and people seemed to have forgotten about him, but here he is. He currently leads the league in earned run average with a miniscule 1.31 and is second in strikeouts to the freak of nature that is Jose Fernandez. There is no doubt in my mind that Cueto can continue to pitch this well, but can he stay healthy? For the sake of the Reds I hope so.
8. Francisco Rodriguez - Milwaukee Brewers
Yes, K-Rod is back. I’m not sure who we’ve been watching for the past few years as he struggled to maintain a closer role, but this guy is more like the man who saved 62 games for the Los Angeles Angels. He has started off the season with 17 innings of scoreless ball while only allowing seven hits and four walks. Those are ridiculous numbers, especially when you add in that he has already saved 14 games, the most since he saved 23 in 2011.
7. Oakland Athletics Top-Three Starting Pitchers
Before the season if you would have asked Athletics fans if they’d be surprised that the A’s would have three starting pitchers with an ERA in the top 10 in the league they probably wouldn’t have been that surprised. After the announcement of Jarrod Parker’s Tommy John surgery, though, you would have gotten a different answer. I’m not sure what is more surprising about these three pitchers, that Sonny Gray is this good this early in his career, that Scott Kazmir is looking better than he ever has before or the remarkable season that journeyman Jesse Chavez has had already this season. No matter which one you look at you are looking at a surprise. One may be bigger than the other, but it is hard to believe that there is anyone in baseball that would have predicted that all three of these guys would be top pitchers in MLB after one month.
6. Jean Machi - San Francisco Giants
You might not have a clue who Machi is, and that’s no surprise. The surprise is that the young relief pitcher is tied for the league lead in wins with five, and he has a .53 earned run average after 17 innings. The 32-year-old right hander is not the closer, not the set-up man and wasn’t expected to be the workhorse that he has been so far this season, but he is. It took him ten years to break into the majors and this is now Machi’s third season at the big league level, and if he keeps this up he will not have to worry about playing in the minors ever again.
5. Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers had a breakout star at shortstop in 2014, Jean Segura, and had one of the best players in the league returning from a suspension yet they were not expected to get off to this hot start. Right now they sit in first place in the National League Central ahead of three teams that made the playoffs in 2014. On top of being ahead of the Central they boast the best record in the league at 22-12. Although this team has those two stars on offense, it has been the pitching that has helped this team get out to the early lead with a team ERA of 3.14 and obviously having the aforementioned Rodriguez back into form helps as well.
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks finished at an even .500 for two seasons and a row, and after they made moves to improve the team in the offseason they had higher expectations. Those expectations have been thrown out the window as the pitching staff has been downright terrible all season long. On top of the horrible pitching their most productive player of the early season, Mark Trumbo, got injured and went on the disabled list. This team is going to have to turn this around and fast if they are going to save face this season, but that still may not save the jobs of the general manager and manager.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates finally broke the playoff drought in 2013 and at the rate they are going right now, they seem eager to start a new playoff drought. The blame for the losing is an all-around team effort. The pitching staff has been mediocre across the board from ace of the staff Francisco Liriano to the closer Jason Grilli who is now on the disabled list. Power hitting third baseman Pedro Alvarez is hitting for power, but he isn’t hitting much else as he is batting .210 to go along with eight home runs. They are also getting little production from the first baseman and the right fielders and some of the best players on the team have started off cold as well. This is a good team with a MVP and should turn it around, but the Brewers are building a big lead in that central division that will make it hard for anyone to catch them.
2. Dee Gordon - Los Angeles Dodgers
Gordon was all but written off. He lost his starting shortstop job after a sophomore slump and the Dodgers went out and made a trade to acquire Hanley Ramirez. Because of the acquisition of Ramirez Gordon played in only 38 games in 2013 and when the Dodgers signed Cuban defector Erisbel Arruebarrena it appeared that Gordon would be on his way out, but Arruebarrena wasn’t ready for the big league level and Gordon got a shot to move to second base and he has made the most of it. He is not only stealing bases at a high level like he did in his rookie year, he is 19 of 22 in stolen base attempts so far, but he is currently in the top five in the league in batting average hitting .342. From on the trade block to one of the best leadoff hitters in the game, Gordon has been a great surprise.
1. Charlie Blackmon - Colorado Rockies
Everyone knows the big names on the Rockies. They know Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. They know about consistent hitters Michael Cuddyer and free agent signing Justin Morneau. Of all of them, though, Blackmon has shot out of the gates and surprised everyone. The fourth year player who has never played more than 82 games in a season in his young career is third in the league in batting average batting .359 and has already tied his career highs with six home runs and 22 runs batted in. In fact, if it wasn’t for Tulo, he would be the best player on the team. That’s right, he could be the best player on the team that had three all-star starters in 2013.