1. Zack Greinke: I remember seeing this guy several years ago and hearing the announcers talk about how he had great stuff, specifically his hammer of a curveball. He was supposed to be the future for the Royals. He lasted three innings that day. Well the future is now. Turns out Greinke suffered from depression and social anxiety disorder, and those issues seemed to be fixed because he is putting up insane numbers. All ten of Greinke's starts have been quality starts (82 innings) and boasts a record of 8-1. What's more impressive is Greinke's 1.10 ERA, K/9 of 9.66, and a somewhat insane .90 WHIP. Oh and did I mention that he has yet to allow a homerun.2. Albert Pujols: We've come to take El Hombre for granted. .339/.468/.678 with a 1.146 OPS, yep that's pretty impressive, but it's also SOP for El Hombre. Did I also mention he has 16 taters, 43 RBI's, 44 BB and 7 stolen bases. Ohhhhh and he only has 18 K's. I'll let that sink in.........Yes you are correct, he only has two more K's than HR's. And if I really wanted to rub it in I could mention that he has been missing Ludwick in the lineup for the past couple weeks. While the rest of the Cards offense fell on their face, Pujols keeps on plugging away. NL MVP.
3. Raul Ibanez: Kind of a surprise here considering Ibanez has never slugged over .600 and posted a career high of 33 homers in 2006. This year he's hitting at a clip of .333/.394/.682 with 17 HR's and an OPS of 1.076. He's not drawing a ton of walks then again he never does, and sees some nice pitches behind Rollins, Utley, Howard and Co. History tells us that he will cool off as the year goes on, but in that lineup he may put together an impressive year and allow Philly Phans to Pheel great about the off season pickup.4. Evan Longoria: The young 3rd baseman is showing that he doesn't give two shits about sophomore slumps. Batting .327/.396/.623 with an OPS of 1.020, Longoria also has 13 HR's and 55 RBI's. The one thing you don't like to see is the 50K's, but in all it looks like he's going to put together a solid year.
5. Carl Crawford: So lets see .324/.383/.446 OPS .829, only 3 Hr's.......hmmmm.....HOLY SHIT 30 STEALS!!! Honestly that is insane. 30 steals with an OBP of .383. Flat out impressive.
6A. Justin Morneau: The big Canuck is batting .342/.419/.643 which brings his OPS to 1.062. He also has 14 Homers and 47 RBI's. The big thing about Morneau is he is on pace to top his best HR total (When he just went out of this world in the second half of 2006) and he has also never gone over .400 in OBP or slugged over .600. If he stays consistent he'll put together his first non-streaky year.
6B Adrian Gonzalez: Adrian gets the nod here because he leads the majors with 21 HR's (Even though he plays half of his games in Petco where long balls go to die) and he is getting on base at .401, which you always like to see from a power hitter.
7. Jason Bay: I was debating between Bay and Youkilis in this spot, but since Youk got hurt I'll give the nod to the Canadian. With the the gravity defying fall of Ortiz and the short absence of Youk, Bay has had to pick up the slack, and he has performed well. Bay's AVG is lower than most at .288, but he is getting on base at a .419 clip and is slugging .627. Bay also has 15 HR's and 49 RBI's. His stats aren't out of this world, but I'll give him the nod for the lackluster Boston lineup.
8. Adam Jones: No not pacman. A relative unknown, Jones is putting up some pretty sick numbers thus far .344/.400/.608 with an OPS of 1.008 with 11 HR's and 36 RBI's. A nice little year so far. One problem. In four years he has not finished the season above a .270 AVG or slugged over .400. And the big one. His highest OBP is .311. Now to be fair, last year was his first as a full time player, and maybe he is seeing the ball better, it wouldn't be the first time someone came out of nowhere in their 4th year, but I'll remain skeptical.9. Ichiro: Ichiro is like the mini Pujols. We've grown accustomed to his stellar offensive performances over the years. The normally healthy Ichiro missed the first two weeks of the season, which is why the production isn't there, but he does have 69 hits in 44 games, a .352 AVG and also has a surprising 5 homers thus far. Oh and he also has a 24 game hit streak.
10. Johan Santana: Johan continues to produce with a 7-2 record and a 1.77 ERA. He hasn't been going deep into games, but he's also holding opponents to a .208 AVG and has a WHIP of 1.09. Not too much more, Johan is doing what everyone expected him to do.
I'd also look for Mark Teixeira to be on this list by the second half of the season. Tex is a notoriously slow starter, and the fact that he is hitting .282/.383/.601 with 16 HR's and 44 RBI's is pretty encouraging. It also doesn't hurt that he plays in a little league field.
Other players worthy of note: Jonathan Broxton, Ian Kinsler, Chase Utley, Roy Halladay Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Verlander who has been pitching well as of late.
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Looks like someone is forgetting about Manny ramirez, who is still around 4th or 4th in voting for the All-Star Game despite only playing a couple of games and then getting suspended for 50. Think about how impressive those games must have been, people!
ReplyDeleteWell I also didnt talk about A-Rod either.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Rangers at one point in time had the best record in baseball is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYeah and Hamilton isn't back yet. The AL west is going to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhat is baseball? Whatever it is, it looks boring.
ReplyDeleteAnother guy to think about is Oakland's Adam Kennedy. He's .372/.443/.593/ 1.036 OPS. RBI's are at 15, but who in Oakland gets on base? So you can't blame the guy for such a low number. Since his game winning home run against the Rangers on Sunday, i've become a fan
ReplyDeleteYeah Kennedy used to play on the Cards, and I really liked him. He hasn't been playing much this year, but hopefully he'll get some more time, which will most likely have those numbers back to normal levels.
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