The Two Biggest Surprises Of The MLB Season (One Month In)

We are about one month into the MLB season and we have already seen an abundance of surprises.  Predictions have been proven wrong, expectations have been dashed and some fans have been pleasantly surprised by their team’s performance. Here are some of the biggest surprises we have seen this season.

The Non-Contenders

One of the biggest surprises thus far has got to be the teams that looked gold in the preseason but now look like a lump of coal. Teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners come to mine as examples of teams who are already struggling.

The biggest poster child, though, for clubs that are supposed to be good but aren’t this season is the Tampa Bay Rays.

Tampa Bay has always built around its pitching staff and seemed to have every intention of doing the same this season. Alex Cobb, Jeremy Hellickson and Matt Moore are now all sidelined, but no worries, the Rays still have one of the best circles in the MLB right?  Wrong.

Not only did the Rays take a big hit due to injuries but their other pitchers are simply pitching poorly.  Jake Odrizzi, who the Rays went out of their to pick up with a trace, is posting a 6.52 ERA since heading to Tampa Bay.  Their veteran pitchers are doing even worse.  Erik Bedard has a 9.39 ERA.

Cobb and Hellickson will return from injury (Moore is out for the season), but will the Rays be able to catch up in the AL East by that time?

The Contender

If the second biggest story of the season so far is who is not contending, then the biggest story is who the contender is.  Particularly, there is a team that has developed into a juggernaut over the offseason.

Not only does this team tower over it division rivals in the standings but they have the best win-loss record in the entire MLB with 18 wins and seven losses.  I am of course talking about the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers have taking the MLB by storm.  Last week they beat the Padres and the Cubs, which is no biggie, but great teams in the MLB can beat top contending teams and teams that they should beat.

They overcame injury this past week and their rotation looked great.

Granted there is still a lot of baseball left and anything can happen.