Two Months of Surprises And Disappointments 2013 MLB

Two Months of Surprises And Disappointments by Joe Brackets

For starters, the Marlins and Astros are both really bad.  We could be looking at historically bad here.  I’m not even sure which team is worse.  It’s not like it’s a surprise with either, but I think we all underestimated how painful it is to watch them play.  Houston’s manager doesn’t even know the rules!

That brings me to another team whose start hasn’t been the greatest…the umpires.  The Astros’ illegal pitching change was just the tip of the iceberg.  Even with replay, they managed to botch a home run call in Cleveland.  Oakland’s go-ahead homer was ruled a double on the field.  The umpires looked at the replay, showing that the ball was clearly well over the fence, but didn’t change the call.  Completely inexcusable.

The Astros’ opponent in that game with the pitching change that wasn’t was the Angels, who sit in third place on the list of Most Disappointing Teams of 2013.  The Angels were one of the most disappointing teams in baseball last season, then added Josh Hamilton.  You figured with him coming on board and a full season of Mike Trout, the Angels would be much improved in 2013.  Wrong!  Other than Jered Weaver, their starting pitching’s a mess, Hamilton’s having a terrible year, and the Angels find themselves in third place.

But that’s nothing compared to their City of Angels brethren.  The high-priced Dodgers were a chic World Series pick at the start of the year.  They had eight! starting pitchers on Opening Day, and their lineup, on paper at least, is one of the deepest in the game.  Yet they’re a mess.  Sure they’ve had injuries, but talent-wise, this is not a last-place team.  Far from it.  Don Mattingly has been given a vote of confidence, but common sense has to dictate that he’s on the hot seat.

There’s one team that’s been a bigger disappointment than the Dodgers, though…the Toronto Blue Jays.  All of us who jumped on the Blue Jays bandwagon after that monster trade with the Marlins in the offseason should’ve known better.  These are the same players that finished last in Miami last season.  Yet we all bought into the hype and thought the Blue Jays were ready to be contenders in the AL East.  Not so much.  Jose Reyes is on the DL, R.A. Dickey has crashed back down to Earth in the way most people thought he would, the old Mark Buerhle was left in Chicago, and Toronto’s two best players are still Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.  J.P. Arencibia has been a nice surprise, but as a whole, the Blue Jays rank as baseball’s biggest disappointment of the year so far.

One of the reasons so many people thought this was Toronto’s chance is because those same people thought it would be a down year for the Yankees and Red Sox.  Yeah, about that…  If it’s possible for the two traditional AL East powers to be pleasant surprises, that’s certainly the case this season.  The Red Sox were supposedly rebuilding after finishing last in 2012.  Then former pitching coach John Farrell returned as manager and the Red Sox of old were back.  They look just as formidable as ever.

Injuries.  That was supposed to be what held the Yankees back this season.  They’ve got an All-Star team on the DL, and guys continued dropping like flies even after they came back.  Yet they’ve gotten contributions from unlikely players like Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay and Travis Hafner, veteran castoffs that nobody wanted, and now have a different problem…trying to find a way to keep these guys in the lineup when everybody else comes back (Overbay played right field tonight).  The common thought was that if the Yankees were .500 at the All-Star Break, they’d be in good position.  They might be even better than that.  I think Mariano Rivera’s name is already on the award for Comeback Player of Year, and Joe Girardi’s Manager of the Year selection seems like it’s just as much of a slam dunk.

Another surprise AL contender has a Red Sox connection of its own.  Terry Francona is now managing the Indians.  I don’t want to give him all the credit, but it’s safe to say he’s a big reason why Cleveland is right there with the Tigers in the AL Central.  There’s a lot of talent in Cleveland, and we all know Terry Francona can manage.  This is the combination of a good team and a good manager coming together.  I’m not sure they’re still around in September, but in 2014 and 2015?  Definitely.

Finally, over in the National League is the biggest surprise team of them all.  As crazy as it sounds for a team that won the World Series two years ago and went back to the NLCS last season, I’ve been stunned by the success of the St. Louis Cardinals this season.  No matter what, they always seem to do it.  Chris Carpenter out for the year, whole new cast of characters, best record in the Majors.  It’s truly a testament to the entire organization.  What the Cardinals are doing is working.

I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the most surprising (good and bad) players of the season.  Suffice it to say, pitching is a major theme in that discussion.