Baseball Early Season Surprises
Early Season MLB Stats
One month of baseball is in the books and already there have been many surprises. It’s never too early to start separating the winners from the free baseball picks losers, so with 20+ games in the books, here you go:
Surprises
LA Dodgers (16-7) – The Dodgers are one the biggest surprises in baseball entering May. A big reason why has been phenomenal starting pitching, including Clayton Kershaw (5-0 TSR, 1.78 ERA), and Ted Lilly (0.90 ERA). Matt Kemp has been awesome at the plate. Interestingly, LA is 12-2 as a favorite and 4-5 as a dog, which shows the schedule has been fairly easy so far.
Baltimore (14-9) – They are 0-4 vs. the Yankees so far, so take that out and things look even better. There has been great value on this team in the early going as they have been favored in just four games.
NY Mets (13-10) – Everyone had pegged the Metropolitans for last place in the National League East. Shockingly they are only 1.5 games back of another surprise team, Washington. It could be a smokescreen as they 10-2 in games decided by three runs or less, but have eight losses by four runs or greater.
Disappointments
LA Angels (8-15) – The clear and only choice that really needs some sports handicappers juice. While little was expected from the cross-town Dodgers, much was made of the Angels’ off season activity, particularly the free-agent deal that brought Albert Pujols aboard. It’s now May and Pujols has yet to homer. This is by far the biggest money loser in MLB thus far and it doesn’t help that they’ve been favored in nearly every game.
Miami (8-14) – The Marlins are 2-9 on the road, so if they can get that turned around things could be on the uptick.
Philadelphia (11-12) – Just a game under .500, the Phils are money losers because they are favored in nearly every game. Somehow, they have an 0-3 record in Cliff Lee’ starts