The 2013 season is well underway and so far this season has been full of surprises. As the most recent cover of Sports Illustrated shows Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey has been one huge surprise. The record of the Angels and Dodgers after they spent a ton of money in the offseason is another surprise. There are far bigger statistical surprises after one quarter of the MLB season is now officially in the books.
It is not a huge surprise to most people that Yu Darvish has been the brightest spot in the Rangers pitching rotation. Some might call the fact that he was the first pitcher to flirt with a perfect game on the season, but what is really surprising is how silly he is making opposing batters look as they swing and miss. After eight starts and 52.2 innings pitched Darvish leads the league with 80 strikeouts. His 80 are eight more than the next closest player, A.J. Burnett, who has also started one more game than Darvish. If that’s not enough, Darvish is ahead of last season's runner up, Max Scherzer by 12 strikeouts. The most surprising of all is that Darvish is currently on pace to throw 293 strikeouts if he matches last seasons 191 innings pitched. That puts him close to the 300 strikeout benchmark that hasn’t been hit since 2002 by Randy Johnson and could be the first time anyone has hit 290 since Johnson in 2004.
Another Japanese pitcher has been just as surprising as Darvish this season, if not more surprising. Hisashi Iwakuma has been a different pitcher since the Mariners moved him from the bullpen to the rotation after the All Star break last year, and this year he has been so good his is nearly matching Felix Hernandez start for start. Iwakuma is 5-1 in nine starts with a 1.84 ERA with 55 strikeouts and opponents are only batting .183. He has been one of the biggest reasons why the Mariners are now sitting in second in the AL West. What is the most surprising though is that no one seemed to see this coming. If you look at the 16 starts Iwakuma made last season he had a similar stat line. If he continues the way he has pitched in his first 24 starts there will be two pitchers in Seattle fighting for the Cy Young down the stretch this year, and the M’s will make a bid for their first playoff experience since the team won 116 games in 2001.
The two biggest trades at the trade deadline last year involved the teams in Los Angeles. The trade that is having a surprising impact on the 2013 season is the one the Angels made to aquire Zack Greinke. In this trade the Angels gave up a prospect by the name of Jean Segura, maybe you’ve heard of him? He is starting at shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers this season and the way he is playing has to make Angels fans sick now that Greinke has walked away as a free agent while Segura has been amazing for the Brewers. After just over a quarter of the season Segura leads all SS in Batting Average, Stolen Bases, Hits, and is tied for third in Runs. The Brewers may not be charging for the playoffs this season, but Segura is possibly one of the biggest surprises of the year and very well could be playing in the All Star game in his first full season in the MLB.
Another young player in his first full season at the big leagues is surprising everyone for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Patrick Corbin has been one of the best pitchers on the young season. After eight starts Corbin is 6-0 with an amazing 1.52 ERA in 53.1 innings. Usually a team wants a young pitcher like this to just pitch well enough for the team to win, but Corbin has been so good that in his two no decisions he pitched seven plus innings, struck out seven and gave up three total runs. Corbin has been so good early in the season that his ERA has been under two since his first game of the season, where he had an ERA of an even three. What makes this even more impressive, he is by far the best pitcher currently on this staff that includes Ian Kennedy, Brandon McCarthy and Trevor Cahill. The Diamondbacks took a lot of slack in the offseason for letting Trevor Bauer go in a trade, but with Corbin pitching like this, it sure doesn’t look so bad.
The most surprising of the season has to be Tampa Bay Rays first baseman James Loney. Loney was given up on by the Dodgers and was traded to the Red Sox in the blockbuster trade last season. At the end of the season Loney was an afterthought for the Red Sox as they went out and signed Mike Napoli and Tampa picked Loney up for a measly $2 million. All he has done for the Rays is give them a consistent bat from the first base position and, you know, leading the league in batting average. Yes, Loney, who has not hit above .300 since his second stint in the MLB back in 2007 is leading the league with a .379 batting average. It is quite possibly the most surprising thing you’ll see this season, not just because no one expected it, but because two of the four people in the top five behind him have won the batting title before in Joe Mauer and Miguel Cabrera. If Loney can keep this up, not only would it be a surprise, it would be an amazing turnaround in the middle of his career.