There are now three full weeks in the books of the MLB season and there are players and teams that have started off slow that had high expectations. On the player side there are a lot of big players who are off to a slow start, but for the first time since joining the Los Angeles Angels Albert Pujols has not been one of those guys (Congrats on number 500). Where Pujols has gotten himself off of the snide, there are more big names who have started off slow. Here are the top five most disappointing players through three weeks.
Miguel Cabrera
Cabrera is easily one of the top two hitters in all of baseball, but he is struggling in the first weeks of the season now that Prince Fielder, Cabrera’s primary protection during his two MVP seasons, has been traded away. Cabrera, a career .320 hitter, is batting a miserable .235 with as many strikeouts as he has hits, 16.
Even with his struggles, the team is thriving, so unless you were one of the people with the top two picks in your fantasy draft then you probably haven’t even noticed how bad he’s struggling.
On top of the batting average that is 85 points lower than his career average he only has 10 runs batted in on the season, which is well off of the pace of his 130 plus over the last two seasons. It is hard to believe that Cabrera won’t turn it around, but he does not look like a guy who has earned a $300 million paycheck.
Chris Davis
Davis broke out in a big way in 2013 and set up high expectations for himself in 2014. He batted a career high .286, knocked in a career high 138 runs and he hit a career high 53 home runs, but so far this season he has not lived up to the 2013 hype.
Much like Cabrera, there has been a power outage early on as he has only hit one home run, but unlike Cabrera, his outage comes after Baltimore went out and signed Nelson Cruz to protect him in the lineup. It is hard to tell what the issue is, but there is something off. He has only driven in nine runs so far, and while his current average of .234 is only 31 points off of his career average, its 52 points below last season and would be his lowest since the 2010 season that he only played in 43 games in.
Unlike the Tigers, the struggles of Davis are costing the team wins as they have started out only 9-10 and are in one of the toughest divisions in all of baseball. If the O’s are going to return to the playoffs in 2014, Davis is going to have to turn it around, and fast.
Starling Marte
32 strikeouts in 21 games is a lot for a big time slugger who swings for the fences in every at bat. 32 strikeouts in 21 games is horrible when you’re the leadoff hitter on a team trying to get back to the playoffs. This is the issue with Marte this season so far.
He is still doing what you hope your leadoff hitter to do, get on base consistently, with an on base percentage of .323, but it is hard to believe he can keep that up if he continues this pace of 246 strikeouts on the season. That’s a huge jump in strikeouts after only striking out only 138 times in 2013 (a projection of 165 if he had played a full 162).
It is hard to say the Pirates are struggling because of Marte because there are multiple guys struggling on offense, but it is hard to get started when your leadoff guy is striking out so much.
Clay Buchholz
It was a season to remember for Buchholz in 2013. His team won the World Series, and although he dealt with injuries, he had a remarkable season. He finished the season with a 12-1 record in 16 starts with a remarkable 1.74 earned run average.
2014 has not been as kind. In four starts so far this season Buchholz is averaging just under five innings a game and has an earned run average of 7.71. In these four starts he has already given up the same amount of home runs he allowed in all of 2013, four, and is only four runs away from doing the same in that category. The Red Sox are going to need Buchholz to turn this around if they are going to make another run at a title because the AL East was already tough, and now the Yankees and the Blue Jays are looking like they can compete.
Arizona Diamondbacks Entire Starting Rotation
Not one pitcher, but an entire pitching staff. You knew this team was going to have a hard time when the breakout ace of the staff, Patrick Corbin, had to have Tommy John surgery, but this is a team full of veterans that should’ve been able to hold it down.
The problem is, though, they have not been able to hold it down at all. Veterans Brandon McCarthy, Trevor Cahill and Bronson Arroyo have been tasked with holding down the rotations, but they have started in 13 games between the three of them and have a combined record of 1-10 and earned runs averages of 6.23, 7.48 and 9.50.
That’s not winning baseball, which explains why the Diamondbacks are the worst team in baseball after 23 games, but they are not alone in the rotation. They have had three people start in the fifth spot in the rotation, none of them worked very well either, and then there is the one guy who hasn’t been horrible, Wade Miley.
He is currently 2-2 with an earned run average of 4.35, good enough to be a solid back of the rotation starter, but that’s not good when that’s the best starter in your rotation. These guys need to turn it around, not just one of them, or this is going to be a long season in Arizona.