Last week we discussed the most disappointing players at each position, this week we’ll go with the most surprising, players who are playing well and above what we thought they might in spring training.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the players listed are no longer playing at that position but that is where they qualified at coming into the season.<\/p>\n
Catcher:\u00c2\u00a0 Alex Avila, Detroit Tigers:\u00c2\u00a0 When the Tigers signed Victor Martinez as a free agent this past off-season some may have thought that would be the end of any significant playing time for Avila, but the Tigers had made it known from day one that VMart would not be playing catcher everyday as defense was not his forte.\u00c2\u00a0 Avila was playing 3-4 times a week since Opening Day but when Martinez was placed on the DL and Avila was given the chance to play every day, that is when he showed his true talents and has forced the Tigers to play him as much as possible.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 JP Arencibia, Toronto Blue Jays;\u00c2\u00a0 Miguel Montero, Arizona Diamondbacks;\u00c2\u00a0 Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers<\/p>\n
First Base: \u00c2\u00a0Lance Berkman, St. Louis Cardinals:\u00c2\u00a0 If someone had told you that Berkman would have 17 home runs the entire season, you might have taken that and run, instead he has 17 HRs, 48 RBIs, and a .313 BA before the All-Star Break.\u00c2\u00a0 Just incredible.\u00c2\u00a0 Where would the Cardinals be without Berkman who has been their most consistent offensive force due to the injuries to Matt Holliday and the slow start of Albert Pujols.\u00c2\u00a0 Still one does have to wonder if playing the outfield everyday during the stifling St. Louis heat in the summer will lead to a downfall in his numbers during the second half.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Adam Lind, Toronto Blue Jays;\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Morse, Washington Nationals<\/p>\n
Second Base:\u00c2\u00a0 Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves:\u00c2\u00a0 Prado was moved to Left Field with the acquisition of Dan Uggla during the off-season, and he hasn’t let the change of position affect his offense.\u00c2\u00a0 Currently though he is on the disabled list (seemingly like every other Brave OF) with a staph infection in his calf, an injury that doesn’t always heal the way a player would like.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Neil Walker, Pittsburgh Pirates;\u00c2\u00a0 Howie Kendrick, Los Angeles Angels<\/p>\n
Third Base:\u00c2\u00a0 Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals:\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not so much his numbers that put Gordon on this list, 7 HR, 37 RBIs, .795 OPS, but that Gordon may finally be realizing some of the potential that many have seen in him.\u00c2\u00a0 He is playing Left Field now and perhaps no longer having to worry about defense as much has allowed his offense to bloom.\u00c2\u00a0 Either way he is well on his way to his best offensive season in the majors, and with all the young players on the Royals, this could be a fun team to watch in the coming seasons.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers<\/p>\n
Shortstop:\u00c2\u00a0 Asdrubal Cabrera, Cleveland Indians:\u00c2\u00a0 Where 3B was sort of void of surprise candidates, shortstop is loaded with them.\u00c2\u00a0 Cabrera gets the nod as he has been mentioned as a possible MVP candidate with the numbers he has been putting up.\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently a conversation with teammate Orlando Cabrera about hitting the ball with more authority in spring training has led to a dramatic increase in his home runs.\u00c2\u00a0 He already has 12 so far this season where he only had 18 in his career coming in to the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Cabrera is quickly becoming one of the elite shortstops in the game.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox;\u00c2\u00a0 Stephen Drew, Arizona Diamondbacks;\u00c2\u00a0 Starlin Castro, Chicago Cubs<\/p>\n
Outfield:\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers;\u00c2\u00a0 Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays;\u00c2\u00a0 Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees:\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Kemp has a terrible season last year with the Dodgers as most team executives believe they didn’t get his best effort game in and game out.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the reasons Don Mattingly got the manager’s job was that he had a good relationship with Kemp and the team thought that Mattingly could get the best out of him.\u00c2\u00a0 How right they were as Kemp may be the leading candidate for MVP in the National League.<\/p>\n
Yeah I know Bautista hit 54 HRs last season, but there were many pundits who thought that was just a mirage and he couldn’t possibly repeat those numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 Repeat, okay, probably not, but 40+ HRs is nothing to sneeze at.\u00c2\u00a0 He has 21 HRs in 60 games so far this season with an OPS of 1.175 and SLG of .686, you’re talking Barry Bonds numbers in his hay day, just off the hook.\u00c2\u00a0 Since changing his stance in September of 2009 he has been a power machine and now the return of Adam Lind should force teams once again to pitch to him.<\/p>\n
Like Bautista Granderson was forced to change his batting stance.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yankees took him out of the lineup last summer to work on the change with hitting coach Kevin Long and he has seen a dramatic improvement in both power numbers and his average against lefties ever since.\u00c2\u00a0 Granderson bats 2nd in what is one of the best lineups in MLB so teams are forced to pitch to him.\u00c2\u00a0 His swing seems tailor made for the short porch in Yankee Stadium, and although it seems unlikely he will hit 45+ HRs I can’t say it’s completely out of the question either.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds;\u00c2\u00a0 Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox;\u00c2\u00a0 Drew Stubbs, Cincinnati Reds;\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Stanton, Florida Marlins<\/p>\n
Starting Pitcher:\u00c2\u00a0 James Shields, Tampa Bay Rays:\u00c2\u00a0 Big game James as he is known as for his propensity to pitch fantastic in big games has figured out how to pitch just as well during the small games as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Shields has four complete games with a 2.60 ERA and a WHIP of 1.051 with 98 strikeouts.\u00c2\u00a0 Outstanding numbers from someone who’s ERA was nearly double that last season.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Jhoulys Chacin, Colorado Rockies;\u00c2\u00a0 Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta Braves;\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Pineda, Seattle Mariners<\/p>\n
Relief Pitcher:\u00c2\u00a0 Francisco Rodriguez, New York Mets:\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you have been living in a cave you know that KRod has a player option next season that calls for a salary of around $16 million if he finishes 55 games or more this season.\u00c2\u00a0 He will almost certainly reach that number as he is having a All-Star season for the Mets so far with 19 saves as of this writing.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is the catch though, the Mets will almost certainly try to deal KRod, and he may end up with a team that has an established closer but is looking for an 8th inning setup man, thus not having to worry about the games finished clause.\u00c2\u00a0 Outside of Carlos Beltran, KRod seems the most likely Met to be dealt before the deadline as they are a team in financial trouble and need to shed as much salary as possible.<\/p>\n
Honorable Mention:\u00c2\u00a0 Drew Storen, Washington Nationals;\u00c2\u00a0 JJ Putz, Arizona Diamondbacks;\u00c2\u00a0 Kyle Farnsworth, Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week we discussed the most disappointing players at each position, this week we’ll go with the most surprising, players who are playing well and above what we thought they might in spring training.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the players listed are no longer playing at that position but that is where they qualified at coming into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13522,9],"tags":[3455,796,14866,2194,471,13419,3709,270,1469,13423,6896,13576,14948,3240,394,5608,2375,403,2141,502,2286,14949,3544,1152],"class_list":["post-14532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clearing-the-bases-fantasy","category-general","tag-adam-lind","tag-albert-pujols","tag-alex-avila","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-clearing-the-bases","tag-dan-uggla","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-entire-season","tag-george-kurtz","tag-honorable-mention","tag-jonathan-lucroy","tag-jp-arencibia","tag-lance-berkman","tag-matt-holliday","tag-michael-morse","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-playing-time","tag-rbis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-true-talents","tag-victor-martinez","tag-washington-nationals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/785"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}