MLB 2012: Month One Studs and Duds

With April 2012 in the books, let’s take a look at the month’s early risers and those yet to wake …

In the American League, Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Texas lead their respective divisions into May. While in the NL, Washington, St. Louis and LA lead the way.

Nationals SP Gio Gonzalez

Any shockers? Cleveland (13-10) having an early edge over Detroit and Chicago – 12-12 and 12-13, respectively – in the AL Central is a little unexpected where division leaders are concerned. The Nationals leading the NL East and Dodgers leading the NL West are not huge surprises; but the teams’ records might be – Washington at 16-9, L.A. at 17-9.

Then there are the 16-9 Orioles and 15-11 Blue Jays. However, I don’t think the talent-packed Yankees (13-12), Red Sox (11-13) and Tigers have reason to be quaking in their boots just yet.

However, on the losing end of the ledger the two biggest off-season spenders have some early issues of concern.

The new-look, new-name Miami Marlins opened its new ballpark with a 4-1 loss to St. Louis, a game in which its prized pitcher (Josh Johnson) was tagged for 10 hits and two walks in six innings.

Marlins SP Josh Johnson

Four weeks later, Johnson has yet to find his rhythm (0-3, 5.34 ERA, 1.74 WHIP) and highly compensated newbies Jose Reyes (.226 BA, 8 Rs) and Heath Bell (three blown saves, 11.74 ERA) have disappointed as well, as the Marlins toted a 8-14 record into May.

While Miami has its issues, the Fish are just six games back from the NL East-leading Nationals. In the AL, a team in even dire straights is the Los Angeles Angels. The Halos entered its second month of play with a 7-15 record, nine games behind the West-leading Rangers.

Adding super slugger Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson – the ace pitcher of LA’s top rival – has not exactly added up to a lot of Angels wins yet.

Wilson, who improved to 3-2 with a 2.70 ERA after defeating Minnesota on Monday night, has done his part.

Los Angeles Angels 1B Albert Pujols

Pujols, however, that’s a different story. Following yesterday’s game against the Blue Jays, The ex-St. Louis super slugger is batting a baffling .202 with a mere 5 RBI (in 104 at-bats).

It’s so early, though. With 140 games of a 162-game slate remaining for most teams, there’s plenty of time for teams to steer their ships around.

In fact, these first few days of May have already indicated a return of normalcy, as Miami swept the Giants in San Francisco to improve to 11-14 and an Angels’ sweep of the Twins raised its record to 10-15.

As opposed to April, May presents a full month of games (approximately five or six more than April). Combined with the season gaining another month of steam, come June 1 we can conclude a better assessment.

That doesn’t make it any less interesting to take a look at some of the early surprises and disasters.

We’ve gone over some of the teams. How about the individuals?

Target No. 1, undoubtedly, is Albert Pujols.

What has gone wrong with the Sultan of St. Louis?

Pujols, with the Cardinals

And don’t give me his adjustment to the American League as an excuse!

No, there’s something definitely wrong with Pujols. You don’t see the other ex-NL Prince who switched leagues – ex-Brewers star Prince Fielder – struggling at the place. Playing for the Detroit Tigers now, Fielder’s home runs are down (4 through 89 at-bats), but he is batting .281 with 14 Rs and 12 RBI.

Tigers 1B Prince Fielder

Pujols, the greatest baseball player of the past decade, has yet to hit his first Angels home run and picked up only his 5th RBI of the season Tuesday night on a groundout against the Twins. Through his 11-year career with the Cardinals, Prince Albert averaged 40.5 home runs and 121.3 RBI per season.

Other hitters in unexpected early slumps include:

Jose Bautista (OF/3B) Toronto Blue Jays
.172 BA, 4 HRs, 12 RBI

Robinson Cano (2B) New York Yankees
1 HR, 4 RBI

Jose Reyes (SS) Miami
.226 BA, 8 Rs

Adrian Gonzalez (1B) Boston Red Sox
.250 BA, 2 HRs

Mark Teixeira (1B) N.Y. Yankees
.227 BA, 3 HRs, .371 SLG

Ryan Zimmerman (3B) Washington
.224 BA, 1 HR, 7 RBI

Nelson Cruz (OF) Texas
.224 BA, 2 HRs, .347 SLG

Conversely, some of this year’s early hitting sensations include:

Blue Jays DH Edwin Encarnacion

Edwin Encarnacion (DH) Toronto
.307 BA, 9 HRs, 25 RBI

Mike Aviles (SS) Boston
5 HRs, 19 Rs, 19 RBI

Bryan Lahair (1B, Chicago Cubs)
.388 BA, 7 HRs, 16 RBI

Ryan Sweeney (OF, Boston)
.361 BA, 12 2Bs, .556 SLG

Omar Infante (INF, Miami)
5 HRs in 75 ABs (hit 7 in 579 ABs last season)

Jordan Schaefer (OF, Houston Astros)
17 Rs, 9 SBs

Jose Altuve (2B, Houston)
.358 BA, 16 Rs

On the mound, not too many aces are struggling miserably. A few of them are, however, along with a slew of with second-tier starters and closers.

Twins SP Francisco Liriano

Indians SP Ubaldo Jimenez

Tim Lincecum (SP) San Francisco Giants
2-2, 5.74 ERA, 1.57 WHIP

Yovanni Gallardo (SP) Milwaukee Brewers
1-3, 5.79 ERA, 1.65 WHIP

Jon Lester (SP) Boston
1-2, 4.65 ERA, 1.35 WHIP

Mat Latos (SP) Cincinnati Reds
1-2, 5.97 ERA, 1.57 WHIP

Adam Wainwright (SP) St. Louis
1-3, 6.75 ERA, 1.31 WHIP

Josh Johnson (SP) Miami
0-3, 5.34 ERA, 1.74 WHIP

Ubaldo Hernandez (SP) Cleveland
2-2, 5.02 ERA, 1.74 WHIP

Ervin Santana (SP) L.A. Angels
0-5, 6.16 ERA, 1.50 WHIP

Max Scherzer (SP) Detroit Tigers
1-3, 7.77 ERA, 2.05 WHIP

Justin Masterson (SP) Cleveland
1-2, 5.20 ERA, 1.51 WHIP

Francisco Liriano (SP) Minnesota Twins
0-4, 9.97 ERA, 2.22 WHIP

Heath Bell (CL) Miami
0-3, 11.74 ERA, 2.74 WHIP

J.J. Putz (CL) Arizona Diamondbacks
0-2, 6.48 ERA

Jose Valverde (CL) Detroit
5.59 ERA, 1.86 WHIP

Jordan Walden (CL) L.A. Angels
6.75 ERA, 2.06 WHIP

Sergio Santos (CL) Toronto
9.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP

Carlos Marmol (CL) Chicago Cubs
6.23 ERA, 2.31 WHIP

Conversely, many average veterans or unproven pitchers have blossomed early.

Chicago Cubs SP Ryan Dempster

Kyle Lohse (SP) St. Louis
4-0, 1.62 ERA, 0.84 WHIP

Joe Saunders (SP) Arizona Diamondbacks
2-1, 1.23 ERA, 0.96 WHIP

Jake Westbrook (SP) St. Louis
3-2, 2.12 ERA

Jason Hammel (SP) Baltimore Orioles
3-1, 1.97 ERA, 1.03 WHIP

Brandon Morrow (SP) Toronto
3-1, 2.38 ERA, 0.91 WHIP

Gio Gonzalez (SP) Washington
2-1, 1.82 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 34 Ks

Ted Lilly (SP) L.A. Dodgers
3-0, 1.38 ERA, 0.85 WHIP

Jason Vargas (SP) Seattle Mariners
3-2, 3.38 ERA, 1.04 WHIP

Joe Blanton (SP) Philadelphia Phillies
3-3, 2.83 ERA, 1.06 WHIP 

*Ryan Dempster (SP) Chicago Cubs
0-1, 0.95 ERA, 0.81 WHIP

Lance Lynn (SP) St. Louis
5-0, 1.60 ERA, 0.77 WHIP

Chris Sale (SP) Chicago White Sox
3-1, 2.81 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

Ross Detwiler (SP) Washington
3-1, 1.59 ERA, 0.99 WHIP

Wade Miley (SP) Arizona
3-0, 1.29 ERA, 0.81 WHIP

Anthony Bass (SP) San Diego Padres
27.1 IP, 2.30 ERA, 1.02 WHIP

Kyle Drabek (SP) Toronto
2-2, 2.40 ERA, 1.27 WHIP

Drew Smyly (SP) Detroit
1-0, 1.23 ERA, 1.18 WHIP

Tommy Milone (SP) Oakland Athletics
3-2, 3.69 ERA, 1.01 WHIP

Jim Johnson (CL) Baltimore
6 SVs, 0.00 ERA

Fernando Rodney (CL) Tampa Bay
9 SVs, 0.73 ERA

Henry Rodriguez (CL) Washington
6 SVs, 1.64 ERA

*Dempster’s winless despite having a MLB-best 0.95 ERA

Some notable mentions of successful veterans who’ve struggled in recent years but are having “throwback” or “comeback” years thus far this season include:

White Sox SP Jake Peavy

Bartolo Colon (SP) Oakland Athletics
3-2, 42.2 IP, 2.53 ERA, 0.94 WHIP

Jake Peavy (SP) Chicago White Sox
3-1, 37.2 IP, 1.67 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 2 CGs

Barry Zito (SP) San Francisco
1-0, 30.2 IP, 1.76 ERA, 1.11 ERA

Beyond the unexpected, I’d be remiss to not mention the proven studs that have absolutely dominated throughout the first month and change. It all starts with bona fide triple-crown candidates Matt Kemp and Josh Hamilton.

Los Angeles Dodgers CF Matt Kemp

HITTERS

Kemp (OF, L.A. Dodgers)
.411 BA, .856 SLG, 12 HRs, 25 RBI, 27 Rs

Hamilton (OF, Texas)
.395 BA, .744 SLG, 9 HRs, 25 RBI

Carlos Gonzalez (OF, Colorado Rockies)
.310 BA, 7 HRs, 23 RBI

David Ortiz (DH, Boston)
.391 BA, 6 HRs, 21 RBI

Carlos Beltran (OF, St. Louis)
7 HRs, 18 RBI, 20 Rs, 5 SBs

David Wright (3B, New York Mets)
.392 BA, .495 OBP, 3 HRs, 14 RBI

Derek Jeter (SS, New York Yankees)
.404 BA, 18 Rs

*David Freese (3B, St. Louis)
.329, 6 HRs, 24 RBI

*Freese could fall in either category – unexpected or proven studs. The Cards 3B has taken his outstanding 2011 postseason play and continued it into the early going of this season.

Angels SP Jered Weaver, after his May 2 no-hitter vs. Minnesota

PITCHERS

Jered Weaver (SP) L.A. Angels
4-0, 1.61 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 2 CGs (including one no-hitter), 45 Ks

Justin Verlander (SP) Detroit
2-1, 2.38 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 42 Ks

Matt Cain (SP) San Francisco
1-2, 2.35 ERA, 0.68 WHIP

Felix Hernandez (SP) Seattle
2-1, 2.23 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 42 Ks

Wandy Rodriguez (SP) Houston
3-2, 1.64 ERA, 1.10 WHIP

Jonny Cueto (SP) Cincinnati
3-0, 1.39 ERA, 1.05 WHIP

*Stephen Strasburg (SP) Washington
2-0, 1.12 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 34 Ks

*Strasburg, like Freese, could probably qualify for unproven as well, considering he missed the majority of last season and made just 12 starts in 2010.

Again, please note these are some examples. None of these lists are extensive or all-inclusive.

So that’s a look at Month One in the 2012 MLB season. It will be interesting to see if Pujols still trails Omar Infante in home runs, Dempster's still winless with a razor-sharp ERA and Jason Hammel's Orioles' lead the AL East at the end of Month Two.

I hope everyone’s enjoying the season! I know I am! Well, outside of the crumbling disaster known as the Minnesota Twins that is.