MLB: Surprise and Disappointment

[Big Sexy]

Basically it's what the title says. Who has been the biggest surprise and who has been the biggest disappointment this MLB season?

Surprise- This is an easy one. The Arizona Diamondbacks were one of the worst teams in baseball last year. This year with the season not even over they have improved by 35 games and have clinched the NL West. The roster hasn't changed much but Kirk Gibson has shown to be just as good a manager as he was a player.

Disappointment- I gotta go with the Twins. I know they ave had tons of injuries but they had a lot of injuries last year as well and they still won the AL Central. They went from division winner to second worst record in all of baseball. Even with all the injuries, and there were a ton, they didn't perform this year.

 

[Davi323]

Surprise: Justin Verlander. Yeah, we all knew he was already an ace pitcher. Well, Tigers fans did, others might not have caught on to that... But a potential 25 game winner? With a 12 game win streak going on, AND leading almost all of the important pitching stats as well? I don't think even Tigers fans could have imagined Verlander being this insanely dominant.

Disappointment: No question, the Minnesota Twins. Before the season began, I fully expected the Tigers to be fighting the Twins tooth and nail for the AL Central, just like the past few years. Twins were supposed to be a pretty good team, not a last place team. What the fuck happened?

 

[The Brain]

Big Sexy, I agree with both your choices but just for the sake of variety in the thread I’ll throw out two more teams.

Surprise: You’re right that the Arizona Diamondbacks is the easy answer here. In fact it’s not even close, but like I said I’ll throw another team out there for discussion. The Cleveland Indians. I know they’re below .500 and 12 games out of first but I figured they would be dead last in the American League. Mediocre is more than I expected from them.

Disappointment: There have been a lot of disappointing teams this year. Unfortunately there are a lot more disappointments than pleasant surprises. The Twins are probably the biggest disappointment but I’d say the Cincinnati Reds have been a big disappointment too. With their division win last year I thought they took the first step to being one of the top teams in the National League. They have more talent than their record indicates. I didn’t think they would repeat but I thought they would come close. 15 games back is not what I had in mind for them.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Excellent choices already suggested, here are a couple more to consider:

Surprise: Milwaukee Brewers. Sure, they have been a pretty good team for the last couple of seasons, but did anyone expect them to be as good as they have been? The St. Louis Cardinals are perennially strong in the NL Central. The Reds were good last year. Personally, I never expected to see the Brewers win this division. Wildcard, maybe, but not a comfortable divisional victory with as good a record as they have.

Disappointment: San Francisco Giants. It's always disappointing when the defending World Series champions don't even make the playoffs and have a chance to actually defend their title. Granted they finished strong, but it will almost definitely be too little too late. A decent record and not a disaster by any means, but a disappointment nonetheless.

 

[Born To Fly]

Surprise: Just like someone said earlier, the Milwaukee Brewers. Who could have thought that group of players could pull together to lead the division this late in the season? Milwaukee has some talented hitters (Braun, Fielder, Morgan) with some good pitching (Gallardo, Marcum). I could see them advancing to the NLCS given a good match-up.

Disappointment: The San Francisco Giants whenever Tim Lincecum pitches. Lincecum deserves run support. With the way he's pitched, he doesn't need much of it, but the Giants need to do him better. I'd venture to say his run support is the worst in the NL and his record shows. He should easily have 16 wins right now or so, if not more.

 

[The Brain]

I want to throw one more team out there for biggest disappointment because I think I may be the only one disappointed in them. The Baltimore Orioles. Most people probably don’t find them disappointing as they have been a last place team for a number of years now. Being in the very difficult AL East I didn’t expect much of a jump in the standings but I though they were going to show significant improvement in their record. Instead here we are in September and they find themselves in the familiar position of 30 games back with 90 losses. I thought Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and Matt Weiters would be ready to step up as the new core of the team. Veteran additions like Derek Lee, Vladimir Guerrero, and Mark Reynolds seemed like a good fit for these younger guys. The biggest disappointment has to be Brian Matusz. I really thought he could be a star pitcher. So far he has been a disaster. I’m not ready to write him off yet and will be curious to see if he can bounce back, but my expectations for the O’s next year will probably fall in line with everyone else’s as a last place team.

 

[Megatron]

Surprise - Matt Kemp. We knew how much talent this kid had after the season he had two years ago, but last year he regressed quite a bit and it appeared he didn't even care anymore. This year, though, he's in the triple crown hunt on a team thats in a distant 3rd in their division. Without him and Kershaw the Dodgers would be in Astros territory.

Disappointment - Adam Dunn/White Sox. This team went all out this free agency and got what appeared to be the biggest bat with Dunn. However, the shift to the AL and DH has clearly screwed up with his psyche as he was on pace to have the worst batting average in a season until Ozzie reduced his AB's. These guys were supposed to contend, but instead are well out of first place with only 5 games left.

 

[Stormtrooper]

I see that some people have gone with individual players with this thread. I don't know if that was the original intention, but I'm going to go with that right now, and maybe do a post about teams later.

Biggest surprise for me is easy.

In the offseason, many free agents are signed to a team for Spring Training as Non-Roster invitees. The majority of these players are either minor league veterans who weren't re-signed, or veteran Major Leaguers whom aren't deemed good enough to warrant a guaranteed roster spot. Every team brings these players in, and for a lot of them, they don't break camp with the big club, and are either released, or settle for playing in the Minors.

The man I am talking about are the latter type of Non-Roster invitees. In his limited appearances in the Big Leagues since 2005, he has been nothing short of crap (5.18 ERA in 157 innings during the 4 years, one of which he was completely out of baseball). This man during his heydey was a excellent pitcher, who in fact won the 2005 AL Cy Young Award. That man, is BARTOLO COLON.

When Bartolo Colon signed as a Non-Roster invitee to Spring Training, the general consensus was that he was just getting a look, and would not last that long. He didn't have a very strong pre-season, but the Yankees saw enough to decide to keep him. And boy did he pay off in a big way. The portly right hander on the season has an ERA at 4.02 (for the Yankees, this is perfectly acceptable). He has pitched more inning this year (159) then he did during his 5 seasons of irrelevance (157); in fact, this season is the first time since 2005 that he has even pitched in the big leagues in the month of August. And for the first half of the season, he was pretty close to dominant. In 16 starts (April 20-July 30), he was 8-5 with a 3.23 ERA.

Nobody thought anything of Bartolo Colon signing with the Yankees. What he gave them was so much more then anyone could have thought, and for that he's my biggest surprise of the season. I'd say he's all but guaranteed to lock up the comeback player of the year award.


I'll come back later to do my biggest disappointment as a player, and then I'll do my biggest surprise/disappointment teams.

 

[maryamchaudhary]

Well your both points are very strong and i am totally agree with you and this is also surprise and wonderful news for me and i appreciate your sharing and telling us about it so thanks a lot
world cup

 

[Jessie Lynn DivaGirl]

SURPRISE- My Buccos! Omg, how has no one said them yet?? They kicked off this season so awesomely, the Miz couldn't compete! For the first time I didn't have to go to school wondering what Pirate jokes were going to get thrown at me; I was winning the arguments on them instead!! Their pitching kicked up, their bats exploded, and their new manager actually made people turn their heads!! I know, I'm not doing any statics but I think just by looking at their record for the first half of the season that people were blown away by the Buccos. For the first time people weren't groaning about them. This was a dream come true.

Which is why they also qualify for the DISAPPOINTMENT.

3 words; 19 INNING GAME. I do not care what anyone says, that killed us. The Pirates had so much promise and then
D
O
W
N

W
E

W
E
N
T

Until....

P
O
W!!!!!!
And we never recovered.

Let's try this again next year

 

[BooCocky]

Ah man, growing up a Pirates fan I've never witnessed winning and this year they showed me a little something. Their pitching was a huge surprise. Hanrahan was the best closer in baseball for months, Morton was dominant at times, and so was Karstens. Morton was a headcase the previous year but in 2011 he showed signs of being a quality starter. His ERA did skyrocket a little bit but he had one rough month. Then he went on to pitch like 25 scoreless inning and his era lowered. Everyone in the Major Leagues questioned Karstens durability, but he showed them by starting 26 games, and pitching 162 innings. For months he had one of the lowest era's in baseball and he finished with a respectable 3.38.

Biggest disappointment goes to the Boston Red Sox. Shit, they had a huge lead going into the last month of the season and they blew it. They spent a lot of money on Crawford and he sucked. The Red Sox crashed when everyone thought they were world series favorites heading into the last month or two of the season. That alone makes them the most disappointing team in all of baseball...

 

[Darkshot77]

Biggest Suprise: THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS!!! No one thought that 8 games back of the Braves that they would make it to the playoffs, Let alone beat the Phillies, let alone beat the Brewers, Let alone go the WORLD FREAKING SERIES. Everybody on the Redbirds squad has pulled their weight for the Cardinals to do what they have done. It is a huge surprise.

Biggest Disappointment: Like it has been said the Boston Red Sox. What happened to the 2004 and 2007 teams where their unity pulled them through? With veteran injuries, and discord in the club house, Boston had become what they hated, the Evil Empire, the New York Yankees. The payed some players too much and hoped it would take them to the playoffs. In the moth of July them went 20-6 in September went 7-20. That is why they are a Huge disappointment.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Surprise: Cardinals. They're so damn old and their pen sucked a dick most of the year. They get hot at the right time and Atlanta falls apart. The Red Sox too, although I didn't think they'd be a 100 win juggernaut like ESPN (lost players and gained an aging speed guy and yet another bat but still an old team), I thought they'd make the playoffs. I though the rays would compete considering their farm can pretty much replicate what they lose every year.

disappointment: Atlanta braves. Again, big injuries in september kill them. Losing Jurrjens and Hanson made them rely on old ass worthless Lowe and their overworked (and amazing) bullpen.

Can't say I was too surprised with the DBacks. They play in a bad division and had a talented young offensive core. They fixed their bullpen which means their starters pitch with more confidence. In a winnable division, that can be a huge difference maker.

Can't say I was surprised with the Twins either. Really top heavy team that relied on everytihng going perfect in 2010. Injuries kill that real fast and in a division as winnable as the Central, someone else always swoops in.