Some teams’ starts surprise fans, effectiveness of big off-season moves too early to tell

By David Nasongkhla, Commentary Co-Editor

The baseball season is finally under way, and with it comes a lot of early surprises. All the off-season trades and acquisitions garnered a lot of buzz and placed teams in first place from even before the start of the season.

However, that’s not the case.

The most talked about off-season move was the Detroit Tigers acquiring slugger Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis for basically nothing in return from the Florida Marlins. Cabrera joins a lineup that is already stacked from top to bottom with hitters like Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield, Ivan Rodriguez and Carlos Guillen. Although Detroit would seem to have such a potent offense, they clearly didn’t live up to expectations as the Tigers started the season at 0-7 and currently sit in fourth place in the American League central with a 9-13 record.

Ironically, the Marlins, who gave up their best hitter in Cabrera, are off to a hot start and are currently in first place with a 13-8 record in the National League East.

“I did not expect that at all. Detroit has arguably the best lineup in baseball and for them to get off to such a horrendous start is hilarious,” said baseball fan Jay Eaton, a junior and die-hard Toronto Blue Jays fan.

The other huge move made in baseball during the off-season was the trade of the best lefty pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana. The Minnesota Twins traded the all-star to the New York Mets for rookie prospect Carlos Gomez. Mets fans expected their pitching staff to be stellar with the addition of Santana to a staff that includes veterans Pedro Martinez and Oliver Perez and the young John Maine. The Mets however lost Martinez in his first start with a hamstring injury and currently rank second in the National League East with an 11-9 record.

“Almost every team made a move to get better, but of course, my team traded their best pitcher,” said junior Brad Eyler on the hometown Baltimore Orioles, “but it’s not too bad, for a while there we were the best team in baseball, and now we’re in second and ahead of the Yankees, so I guess it’s ok,” added Eyler. The Orioles started the year with a 6-1 record.

The teams fans expected to start hot haven’t. The Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves are playing .500 ball right now, as is almost the rest of the Major League. Only two teams have really taken off and those are the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs, who share the major’s best record at 15-6.

Of course this wouldn’t be a baseball article without talking about the defending World Series champions the Boston Red Sox, who are in first place in their division with a 15-8 record and look to be in pretty good shape in trying to defend their title.

“It’s going to be a very interesting summer if everything goes the way they are going,” said junior Ryan Barnett. “The baseball season is so long that surprises can happen at any time. I can’t wait.”

Barnett is absolutely right. There are 140 games left in the season, and anything can happen.