Week one wonders

Week one of the 2010 Major League Baseball season is over and there certainly were several surprises. It took till the end of the week for the only undefeated team to lose while Houston remains the only win-less team. Braves rookie Jason Heyward has had a great start, hitting 3 homers in the first week, but he is no surprise. There were seven days in the first week so I will give you seven of the weeks top surprises:

7. Martin Prado. Last year Ben Zobrist emerged as the super utility man and a huge surprise for Tampa Bay, but this year it could be Martin Prado. Prado who can play almost every position in the infield much like Zobrist, leads the MLB in BA after seven days with a .519 AVG.

6. Vladimir Guerrero. Guerrero, many thought would serve as a part time DH/RF for Texas this year, but his strong spring has carried into a great first week in which he hit for an A.L leading .464 with 1 homer and 3 runs batted in.

5. The Oakland Athletics. The A's were pick by many to finish toward the bottom of the strong and even A.L west, but through the first week of the season they were 4-2 and lost only once each to division rivals Seattle and Anaheim. Strong pitching and timely hitting has carried Oakland through the first week so it will be interesting to see what of those two holds up.

4. Nelson Cruz. A breakout star last season when he hit 33 home runs and stole 20 bases for Texas, but this year so far he has the second best BA in the league at .458 and he has hit an American League leading 5 home runs and 11 RBI's. After the first week Cruz is many people's pick for the A.L MVP award.

3. The San Francisco Giants. Through the first 5 games of the season the Giants were 4-1 and it took them till the last day of the week to lose their first game. Backed by strong pitching (second in the Majors behind Oakland with a 2.82 ERA) and solid hitting from their veterans like Edgar Renteria, the Giants are poised to make a big splash in the N.L west this year.

2. Jon Rauch. When Minnesota Twins star closer Joe Nathan went on the DL to start the season and eventually we found that he would not pitch all year nobody knew what would become of what was one of the Twins' strongest attributes. Jon Rauch stepped out of nowhere to claim the closer role and hasn't looked back. The 31 year old Rauch has 5 saves in 5 chances and an ERA of 1.80 with 3 strikeouts in 5 innings of work. Much like Ryan Franklin and David Aardsma were last year, we'll continue to look at Rauch as this years breakout closer.

1. The Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto plays in the toughest division in baseball with the reigning world champion Yankees and year to year contending Red Sox, but they are looking better than both those teams. To start the year there were many concerns about the pitching staff of the Blue Jays, but Toronto has ridden strong starting pitching ( the best in the division so far) and what seems to be a comeback year for Vernon Wells into a tie for first with the New York Yankees.

I doubt many of these stories will sustain themselves throughout the rest of the year, but they do give hope to those players and teams without huge payrolls or all-star track records.

-J. DeClercq