As MLB nears its midway point in 2012, it”s time to reflect on some of the season”s most surprising storylines thus far.
Shocking starts
A pair of veterans shined unexpectedly during career-best beginnings to their seasons.
Paul Konerko, 36, is on pace for the best overall year of his career. He”s batting .333 – 50 percentage points above his career average -with 13 home runs, 39 RBIs and a .961 OBP (on-base plus slugging).
Konerko”s hot start powered the success of the first-place Chicago White Sox, and he would lead the American League MVP discussion if not for Josh Hamilton.
New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey is dominating the National League headlines. The 37-year-old”s knuckleball has baffled hitters all season.
Dickey sits at 11-1 with a 2.31 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 106 strikeouts after 15 starts. Plus, he threw back-to-back one-hitters earlier this month.
And all of this coming the same year he revealed in his autobiography that he was a sexual assault victim as a child. Baseball fans have to root for Dickey, no matter how much they may hate New York.
Disappointing duds
Experts, analysts and fans have to be dumbfounded by the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies.
With Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham leading the offense, the Twins appear formidable on paper. Then again, it”s hard to contend while giving up the most runs in the AL.
As a result, Minnesota is among the four worst teams in baseball and has played poorly enough to put longtime manager Ron Gardenhire”s future in question.
To be fair, many people didn”t have the Twins in their World Series discussion. The same can”t be said of the Phillies.
One of the NL”s recent perennial contenders, the Phillies stumbled out of the gate, being dragged down by injured and underachieving players.
Philadelphia”s division deficit approaches double digits and could soon balloon out of control if the team doesn”t get some guys healthy (Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard) and others to perform (Cliff Lee and Jimmy Rollins).
It”s hard to imagine how far back the Phillies would be without starter Cole Hamels and catcher Carlos Ruiz – both off to All-Star starts.
Confounding calls
Umpires accounted for the two most inexplicable moments of the season.
During a May matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies, Tim Welke called a runner out despite first-baseman Todd Helton”s foot being about a yard off the bag.
In early June, St. Louis Cardinal Carlos Beltran roped a liner that clearly hit the line, but Adrian Johnson called the ball foul. The sixth-inning decision became vital as the game came to an end and Johan Santana earned the first no-hitter in Mets history.
Welke didn”t have the right angle; Johnson didn”t see a ball right in front of him. Those things happened throughout baseball history, but that shouldn”t be the case anymore. Replays instantly showed the umpires missed those calls.
With the technology available to overturn these correctable human errors, it”s easy to assume MLB doesn”t care about getting the calls rights. But the underlying issue is baseball executives don”t want to change their game unless it benefits them financially.
And that should come as no surprise.
