Throughout the season the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we debated the best shortstop in baseball. This week we're going to tackle surprise teams.
Which team has surprised you most this season?
Matt Snyder: Especially in light of the Shane Bieber injury, it's the Guardians. They started 17-6, which is one of the greatest starts in franchise history. I expected them by now to be one of the teams people were speculating as a seller. I thought that Terry Francona's retirement would hurt them more, I didn't think the offense would be nearly this good and I would've thought the rotation without a fully functional Bieber wouldn't be very reliable. Instead, they've set themselves up quite well in a division that still figures to, eventually, be one of the lesser ones in baseball.
Dayn Perry: I'll take this in the negative sense of the word and say the Astros. Given that the core is still in place from a season ago, the reasonable expectation is that Houston would once again be in the upper tier of teams. This of course is the club that's made it at least as far as the ALCS for seven straight years. In reality, the rotation has been battered by injuries, and the lineup has looked old in some key spots. It won't be surprising if the Astros find their level at some point, but they've already done a good bit of harm to their playoff odds thanks to their terrible start.
R.J. Anderson: The Astros and the Guardians were my first two choices. For the sake of variety, I'll go with the Cardinals. If you would've told me in February they'd have a league-average pitching staff to this point in the season, then I would've assumed they were in first place in the National League Central. Instead, their offense has completely failed them, to the extent that they're in the cellar. (I'll give an honorable mention to the Red Sox, who have pitched much, much better than I would've ever imagined given all their injuries.)
Mike Axisa: Yeah, the Guardians and Astros were the first two teams that jumped to my mind as well. I'm surprised the Red Sox are as good as they've been as well, particularly on the run prevention side, and I'm surprised the Diamondbacks are slogging along at 17-20. They're 5-2 with a plus-19 run differential against the Rockies and 12-18 with a minus-7 run differential against everyone else. The Eduardo Rodriguez injury and Corbin Carroll's dreadful start have hurt, but still, I thought the D-backs would be better than this.
