We are already three weeks into this 2008 MLB campaign and a lot has happened so far. Many players have gotten off to hot starts, many off to slow starts, and there has been many surprises along the way.
Anything written about baseball so far this year, starts and ends with Chase Utley. Utley has come blazing out of the gates this year, ending a 5 game home run streak last night. Utley, leads the MLB in homers with 9 already this year. Along with his home run total he is tied for second in the league with 20 runs batted in. Phillies teammate, Pat Burrell, has also started off the year hot. Burrell and Utley have identical .357 averages, and Burrell leads the majors in rbi with 22 and has 7 homers of his own. Utley is more likely to keep up his torrid pace than is Burrell, Utley is a career .302 hitter and is in the prime of his career while Burrell is past his prime and is a career .260 hitter, so if you have Burrell in your league, try to deal him ASAP. Chipper Jones is off to a great start as well, sporting a .431 batting average to go along with 6 homers and 19 rbi. Others off to fast starts include: Rafael Furcal (.397 avg, .489 OPB, 1.169 OPS), Hanley Ramirez (.358 avg, 6 homers, 5 SB’s), Derrek Lee (.353 avg, 7 homers, 19 runs), and Mark Reynolds (6 homers, 19 rbi, 19 runs).
Noteable slow starts begin with the first-round 1B’s in Ryan Howard (.190 avg, 9 rbi) and Prince Fielder (only one home run). Both mashers who can be counted on for big power numbers are off to slow starts, but look for them to turn it around real soon. A lot was made out of Prince changing his diet over the off-season to a vegetarian diet, and how that would affect his power. As of right now, it appears to be greatly affecting his power, although I don’t believe that his new vegetarian diet has had any affect on his power, if anything his new diet will help him in the long-run with longevity. Ryan Howard has, at times, looked lost at the plate but he will turn it around. Howard hit .313 last year so look for him to have one or two stellar months to get his average back up to his normal (.286 career) average. Alfonoso Soriano (.175 avg before landing on the DL) and Carlos Beltran (.215 avg, 1 homer) have started slow for two NL Title contending teams, once again look for both of these players to pick it up, they aren’t all-star caliber players for nothing. At lot was made nationally of David Ortiz’ slow start(.181 avg, 2 homers), and the fiasco with is jersey being dug up from under the new Yankee Stadium. It appears that since his jersey was dug up he has found his swing, and is well on his way to regaining his form as an elite hitter.
Chase Utley photo courtesy of cnnsi.com, under the creative commons license and Prince Fielder photo courtesy of cubsbrickyard.com under the creative commons license.
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