Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
May 30, 2008, Washington Post

The Surprising Boys of Summer

A Major League Baseball season is always full of surprises. Teams play almost every day for about six months, not counting the playoffs. Even the best teams lose more than 60 games in the 162-game regular season, and the worst teams win their share.

This season already has had plenty of surprises, good and bad. Let's take a look.

· Surprise teams-- Don't look now, but the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays are in or very near first place in their divisions. Both teams have low payrolls. By comparison, the New York Yankees' payroll is almost 10 times what the Marlins pay their players. But right now, the Marlins have more wins.

The Sunshine State teams have several bright young stars. B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford give the Rays two swift, base-stealing outfielders. Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla leads his team in almost every offensive category, but Hanley Ramirez is the Marlins' true all-star. Ramirez, who is only 24, is arguably the best shortstop in baseball.

At the start of the season, the Detroit Tigers looked like a serious World Series contender. After trading for Marlins slugger Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis, the Tigers seemed to have a power-packed lineup and great young pitchers. But Detroit got off to a terrible start and is nine games under the .500 mark.

· Surprise hitters-- A few years ago, Josh Hamilton was out of baseball, his once-promising career derailed by drug addiction. Now, the Texas Rangers center fielder is off drugs and among the leaders in the American League in hits, home runs, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and runs batted in. If Hamilton can stay out of trouble, he will be a superstar.

For lousy hitting, no other team beats our Washington Nationals. After some offseason moves that were intended to put punch in the lineup, the Nats are at the bottom of the National League in batting average and slugging percentage.

· Surprise pitchers-- Last year, everyone thought that Japanese pitcher Daisuke "Dice-K" Matsuzaka was going to be a big star for the Boston Red Sox. But Matsuzaka, with his supposed secret pitch, the gyroball, was just okay, winning 15 games and losing 12. This year, he's 8-0.

The Yankees were counting on two talented young pitchers, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, to get them back to the World Series. Up till now, they've been terrible, losing seven games and winning none.

So does this mean that the Marlins and the Rays will meet in the 2008 World Series? Or can the Tigers and the Yankees or even the Nationals come back? Whatever happens, nothing would surprise me.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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