Top of the first: I would like to discuss Mason Miller, the closer for the Oakland A's. He is tearing it up. There was an interesting piece about him in The Athletic a few days ago. He was playing D3 ball at a college outside of Pittsburgh and did not have a career in the majors in mind. He got a finance internship at a local hospital and had to take a drug test. The drug test revealed abnormally high blood sugar, and it turns out he was a type 1 diabetic. Once he was diagnosed and able to treat the type one, he was able to put on weight he had lost, stronger and his velocity increased. Now he is killing it. Main segment: early season surprises: Good surprises: We will take a look at the Guardians, who are in first place, mostly as a result of their offense. Also, a good surprise are the Mets. They started off slow, but have come back, mostly on the strength of their bullpen. Some but not all of their offense is producing. Carlos Mendoza is doing a nice job as a manager. Some quick good surprise mentions will be that the Brewers are in first place, and Shota Imanaga the Cubs is pitching nicely. On the Orioles, Grayson Rodriguez is 3-0, and Jackson Holiday is slow out of the gate, but I am confident he will come around. Good surprises gone bad: A few teams looked really good right out of the gate, but now seem to be turning. These include the Yankees, who started strong, but are not hitting, the Royals, and the Pirates. Bad surprises: The AL West is kind of a bad surprise. Nobody is playing that well in that division, but the Astros are playing notably poorly for being the Astros. They have a tough schedule coming up. Their starting pitching has been ravaged although a bright spot is Ronel Blanco. Bullpen underperforming. The NL West is also a bad surprise. No teams are playing that great, but the Dodgers, while not bad, are not where expectations were set. Their pitching, both bullpen and starting, is not where it should be. However, the starting pitching will get better when some players return from the IL. Yamamoto has not yet settled in, but he may need time to adjust. A couple of quick mentions in the AL Central, the Twins have been a bad surprise and the White Sox, while no one expected them to be good, have been surprisingly bad.