Top 10 Surprises From The First Half

What's been extraordinary from the first half of the 2009 baseball season?

The Dodgers didn't lose a home game with Manny Ramirez in the first half, going 13-0 to start the season. Then came a shocker on May 7. There were no real whispers about Ramirez and steroids, but when he failed a drug test, his life and career took a drastic turn. But L.A. didn't miss him too much: The Dodgers have the best record in baseball in the first half at 56-32, and a seven-game lead in the NL West.

The palacial Yankee Stadium opened in April, but there was some egg on the face for the team with the the highest payroll in baseball - they couldn't sell the very pricey seats behind home plate in a down economy. It seemed weird to watch games on TV in a beautiful new ballpark with empty seats everywhere. Prices were reduced in May.

Barry who? The team that has come out of nowhere in the first half is the San Francisco Giants, who haven't been relevant since Bonds "retired" two seasons ago. But led by ace Tim Lincecum and an overachieving lineup, the Giants lead the National League wild-card race, and picked up some momentum with Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter in the final weekend of the first half.

Tim Wakefield, who will turn 43 later this summer, keeps coming back for one-year contracts for Boston, and he was in a groove in the first half, going 11-3 for the first-place Red Sox and making the All-Star team for the first time. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who went 18-3 in 2008, is 1-5 with an 8.23 ERA and is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury.

Bob Melvin and Clint Hurdle faced off in the 2007 National League Championship Series, and they looked like two of the best young managers in the game. Now they're both out of work. The move to Jim Tracy has worked so far in Colorado, as the Rockies caught fire in June, winning 17 of 18 from June 4 to June 22 to get back in the NL race. The move to A.J. Hinch in Arizona? Not so much. The Diamondbacks were 18.5 games out at the break.

We usually see one or two teams we didn't expect to be in first place in July. Not this year. The AL playoffs at the All-Star break would be a big-market extravaganza of favorites: Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers and Angels. The NL is the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and one just one surprise in the NL wild card - the Giants, who were thought to be rebuilding. Still, that's eight of the largest markets in baseball. Maybe revenue-sharing isn't working that well after all.

The Indians were a trendy pick to win the AL Central, thanks to a lineup that is among the best in baseball. That part of the team hasn't disappointed, but the pitching staff has been beyond abysmal, and Cleveland is in last place in the AL Central. They're already in seller mode, trading valuable Mark DeRosa for bullpen help.

He had just thrown six shutout innings in his final rehab start. A day later, the Braves cut Tom Glavine, a 305-game winner who is a certifiable Atlanta legend. It was a bush-league move that seemed more about money than the right thing to do, and Glavine had every right to be mad.

Mark Fidrych flamed out early after an incredible 1976 season for the Detroit Tigers, and his death April 13 at age 54, pinned underneath a truck he was working on in Massachusetts, reminded us of how baseball needs more quirky personalities like "The Bird."

With the world champion Phillies, a rebuilt bullpen with the Mets and decent talent playing for the Marlins and Braves, it looks like a decent race in the NL East. But only two of those teams are above .500 as of the break, and the second-place Marlins are just one game over .500. The Mets have been disappointing and skidded into the break, but have to feel lucky to be within 6.5 games.

Your turn: What do you think is the biggest surprise and the biggest story of the first half?