Surprise HR Leaders

By Justin Albers
Basketballss132002@yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- He was the most criticized man in professional sports last season, and is making up for it in this one. While it was hard to feel bad for a guy making over $25 million a year, Alex Rodriguez was still producing, just not like this.
A-Rod had 35 home runs and 121 RBIs all of last season. Those are considered to be good numbers, but this year he is not human. Nobody expected this guy to come out and do what he’s doing; in fact, nobody thought he would be in a Yankees uniform. At the All-Star break, Rodriguez has hit 30 home runs and has driven in 86. He has silenced the critics for the time being, and is playing better baseball than anybody else in the entire league.
The National League home run leader comes from the other end of the spectrum. Prince Fielder, only in his second professional season, is one of the lowest paid position players in the game. Fielder’s salary in 2007: $415,000. However, he has recorded 29 home runs and has driven in 70; somebody better get their check-books out.
Fielder is a guy that has had to prove plenty of people wrong himself; those who said he was too fat or too lazy to play professional baseball. He hit just 30 home runs all of last season, and yet he appears to be chasing 60 this year. Fielder is a guy that is naturally big and is clearly not involved with steroids. It is great to see a young player performing so well at the highest level.
So will the power continue to come for A-Rod or will he fall into the hole like last year? Will Fielder push the Brewers to their first division title in who knows how long? Only time will tell, and a long time at that.