Three Up, Three Down: Some surprises way out (NL) West

Next Monday, we're going to hit the unofficial checkpoint of Memorial Day and there's a decent chance that the team at the top of the NL West at this point won't be the Dodgers (and it definitely won't be the Giants). Instead, the Rockies and Diamondbacks could potentially be pacing the NL West by the time Memorial Day rolls around.  Before you dismiss this as just an extended hot start for both teams, understand that these two teams even being competitive this far into the season is rarefied air for both Colorado and Arizona.

The Diamondbacks have not been 10 games over .500 since 2011, and this is actually the best start to a season in franchise history for the Rockies. There's reason to believe that Arizona could be for real, and luck appears to be going Colorado's way for a change. Either way, these two teams appear to be poised to crash the Dodgers' party in the NL West. We could be in for a fun summer in the Mountain and Pacific time zone this season, which means that we could enjoy some late nights on the East Coast as well. 

Down: Not so easy for the Cubs this year

Meanwhile, one prominent team that's stumbling into the Memorial Day checkpoint is none other than the defending World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. Around this time last year, you could've basically penciled them in as the NL Central champions. This year hasn't come as easy for them. They're still floating around near the top of the division, but it appears that the Brewers and Cardinals won't just lie down for them this year.

One player in particular who's been struggling is Jake Arrieta. We seem to be so far away from his solid 2016 season as part of a World Series-winning rotation and we're even further from the amazing campaign that he had in 2015. What we're seeing now is a pitcher who's been inconsistent, and it's showing as he currently has a 4.80 ERA and 3.92 FIP. For comparison's sake, those numbers were at 1.77 and 2.35, respectively, during his 2015 season. Arrieta is not the sole reason behind Chicago's relatively slow start, but if the Cubs turn into a juggernaut again then it may coincide with Arrieta getting his act together.

Up: Joey Votto puts a heckler in their place

Joey Votto is still delivering the hits in his age-33 season, and not just on the field as well. His slash line as of writing was .300/.422/.600, but he's batting 1.000 when it comes to dealing with hecklers. One particular fan at the Great American Ballpark decided that they'd try to tell Votto that he wasn't good anymore. Unfortunately for this fan, the former NL MVP wasn't having it and fired right back in glorious fashion.

Again, it's important to note that Joey Votto hasn't slowed down a bit. He's still a very productive player and one of the very few reasons to pay attention to the Reds as they go through the struggles of a complete rebuild. So, if you're going to go to the game and trash talk someone, don't try to talk down on the guy who's got the most credentials to his name in the stadium -- and don't let it be a guy who can dish the trash talk back just as well as he can take it. Good on Joey Votto for laying the verbal smackdown here.

Down: Freddie Freeman's extremely inopportune injury

A couple of weeks ago in this space, I took time to laud Freddie Freeman for the awesome production that he was putting up despite being on a less-than-stellar Braves team. He was playing the best baseball of his career at this point and was also making an early case for a potential MVP run, Unfortunately, the hype train was derailed by a fastball from Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup that hit Freeman in his wrist and broke it. As a result, Freddie Freeman probably won't return until early August due to his fractured wrist, and it's a real shame. 

To the Braves' credit, they've been playing some decent baseball lately and have done well to not just roll over and die in Freeman's absence. With that being said, it's always going to be difficult to replace MVP-caliber production and it'll catch up with the Braves eventually. Plus, with the team playing in a new ballpark, losing the crown jewel of the franchise for a couple of months is a huge blow. It's an all-around bummer, and here's hoping that when he returns, Freeman will continue to rake like he was doing before he got hurt.

Up: Jose Berrios returns with a vengeance

If you weren't paying attention to the Minnesota Twins last year -- and we don't blame you if you didn't -- you may have missed the debut of Jose Berrios. We also don't blame you for missing out on his debut, because he was atrocious in his first stint in the big leagues. 2016 may have been rough for him, but he's returned to the bigs in 2017 and this kid has been flourishing out here. 

Berrios is currently sitting on a 1.66 ERA and a 3.77 FIP over 21 immaculate innings of work so far. This is after he finished the 2016 season with a massive 8.02 ERA and 6.20 FIP over 58 innings. Needless to say, the Twins' star pitching prospect is starting to come into his own in the bigs. Plus, if he can keep on throwing breaking balls like this, it might be a while before big league hitters figure him out. 

Down: Wrong helmet, Yasmani!

On Wednesday, switch hitter Yasmani Grandal made a mistake that you'd normally see at your local baseball diamond for a rec league game or something like that. Grandal showed up to the plate wearing the wrong helmet -- instead of having his ear flap on the right-hand side, it was on the left-hand side which meant that he had to face Mike Leake with his ear exposed. Whoops!

The good news is that Grandal made it through the at-bat unscathed and is actually having a good year at the plate so far. Despite the gaffe, things are definitely going well for the Dodgers catcher. With that being said, we have to dock him some cool points for not pulling a Larry Walker and just flipping the helmet around. Walker even did it against the fearsome Randy Johnson! Yeah, it was the All-Star game but that's still a live arm. We're clearly left the golden age of baseball if players aren't willing to just flip the helmet around and bat with it backwards. I may be only half-joking, here.