I skimmed tne league leaders and these were all the ones that made me think "huh, okay." But Utley is the only one who made me think "wow, really?"

Utley's driven in a hundred runs for two straight seasons, though.  It's not like he's Coco Crisp or somebody.

Utley's got a chance to lead the NL in runs scored and RBI in the same year.  (Last guy to do that was Sammy Sosa in his last 60-homer year).  He leads the NL in runs created and extra base hits.  I figure that it's time we all reoriented our minds to think of Utley as one of the handful of the best players in the game. 

Other : Dan Haren leading the AL in ERA surprises me a lot, at least at his current ERA of 2.33. Not sure why, he's been very good for a few years, and is still young. If WHIP counts as a major enough stat, Jeremy Guthrie (or as he was known prior to this year, Who?) leading the AL is a shocker.

Yes, Utley is one of the great players in the game.  Excellent defender at second, as well as the big bat.  He didn't really get a shot until age 25, as he was blocked by Marlon Anderson and then Placido Polanco. It is shocking really that the 2003 Phillies didn't give Utley a job and go with an infield of Polanco, Rollins, Utley and Thome, and keep Bell around as a backup.  It was the old "proven veteran" problem, which is a recurring phenomenon in baseball.

Chris Young for me.

Did SD ever clean house on that trade with Texas.  Looked bad at the time for Texas and looks much worse even now.

I never expected this out of Chris Young, but I called the trade a mistake for Texas from the day it was made.

"In return for [Otsuka, Eaton and Killian] the Padres received Chris Young, Terrmel Sledge and Adrian Gonzalez. I think San Diego would have won this trade if they received Young by himself. Young put up a 4.26 ERA in a hitter’s ballpark and was easily the Rangers second-best starter last year. He’ll fit in quite well at PETCO and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him post a sub-4 ERA. He’s in his age-27 season and he’s only been pitching in the majors for two years, so San Diego has him under control for several more years."

However, you'll notice I said sub-4 and not sub-2 as it currently stands right now, or even sub-3, where it is more likely to end up.

The biggest surprise for me, actually, is that as I write this, Ordonez is leading the vote. This is a guy who has hit .315 or better four times in his career, with three more seasons of at least .300, and a career average coming into the season of .305 or so.

I don't think a batting title for Mags is that huge of a reach. How is he more of a surprise than Holliday? Granted, Holliday has an even better career BA, in a shorter career natch, and has the Coors factor to help him, but who saw that coming?

Though again, I voted Utley, so what do I know?

If WHIP doesn't count for Who?, and we can't make up a major category that he leads in, mentally subtract my Other vote from the total and give it to Putz, because I didn't expect Seattle to actually have 26 wins at this point...

The biggest shocker this season is the 51 wins the Mariners have so far. They're right in the thick of the playoff race despite only scoring 13 more runs than they have given up.

Check out the OPS of their starters:

Ichiro (.850)
Beltre (.826)
Guillen (.812)
Johjima (.778)
Ibanez (.731)
Lopez (.714)
Vidro (.711)
Sexson (.703)
Betancourt (.659)

Their starting pitching has only been decent  while they have 4 guys pitching well in their bullpen. This shouldn't add up to the 5th best record in baseball but it does.

Granderson: 16 triples. Not that him leading the league is a shocker, just that he's on track for about 30. In the last 50 years, Willie Wilson's 21 is tops.