The 2007 season is almost 3 weeks old now. Let's take a look at 10 early season MLB stars:

Alex Rodriguez - Certainly the hottest player in the major leagues. Rodriguez is finally playing up to his talent level and doing all of the things that the Yankees are paying him for. His April may go down as the greatest April in MLB history. We'll see if he keeps this up and do a comparison at the end of the month. Right now his numbers are astounding. In 15 games he has 12 homers and 30 RBI. He's hitting .371 with an incredible 1.048 slugging percentage. He's already hit 2 walk off home runs this year. He's carrying the Yankees on his back right now and they are still only 8-7 but without A-Rod they may be 5-10. His dominance has been incredible. He has 5 more home runs than anyone else in the league. He has more home runs than numerous entire teams (see earlier blog entry about that.) Perhaps most amazing is that his league leading RBI total (30) is TWICE as many as second place man Michael Cuddyer of the Twins.

Barry Bonds - Barry is proving to everyone that he can still hit. It's doubtful that there has ever been a better 42 year old hitter in the history of baseball. He has recovered from a slow start (and not coincidentally so have the Giants) and now has some mighty fine numbers for the young season. Bonds is hitting .325 and has a league leading .700 slugging percentage. He's hitting .571 with 3 homers in his last 5 games.

Vladimir Guerrero - Vlad is leading the AL in batting average at .388 and he's slugged 4 homers. His Angels are having a disappointing season so far but it's certainly not Guerrero's fault.

Joe Mauer - Mauer shocked baseball last year with his .400 tease. Although his average dropped towards the end of the season, he still became the first catcher to ever lead the AL in hitting. This year he is looking to prove it was no fluke. The 24 year old catcher is off to a very good start in doing just that. He's hitting .377 and he's got an awesome .476 on base percentage.

Ian Kinsler - Who? Exactly. Kinsler is a young player (24) who is swinging a big bat for the Rangers early in the year. His batting average is sitting at .333 and his 7 home runs are more than anyone not named Alex Rodriguez. He's second in the AL (behind A-Rod) with an .833 slugging percentage.

Tim Wakefield - Wakefield is 2-1 with a 1.35 ERA which leads the American League. His season ERA is usually over 4 but there was one big exception which was 2002. He finished the 2002 seasons 11-5 with a 2.81 ERA. The Red Sox would like to see him do something similar (or even better, of course) this year.

Rich Hill - The Chicago Cub's Hill has been lights out this year. He's leading the NL in most pitching statistics including Wins (3), ERA (0.41), WHIP (0.68), and opp avg (.113), He's also currently enjoying a scoreless innings streak of 16. He's 27 but has very little MLB experience, coming into this season with only 20 career starts. It will be interesting to see if this is an early season aberration or if Hill is going to be a star pitcher for the Cubs.

Hanley Ramirez - Last year's NL rookie of the year is not experiencing any sort of sophomore jinx so far. Florida's SS is currently 3rd in the NL with a .373 batting average and 5th with a .627 slugging percentage.

Daisuke Matsuzaka - Despite his record being 1-2, Dice-K is living up to the hype. He has 24 strikeouts in 20 innings and a 2.70 ERA. All eyes will be on Matsuzaka Sunday as he pitches for the first time against the Yankees.

Joe Saunders - Perhaps a somewhat sentimental choice for the early season stars as Saunders is the only Virginia Tech alumni in the major leagues but he's got the numbers to back up this selection. He is 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA. Last night he pitched 6 scoreless innings in getting the win for the Angels while wearing a Virginia Tech cap (Bud Selig gave him special permission to do so.)