General managers and managers will say it takes about 40 games -- or about a quarter of the season -- before they start getting a good feel for their team. So passing judgment before the 30-game mark is a little early, but the one-month mark does feel like a good time to assess what we've seen so far.
The biggest story has been the low batting averages across the sport, with an MLB-wide .234 average entering Monday's action bringing back memories of the infamous 1968 season. The other story is the early parity across the sport. Only five teams began Monday more than four games out of first place. The biggest division lead was Boston's 1½-game advantage in the AL East and Kansas City's edge in the AL West. Injuries have been a major obstacle already for some teams, and the runner-on-second rule in the 10th inning remains controversial.
Let's go through all 30 teams and assign a grade on their April performance, grading against their preseason expectations. We've included playoff odds from FanGraphs entering Monday's games, noting how much they have changed from the preseason odds. All stats are through Sunday.
