The 2010 MLB season provided a few teams that finished well above expectations..
Who would have guessed that the San Diego Padres would be on pace to make the playoffs all the way up to the last game of the season?
Who would have guessed that the Cincinnati Reds, a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in 15 years, would hold off the mighty St. Louis Cardinals for supremacy in the N.L Central?
And of course, there is the Rangers and Giants. Who would have thought that two average teams in ’09 would defeat the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees?
This is good news for teams around the league. A young scrappy team with a veteran manager could thrive in 2011. Or how about a team with a bunch of talented young pitching? Picking up a few free agents could be what gets a team over the hump.
Here are 10 teams that could break through in 2011.