Bucking their usual April trend, the Colorado Rockies lead the NL West right now with a 6-2 record. Having finished Opening Weekend with a 1-1 series split (the third game postponed due to weather, rescheduled for May 24) against the Diamondbacks, the Rockies had a mini two-game sweep of the Dodgers and then followed it up with three wins in a four-game series against the Pirates last weekend.
Again, it's just one week, but these aren't your Rockies from when you were 14- or 15-years-old. As Craig Calcaterra notes in his MLB Power Rankings, the Colorado Rockies could be undefeated if it were not for two extra-inning losses. Of course, that relies on the preordained belief that the Rockies' would have had the same outcome in those games, but we're not here to discuss the butterfly effect or the quantum mechanics of viewing such results.
So for now, take comfort that the Rockies are off to an unusually good start. And much of that has to do with pitching. The Rockies have the fourth-best ERA (2.86) in the majors, second-best in the NL behind only the San Diego Padres (2.76). Of the six starting pitchers the Rockies have used, Ubaldo Jimenez has the worst ERA on the team (7.50) and that's because he pitched Opening Day with an injured right thumb cuticle. Jason Hammel, though, with a 7.20 ERA doesn't have that issue. But he has a win already, so that must mean something!
Again, it's only a week into the season, so it's not time to watch the scoreboard and chase the standings. Yet, the Rockies have a 1.5-game lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers (5-4), thanks in part to a two-game sweep of them at Coors Field last week. The Diamondbacks and the Padres are tied for third with 4-4 records, but it is the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants who are last in the division at 4-5.
In the rest of the NL, the Phillies lead the East, but the Braves anchor the bottom of that division. The Reds hold the NL Central as of now, while the Astros unsurprisingly sit at the bottom.
In the AL, the Red Sox have just two wins, but both wins came against the Yankees over the weekend. Tampa Bay, without Evan Longoria for several weeks, has won just one game.
In the end, after a week and a half of play, we just can't be worrying over the standings (and that includes teams with high payrolls and just two wins). There is no long view of the season this early in the season, it appears.