MLB

The joys of signing a brand-spanking new contract can quickly subside due to a luke-warm start to the season. 

A lucrative contract is only worthwhile when the on-the-field production is present, and for some newly signed players, the transition to a new team has come with a price. 

Whatever the reason may be—a new park, a new hitting coach, the pressure to perform or simply an early season slump—the thought of winning over hundreds of thousands of loyal fans can weigh heavily on a player's psyche.

Coming into the 2013 Major League Baseball season, it was obvious which divisions would be the best.

The NL East had the Braves and the Nationals, while the AL West had the Angels, Rangers and Athletics.

However, through the first quarter of the season, those thoughts can be thrown out the window, as only one of those five teams has met expectations.

But what about the divisions? Has each division met or exceeded its expectations for the season?

Are there any surprises?

Who needs peace when we've got WAR?

Wins Above Replacement, that is.

With sites like Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus making all sorts of statistics easily accessible and readily available, there's no shortage of interesting, intriguing, intelligent—even fun—metrics to consider.

But in the battle to be baseball's best stat, WAR wins.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already reached the one-quarter mark for the 2013 season.

However, with most teams having played around 40 games, league standings and stats are now relevant and based on something other than a small sample size.

Stanford ace Mark Appel is projected to be one of the top picks in the 2013 MLB Draft next month. His teammate Austin Wilson will also likely be a first-round pick.

The Cleveland Indians are now roughly one quarter of the way through their 2013 season and are sitting atop the AL Central standings with a 23-17 record.

With optimism higher for many Mariners fans after a series win against the AL East leading New York Yankees, fans are starting to think about bigger things for the 2013 Seattle Mariners.

The St. Louis Cardinals entered the quarter-season mark of 2013 with the best record in baseball.

To say that exceeds the expectations of some is quite the understatement. Many, arguably most, baseball writers had the Cincinnati Reds picked as clear favorites to win the National League Central Division.

It’s not too early for a team to have buyer’s remorse after spending good money on a free agent who has yet to produce. I’m looking at you, Josh Hamilton, Melky Cabrera, B.J. Upton and Jeff Keppinger.

But how about those players who signed elsewhere and are having big years? Their new team is certainly happy. The team that let them walk as a free agent or was just outbid? Not so much.

After a brutal 10-game road trip that saw the Atlanta Braves go 4-6 against the Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks, they returned home to Turner Field and finally got back on track with an 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.