And while we are talking about the Twins-Rays game, allow me to say that Eric Karros is a total blowhard. At one point during the broadcast he went off on a hitter for attempting to call time by holding his hand up to the umpire. The umpire did not see the hitter’s hand and the pitch went for a strike. Karros condescendingly chastised the hitter for not having his hand on the bat, and explained that he always yelled for time, so loud that you could hear him in the upper level. Good for you, Eric Karros. At least you were a blowhard before you got to the broadcast booth. And when I heard Vin Scully calling the Dodgers game a few hours later, I could not help but ask myself why in the hell we need color guys anyway. 

Cleveland won. Again. Their 10-4 record is a big surprise that has come as a result of a bunch of little surprises.  For example, Asdrubal Cabrera is doing a mini-Tulo impression, Matt LaPorta has not been demoted to AAA (yet), and the corpse of Travis Hafner is hitting home runs. And of those in the starting lineup yesterday, their two best players, Carlos Santana and Shin-Soo Choo, have the lowest batting averages. Josh Tomlin and Mitch Talbot are pitching well, and Grady Sizemore might actually play in a major league game sometime soon. Cleveland is just full of surprises.

Kansas City keeps finding ways to win too and are tied for first in the AL Central with Cleveland. The Royals blanked the Mariners 7-0, but to make it even more interesting they did it against Cy-Young winner Felix Hernandez, who clearly hasn't gotten into his groove yet. 

In the notable home runs department, two very under-owned players, Jonny Gomes (54.6% ESPN) and Alex Gonzalez (19.6% ESPN), each knocked two out yesterday. Gomes now has five on the year and is drawing walks like crazy with a .456 OBP, and Gonzalez is a nice source of power at a very shallow position. Mark Teixeira also hit his 5th of the year, which helps to offset his traditionally slow start in the batting average category (.234 so far this year), as did Howie Kendrick. Kendrick has never hit more than ten bombs in a single season, and his HR/FB rate is through the roof, so I am not buying the power. If you happen to have another 2B option on your team, it might not be a terrible idea to see if you can sell high on Kendrick right now.

As far as notable stolen bases go, Andrew McCutchen got his first of the year, Travis Snider stole two to get to five on the year (not buying it), and Juan Pierre was caught stealing for the fifth time in nine tries. I am also not worried about Pierre yet, but it is something to keep an eye on.

Finally, the dominant pitchers of the day. Josh Beckett had the gem of the day with this line: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 9K, W. It looks like he is back, so I would not be trying to sell high on him if you own him. Jair Jurrjens was also fantastic in his season debut with seven scoreless innings, two hits and one walk allowed, and four strikeouts. Because of the lack of strikeouts I have never been a big Jurrjens guy, but he is available in about half of ESPN leagues for those of you looking to add a pitcher.  

The surprise performance of the day came from the Cardinals’ Kyle McClellan: 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 2 K.  The start itself is not necessarily surprising, but it is when you look at it combined with his other two starts this season.  In all three starts McClellan has gone at least six innings and allowed two earned runs or less. Those in NL-only leagues or deeper mixed leagues (14 teams or more) should add McClellan if he is still available, and those in shallow mixed leagues should consider him as a spot start option. You might want to avoid his next start home to Cincinnati, but after that he gets a sweetheart of a matchup at Houston.

Journeyman Freddy Garcia, made his first start for the Yankees and proved he still holds value. Garcia tossed six innings of 2 hit ball over the red hot Rangers. 

Although relatively dominant in his first three starts, Clayton Kershaw got bombed by the Cards and only last 4.2 innings while giving up five runs.

Written by Brett Talley and Evan Marx exclusively for thefantasyfix.com. Brett is a law student in Dallas who gets Coldplay’s “Fix You” stuck in his head every time he writes an article exclusively for thefantasyfix.com.  You can follow him on Twitter @therealTAL.

(April 9, 2009 – Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images North America)