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The Daily Fix: Baseball's Biggest Surprises & Disappointments in 2011 So Far

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It is the last day of April, so time to hand out some awards for the biggest surprises and disappointments:  

Surprises:

Best imitation of a sports movie award goes to:  The Cleveland Indians

The surprise division leader has to be the Cleveland Indians, with a comfortable 4.5 game lead in the AL Central.  Willile Mays Hayes, Pedro Cerano and "Wild Thing" Rickie Vaughn would be proud.  Is it a coincidence that the Indians are having this year at the same time Charlie Sheen has taken crazy to another level? I think not.  

The “Sold his soul to the devil like Brendan Frazier in ‘Bedazzled'” award goes to Jose Bautista.  Most experts had him penned for regression, but if anything he has improved this year.  That being said, Rodger Clemens reignited his career in Toronto and we know how HE did it.

The “The most likely to play an undead vampire in the next installment of ‘Twilight'” award goes to Lance Berkman: .393, 8 HR, 22 RBI’s, 1.207 OPS, the greatest comeback since Ron Burgundy’s triumphant return.

The “Every sports movie plot story” award goes to Alex Gordon.  One time top prospect who looks like he will never live up to his potential has an inspirational talk with a coach who tweeks his swing. He rediscovers his swing leading his team to an improbable season…  Ok, maybe, this is just an April thing but he is hitting .336, with 16 RBI's.  His power swing is not there, but for a one-time top prospect with a career .250 average, this is a movie script.

The “He was left for dead, but came back as Darth Vader” award goes to Eric Chavez.  Over the last four years, he has collected more toe tags than home runs, yet he has risen with the villainous Yankees and is batting .300.  The A's opened the checkbook for Eric and he immediately went into the tank, like Obi Wan once said "You were the chosen one," just like Aniken, you were left a broken man, only to comeback whole with the Evil Empire.

Disappointments:

The “Hanley Ramirez, he is sitting behind such luminaries as Jack Wilson and Yuniesky Betancourt in the shortstop rankings.  “I could see that he had potential but he was such a baby and I was threatening to beat him up every other day,” said Jeff Bailey, who was a catcher on the 2005 Sea Dogs. “He would do stupid things on and off the field, every time I saw him doing something stupid I would tell him he was a piece of [expletive].”.

The “Demi Moore, she plays a stripper fighting for her child, it seemed like a good idea at the time” award goes to the The Red Sox signing Carl Crawford for 7 years and $142 million.  Lots of people would only hit .160, yeah, they are called EX-baseball players, not millionaires.

The “Groundhog Day” award goes to the Oakland A’s.  The pitchers lead the league in ERA, but there is only one everyday player hitting over .250.  Every year the A's hit the bargain bin for over-the-hill hitters hoping they will produce just enough offense to put them over the top.  Every September they wake up in Puxatony wondering why they are 10 games out of first place.  

Wait and See:

The “Mike McDermott ‘give me three stacks of high society” award goes to the Brewers and Zack Greinke.  Basically it is do or die for the Brewers, if they do not win this year they are dead in the water.  Grienke makes his season debut this next week and he has to deliver.  Can he come through like Mike or will he disappear like "worm?" 

The “Crap, they were good without him” award goes to Evan Longoria and the Rays.  The Rays suffered multiple defections and were counting on Evan to shoulder the load.  His early injury threatened to implode the season and the Rays played like it, but they finish the first month at 15-12 and on a roll.  Adding Evan back is the cherry on top.

Written by Chris Summers exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com

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