Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians acquired Ubaldo Jimenez at the trade deadline last season, trading away Drew Pomeranz, Alex White, Joseph Gardner and Matt McBride for the Rockies ace. Jimenez picked up a lot of attention by winning 15 games in 2009 and striking out nearly 200 batters that season, only to have his notoriety taken to a whole new level in 2010.

As a devoted Detroit Tigers fan and follower, I probably should not be discussing the Cleveland Indians. But sometimes my love for the greater game of baseball takes precedence over my own biases.

When people look back at trades that worked out for the Indians, it makes it easier to forget about those that didn't. 

The Indians are currently 8-6, one game behind both the Tigers and White Sox in the AL Central.

With a collection of solid hitters in the lineup (Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Travis Hafner, Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis), the Indians have the potential to compete for a playoff spot.

Cleveland was, once upon a time, a baseball town, featuring a team on the cusp of the World Series and perennial All-Stars like CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez.

Those days are a distant memory.

Chris Perez had a breakout year in 2011. 

After three seasons (two-and-a-half technically), Perez has established himself as the closer of the Cleveland Indians. Last season, Perez was 36/40 in save opportunities with a 3.32 ERA. 

While on the surface, 2011 looks like a tremendously perfect year for Chris Perez, it was anything but that.  First, his ERA and WHIP jumped from his previous year's success. What was also strange was Perez's inability to record strikeouts. 

We are now about a month into the season, and there have been a ton of surprises that nobody saw coming. 

Two of last season's worst teams are atop their division. Teams who made major acquisitions in the offseason has struggled. Players who have been around the league for what seems forever are still hitting the ball like they are 20 years old.

There have been so many things we all didn't see coming that makes this season so exciting.

Let's now look at the 10 biggest surprises so far of the 2011 season.

After being drafted in the first round (15th overall) by the Cleveland Indians in the 2009 June Amateur Draft, pitcher Alex White is set to make his debut on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers.

This move was prompted by the injury to Carlos Carrasco, who will spend some time on the DL. Starter Mitch Talbot was also placed on the DL, prompting the organization to promote Jeanmar Gomez to the parent club last week.

Through Fausto Carmona’s career, he has pitched a few great games, but he’s pitched a lot more ugly ones. The fact is that his team can’t rely on his inconsistency. Carmona needs to realize he has a strong defense backing him up. If he can’t get the strikeout, he needs to let the batter make contact and know that his defense can make the play. He is only one of nine players on the diamond, yet he plays like he’s the only out there.

Since the Cleveland Indians parted ways with CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, they have been in search for one thing: pitching. 

We're not talking about just any kind of pitching, either, but the kind of pitching that can help the Tribe get back to the top of the American League Central Division and back into the postseason.