Take a tip from the Fan: Never move during baseball season if you love the game. This very good season churned on while the Fan was blacked out like the old days before the Internet and Baseball Tonight. I apologize to my loyal readers for the absence. The move was very much like this MLB season, full of surprises, good and bad, at the same time predictable. And the fun continues.

The season is nearly a fourth over (or, for the optimist, three fourths to go) and the surprises equal the predictable. The Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Marlins, Astros and Cubs are as good as expected. The Orioles are as improved as expected.

The Angels in particular are playing as well as expected, but in an unexpected way. The team has had terrible injuries to several of its stars, but they still roll along winning seven out of their last ten. The latest terrible injury is to Troy Glaus with a shoulder injury. Glaus was placed on the 60-day disabled list, which is a shame as he was off to a great start after being injured much of last year. Glaus had already homered eleven times this season after only reaching sixteen last year.

The real surprises so far this season are many. Nobody expected the Devil Rays to win the AL East, but most thought they would be vastly improved. On the contrary, they have only won ten games in thirty-six attempts and have lost nine of their last ten. Old Piniella must be coughing up blood at this point.

Nobody expected the Reds to 20-17 at this point in the season. Adam Dunn has an on-base percentage of .490 to go along with his eleven homers. Sean Casey is batting .374 with 15 doubles. Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. are contributing. The pitching isn't spectacular, but has been better than expected with Paul Wilson and Aaron Harang leading the starters. Danny Graves isn't unhittable, but he has saved seventeen of the Reds' wins.

A surprise on the negative side has been the Royals. The ugly ducklings turned swans last year have been abysmal to this point. The pitching staff in particular is scary with a staff 5.28 ERA. The pitchers have given up 467 base runners in 305 innings. Ugh!

The Seattle Mariners have fallen on similar hard times. The Mariners pitch alright--although Hasegawa and Pineiro have had horrible starts to their season. The Mariners hit for a decent team average as well. Consider though that the Mariners have only hit 24 homers in 36 games. Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud are all batting in the high .240's and have collectively seemed to get old all at once. The manager is taking the heat, but this is a team that was kept together for two seasons too long.

Just about every team in the AL Central is a surprise. The Royals have been discussed already for their sour season. But the Twins are above expectations, as are the White Sox, Indians and even the Tigers. While the Tigers don't seem capable of maintaining their .500 record, the other three seem to be ready to battle it out the rest of the season.

The Twins seem to be doing well with mirrors. Lew Ford is a blossoming and unexpected new star and Christian Guzman is off to a good start. The relief pitching has been sublime so far as unlikely heroes like 85 year old, Terry Mulholland is contributing well along with unexpected closing success by Joe Nathan. Nathan's ERA is down to 1.37 and has struck out 26 batters in 19.2 innings pitched. It seems hard to believe that the Twins can hold on, but they haven't cracked yet.

The White Sox and Indians are good, but seem no better than .500 teams, but neither does the Twins. The winner of this division may end up with 85-90 wins.

The most fun surprise so far this season has been the Rangers and the Brewers. The Rangers have a chance to stay in contention in the AL West while the Brewers won't win a division any time soon, but they've turned into a fun team to follow.

Lyle Overbay has blown open the league so far this season. The Brewers have a pitcher who hits...or is that a hitter who pitches? Scott Podsednik has already scored 30 runs and has stolen 20 bases without being caught. And recently, Ben Sheets is starting to live up to his potential as he recently struck out 18 batters. Sheets is 4-2 with a 2.90 ERA. There is a fun story everywhere you look on this team.

Overbay has been amazing. Batting .369 this season, Overbay already has 21 doubles to go along with five homers and 38 RBI. Overbay is on pace to hit sixty doubles and a 150 RBI.

Brooks Kieschnick is batting .368 as a pinch hitter and has a 1.47 ERA in twelve pitching performances. Now that is fun stuff.

The Rangers are just as fun to watch as they have several young stars that have gelled under Buck Showalter. Soriano, Blalock, Young, Texeira, Nix and Mench have to be entertaining for the Rangers' fans night after night. Playing nearly .600 baseball is by far the number one team surprise of the year.