All-April Team

April baseball is in the books, or another way to look at it: the season is one-seventh of the way over. It's time to recognize those players who performed like All-Stars in the first month of the season and made their fantasy owners look like geniuses for drafting them... or in a few cases, picking them up out of free agency after the season had begun. You'll find a few All-Star regulars on the list below, but also some surprising names that few saw coming.

C Joe Mauer, Twins - The home runs aren't there yet, but despite the lack of power Mauer leads all catchers in batting average and runs scored and ranks second in RBI

1B Albert Pujols, Cardinals - Nice way to lead off the All-April team with the reigning MVPs. Sir Albert ranks second among all first basemen in batting average (.345) and home runs (7).

2B Robinson Cano, Yankees - Cano has been unconscious at the plate in recent weeks. He leads the big leagues with a .400 batting average and also ranks among the league leaders with eight home runs. 

3B Evan Longoria, Rays - There was no clear-cut dominant third baseman in April, but Longoria has a higher batting average than any third baseman East of Pablo Sandoval, plus more homers and RBI than the Panda and more runs scored (and stolen hats) than anyone at the hot corner.

SS Alex Gonzalez, Blue Jays - Those who say  they saw this coming are just flat-out lying. Gonzalez had an unprecedented month and currently leads all shortstops in home runs (7), RBI (19), and OPS (.946).

CI Paul Konerko, White Sox - Konerko has never had a month like this before, either. He leads the majors in home runs with 11 and leads all first basemen with a 1.197 OPS.

MI Kelly Johnson, Diamondbacks - Our third straight surprising player, Johnson has already hit more homers in April (9) than he hit all of last year (8).

U Justin Morneau, Twins - With apologies to Miguel Cabrera, who leads the major leagues with 25 RBI, Morneau has a higher batting average, higher OPS, the same number of homers, and more runs scored than the Tigers slugger.

OF Ryan Braun, Brewers - An across the board stud in April, Braun ranks in the top-10 among outfielders in batting average, home runs, RBI, runs scored, stolen bases, and OPS.

OF Vernon Wells, Blue Jays - Following a few lost years, Wells looks determined to earn the money in that fat contract of his. Wells is pacing all outfielders in homers (8) and runs scored (20).

OF Matt Kemp, Dodgers - Kemp hit "only" .278 in April, but had more home runs and runs scored than Ryan Braun and the same number of RBI.

OF Jose Guillen, Royals - One of the most surprising players of the year thus far, Guillen went from battling blood clots in his legs during the offseason to posting similar stats to Braun and Kemp in April.

SP Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies - All he's done so far is throw a no-hitter and win all five of his starts. Not a bad way to kick off the season.

SP Tim Lincecum, Giants - The reigning Cy Young award winner is facing some stiff competition for his crown so far, but still leads all pitchers with 43 strikeouts and has not lost a game.

SP Francisco Liriano, Twins - The magic of 2006 is back for the Twins filthy southpaw. Liriano leads the American League with a 0.93 ERA and has not allowed a run in his last 23 innings of work.

SP Mike Pelfrey, Mets - Adding a nasty split-finger fastball to his repertoire has helped Pelfrey fashion the best ERA in the majors (0.69) through the first month of the season.

SP Andy Pettitte, Yankees - Pettitte is off to the best start of his long and storied (and some would suggest Hall of Fame worthy) career: a 3-0 mark and a 2.12 ERA.

SP Matt Garza, Rays - Garza has four wins and ranks among the league leaders in strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP. About that beard, though...

RP Matt Capps, Nationals - April baseball in a microcosm: his team was the worst in baseball last year yet he somehow leads the majors in saves (10) through one month. Weird.

RP Mariano Rivera, Yankees - Near perfection thus far. Rivera is seven-for-seven in saves, and in nine innings of work he has allowed just five base runners and ZERO runs.