Kansas City Royals: Alex Gordon and the 5 Biggest Surprises of 2011

The Kansas City Royals have had many surprises this season.

Starting left fielder Alex Gordon has emerged as one of the best hitters on the team and rookie Aaron Crow is becoming a dominant reliever in the Royals young bullpen.

Here are five Royals that have had surprise campaigns so far in the 2011 season.

Enjoy.

Aaron Crow

Crow won a spot in the Royals 'pen after an impressive showing in spring training earlier this year.

The former University of Missouri star has been nothing short of stellar in his setup role, putting together a 2-1 record, to go along with an anemic 1.40 ERA for the season.

His slider is one of the hardest pitches to hit in baseball right now, and he appears to be the real deal for KC.

There has been talks about the Royals making him a starter next season, but Crow looks fine in the bullpen for now.

Alex Gordon

Alex Gordon might just be the biggest surprise of the entire 2011 season to date for the Royals.

He is batting .293 with 23 doubles, nine homers and 44 RBI, and has been an excellent on defense at his left field position.

Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer has been working extensively with Gordon over the offseason, and it has shown with his much improved play through the first three months of the '11 campaign.

This very well could be the Alex Gordon that Royals officials and fans thought they were getting when they made him their first round selection in the 2005 MLB Draft.

Melky Cabrera

Cabrera signed with the Royals as a free agent during the past offseason and brought low expectations with him after an awful 2010 season with the Atlanta Braves.

So far this year, he is on pace to have the best season of his seven-year Major League career.

He is hitting .277 with nine bombs, 43 runs driven in and 10 stolen bases while playing a solid center-field for Kansas City.

As if this isn't enough, he is currently on pace for 18 homers, which would be five more than his career-high with the Yankees in 2009.

Greg Holland

Holland has come out of the pen and done a great job in his role this season.

In his 13 appearances, he is 2-1 with a 1.08 ERA with 21 Ks in just 16-plus innings.

His control has been unbelievable and his emergence gives the Royals another weapon in their already young and talented bullpen.

Hopefully he can keep it up for the rest of 2011.

Felipe Paulino

Paulino came over from the Rockies last month in a trade for cash.

After a rocky start for Colorado to begin the season, he has been surprisingly effective since joining the Royals rotation.

Paulino has put together a 3.09 ERA in five starts, while maintaining a K/BB ratio of better than three to one.

Even though its only a small sample size, the Royals are hoping that it will last the rest of this season and beyond.