April 2011 MLB Season Review: Expect the unexpected. Predict the unpredictable. Going into the 2011 baseball season, anyone with half a brain should have expected that things would not follow what the so-called experts picked, but some things have been pure SHOCKING. Anyway here we go- April 2011 baseball news:

The biggest story, of course, were the horrible losing streaks and slow starts of the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. But as we have seen throughout April, other teams have compiled bad records as well, and there seems to have been a competition for the worst record in baseball. The Rays wound up over .500 and are in second place, and the Red Sox are 5 games out in the AL East.

The second biggest story (in my mind) is how many superstars have been struggling to get over the infamous Mendoza line of .200 and are fighting to stay around .250. Such stars include Albert Pujols, Carl Crawford, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jorge Posada, Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, and tons of other players.

“Surprise teams” in April included the Florida Marlins, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, and Kansas City Royals. It’s amazing how the MEDIA loves to latch onto young teams when they get hot.

No surprise that the Yankees, Rangers, Cardinals, Reds, and Phillies are doing well.

The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier began is assault on Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Speaking of the Dodgers, Bud Selig took over the team.

MLB attendance is down for the first time in a long time, but radio, TV, internet, and mobile are up.

Josh Johnson of the Marlins may be an alien robot from the future- he added a curveball to his already unhittable repertoire.

How about the biggest story in Spring Training: the Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff? In order of effectiveness, it was Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt, and Cliff Lee. Joe Blanton stunk up the place.

The New York Mets pretty much lost their fan base, although they did put together a win streak to save face. They are a last place team.

Outside of the lines, Barry Bonds’ trail was declared a mistrial, but he was found guilty on one charge: obstructing justice.

The 2010 Year of the Pitcher has now been extended into 2011. You can point to better drug testing, better pitching, ballpark factors, or whatever you want, but the bottom line is that compared to last year, runs per game as per late April are slightly down, batting average is way down (.251!), on base percentage is down to an embarrassing .319, and slugging percentage is down to .391. The MLB pitcher’s April 2011 ERA is 3.91, down from 2010′s ERA of 4.08. Pitcher’s strikeout and walk rate, and HRs given up have actually remained the same.

Sure I’m forgetting a bunch of other stories, but that was April 2011 for me.

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