MLB 2011

Major League Baseball
season	2011
Period	March 31 - October 28, 2011
Regular season
Season MVP AL	Justin Verlander ( DET )
Season MVP NL	Ryan brown ( mil )
Postseason
AL Champion	Texas Rangers
Second AL	Detroit Tigers
NL champion	St. Louis Cardinals
Second NL	Milwaukee Brewers
World Series
champion	St. Louis Cardinals
MVP	David Freese (STL)
Playing times
◄ 2010 2012 ►

The 2011 MLB season , the 110th season of Major League Baseball , opened on March 31, 2011 and ended on October 28, 2011.

During the regular season , 30 teams fought in 162 games each for a place in the play-offs. The 2011 World Series began on October 19, 2011 and ended on October 28, 2011. The defending champions were the San Francisco Giants , who won the 2010 World Series .

The 2011 MLB All-Star Game took place on July 12, 2011 at Chase Field in Phoenix , Arizona .

The annual Civil Rights Game in honor of civil rights was held on May 15 at Turner Field in Atlanta . The Atlanta Braves based there received the Philadelphia Phillies .

Participating teams

For the 2011 season, those responsible made no changes to the participating franchises or league and division assignments.

TEX OAK LAA SEA MIN CWS DET CLE KC TB NYY BOS GOAL BAL

American League venues. Divisions: West, Central, East.

American League
west	Central	East
Texas Rangers	Minnesota Twins	Tampa Bay Rays
Oakland Athletics	Chicago White Sox	New York Yankees
LA Angels of Anaheim	Detroit Tigers	Boston Red Sox
Seattle Mariners	Cleveland Indians	Toronto Blue Jays
	Kansas City Royals	Baltimore Orioles

SF SD COL LAD ARI CIN STL Mil HOU CHC PIT PHI ATL FLA NYM WSH

National League venues. Divisions: West, Central, East.

National League
west	Central	East
San Francisco Giants	Cincinnati Reds	Philadelphia Phillies
San Diego Padres	St. Louis Cardinals	Atlanta Braves
Colorado Rockies	Milwaukee Brewers	Florida marlins
Los Angeles Dodgers	Houston Astros	New York Mets
Arizona Diamondbacks	Chicago Cubs	Washington Nationals
	Pittsburgh Pirates

* Sorted according to the previous year's placements in the respective divisions. The teams that qualified for the postseason in the previous year are colored green .

Stages

2011 will be the last season for the Sun Life Stadium , the home of the Florida Marlins , before they move to the new ball park in Miami in 2012 and are renamed the Miami Marlins.

Spring training

Logos of the leagues of Spring Training 2011

Grapefruit League

Cactus League

Starting on February 24, 2011, the MLB's pre-season, the so-called Spring Training , where the teams in the Grapefruit League and the Cactus League tested new players, but also brought in their desired core formations. The last game of Spring Training took place on March 30th.

The best team in the Grapefruit League were the Minnesota Twins , who won 62.5% of their games. At the same time, the Twins were also the second most successful team in the American League behind the Kansas City Royals , who won the Cactus League with a 66.7% win rate.

The best value of all National League teams was achieved by the previous year's winners of the World Series, the San Francisco Giants , who finished second in the Cactus League with 65.7% won games.

The Houston Astros were at the bottom of the Grapefruit League (31.4%). At the bottom of the Cactus League table, the Arizona Diamondbacks (32.4%) finished spring training.

Historically, the results of the two leagues in spring training are not a measure of success in the regular season. This was confirmed again in 2011, as Royals and Twins could not play any role in the fight and the postseason, but conversely the Diamondbacks won the NL West before the Giants.

Final tables of Spring Training 2011

The teams marked yellow in the tables of the Grapefruit and Cactus League are members of the National League, the others play in the American League.

Grapefruit League

Item	team	W.	L.	%	GB
01	Minnesota Twins	20th	12	.625	-
02	Philadelphia Phillies	21st	14th	.600	0.5
03	Detroit Tigers	20th	14th	.588	1
04th	Atlanta Braves	17th	13	.567	2
05	Toronto Blue Jays	16	14th	.533	3
06th	New York Mets	17th	15th	.531	3
07th	Tampa Bay Rays	15th	14th	.517	3.5
	Washington Nationals	15th	14th	.517	3.5
09	Baltimore Orioles	15th	15th	.500	4th
	Florida marlins	15th	15th	.500	4th
11	St. Louis Cardinals	14th	16	.467	5
12	New York Yankees	13	15th	.464	5
13	Boston Red Sox	14th	19th	.424	6.5
14th	Pittsburgh Pirates	12	21st	.364	8.5
15th	Houston Astros	11	24	.314	10.5

Cactus League

Item	team	W.	L.	%	GB
01	Kansas City Royals	20th	10	.667	-
02	San Francisco Giants	23	12	.657	0.5
03	Colorado Rockies	20th	11	.645	1
04th	Milwaukee Brewers	19th	11	.633	1.5
05	LA Angels	18th	13	.581	3
06th	Seattle Mariners	16	13	.552	4th
07th	Cincinnati Reds	17th	14th	.548	4th
08th	Cleveland Indians	15th	14th	.517	5.0
09	Texas Rangers	13	16	.448	7th
10	San Diego Padres	13	17th	.433	7.5
11	Chicago Cubs	14th	19th	.424	8th
12	LA Dodgers	14th	21st	.400	9
13	Oakland Athletics	12	21st	.364	10
14th	Chicago White Sox	11	20th	.355	10
15th	Arizona Diamondbacks	12	25th	.324	12

Regular season

Brief explanation of game operations and table structure

The AL and NL are each divided into three divisions for game operations. The allocation is based on regional criteria: East, Central and West Division. The game will run from March 31, 2011 to September 28, 2011.

The table positions are responsible for reaching the postseason : The three respective division winners and the second best of the three divisions in terms of winning percentages carry out the championship in the American and National League respectively in two rounds. The respective champions then meet in the World Series.

The ranking of the teams in the table results during the season from the current ratio of wins to games overall as the so-called winning percentage . The reason for this is the uneven distribution of the games over the calendar, so that some teams have played three or more games more than others. For example, the balance of team A with 15 wins and 15 defeats (.500 expressed as the corresponding percentage) is considered to be exactly equivalent to the balance of team B, which achieved 16 wins and 16 defeats at the same time. However, this is irrelevant for the final tables, since at the end of the season all teams had played the 162 season games that have been common since 1961. Therefore, it is sufficient to state wins and defeats (draws are uncommon these days).

With the indication GB ( Games Behind ) it is documented how big the gap between a chaser and the first in the table is. This expresses how many victories the pursuer would theoretically need with simultaneous defeat of the leader in order to achieve a tie. GB is expressed to 0.5 games: For example, if team A has 10 wins and 5 defeats, but team B 9 wins and 5 defeats, a win of its own (without defeat by A) would lead to a tie.

In order to at least indicate the development during the season, the table positions of the teams were recorded at the end of April and the end of May. Another milestone is the All-Star-Break , the break in game operations on the occasion of the All-Star Game ; Similar to the autumn championship in football , an intermediate result is determined in the middle of the season. The last interim information is rather arbitrarily related to the date August 31st, in order to be able to assess about four weeks before the end of the season to what extent the respective division was already pre-decided at this point in time (such as in all divisions of the NL) or, if applicable, at this point in time Leading was displaced (as happened in the AL East Division with the spectacular crash of the Boston Red Sox, which achieved only seven wins out of 20 defeats).

Season course of the regular season

American League

April

As of April 30, the American League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	New York Yankees	15th	9	-		1	Cleveland Indians	18th	8th	-		3	Texas Rangers	16	11	-
WC	Tampa Bay Rays	15th	12	1.5			Kansas City Royals	14th	13	4.5		WC	Los Angeles Angels	15th	12	1.0
	Toronto Blue Jays	13	14th	3.5			Detroit Tigers	12	15th	6.5			Oakland Athletics	13	14th	3.0
	Baltimore Orioles	12	13	3.5			Chicago White Sox	10	18th	9.0			Seattle Mariners	13	15th	3.5
	Boston Red Sox	11	15th	5.0			Minnesota Twins	9	17th	9.0

PS = postseason; Number = rank on the seeding list or WC = wild card (best runner-up of all divisions)

W = Wins (victories), L = Losses (defeats), GB = Games Behind (behind leaders: number of necessary defeats for the leader while simultaneously winning)

May

As of May 31, the American League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
2	New York Yankees	30th	23	-		1	Cleveland Indians	32	20th	-		3	Texas Rangers	29	26th	-
▲ toilet	Boston Red Sox	30th	25th	1.0		▲	Detroit Tigers	28	26th	5.0		▲	Seattle Mariners	28	26th	0.5
▼	Tampa Bay Rays	29	25th	1.5		▲	Chicago White Sox	10	18th	9.0		▼	Los Angeles Angels	29	28	1.0
▼	Toronto Blue Jays	28	27	3.0		▼	Kansas City Royals	24	30th	9.0		▼	Oakland Athletics	27	29	2.5
▼	Baltimore Orioles	24	29	6.0			Minnesota Twins	17th	36	15.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. April, ▼ worsening vs. April, otherwise see AL April

June to All-Star Break (July 10, 2011)

At the All-Star-Break (July 10, 2011) the following placements resulted in the AL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
▲ 1	Boston Red Sox	55	35	-		▲ 3	Detroit Tigers	49	43	-		2	Texas Rangers	51	41	-
▼ WC	New York Yankees	53	35	1.0		▼	Cleveland Indians	47	42	0.5		▲	Los Angeles Angels	50	42	1.0
	Tampa Bay Rays	49	41	6.0			Chicago White Sox	44	48	5.0		▼	Seattle Mariners	43	48	7.5
	Toronto Blue Jays	45	47	11.0		▲	Minnesota Twins	41	48	6.5			Oakland Athletics	39	53	12.0
	Baltimore Orioles	36	52	18.0		▼	Kansas City Royals	37	54	11.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. May, ▼ worsening vs. May, explanations: see AL April

Second half of July and August

As of August 31, 2011, the following placements were made in the AL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Boston Red Sox	83	52	-		3	Detroit Tigers	75	61	-		2	Texas Rangers	77	60	-
WC	New York Yankees	81	53	1.5			Cleveland Indians	68	65	5.5			Los Angeles Angels	73	63	3.5
	Tampa Bay Rays	74	61	9.0			Chicago White Sox	68	66	6.0		▲	Oakland Athletics	60	76	16.5
	Toronto Blue Jays	68	68	15.5			Minnesota Twins	57	79	18.0		▼	Seattle Mariners	58	77	18.0
	Baltimore Orioles	54	80	28.5			Kansas City Royals	56	81	19.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, explanations: see AL April

September (end of season)

The final tables in the American League after the last game day (September 28) show the following picture:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
▲ 1	New York Yankees	97	65	-		3	Detroit Tigers	95	67	-		2	Texas Rangers	96	66	-
▲ toilet	Tampa Bay Rays	91	71	6.0			Cleveland Indians	80	82	15.0			Los Angeles Angels	86	76	10.0
▼	Boston Red Sox	90	72	7.0			Chicago White Sox	79	83	16.0			Oakland Athletics	74	88	22.0
	Toronto Blue Jays	81	81	16.0		▲	Kansas City Royals	71	91	24.0			Seattle Mariners	67	95	29.0
	Baltimore Orioles	69	93	28.0		▼	Minnesota Twins	63	99	32.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. August, ▼ worsening vs. August, explanations: see AL April

On September 16, the Detroit Tigers were the first team to take part in the postseason by winning the AL Central Division, twelve match days before the end of the season. The New York Yankees followed them on September 21 as winners of the AL East Division (seven game days to go). Since September 23, the team of the Texas Rangers was safely qualified in the AL West ; On the last day of the season, the Tamba Bay Rays were able to secure the wild card place after they caught up 9-game deficit from the Boston Red Sox.

National League

April

As of April 30, the National League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Philadelphia Phillies	18th	8th	-		3	St. Louis Cardinals	16	11	-		2	Colorado Rockies	17th	8th	-
WC	Florida marlins	16	9	1.5			Cincinnati Reds	14th	13	2.0			Los Angeles Dodgers	14th	14th	4.5
	Atlanta Braves	13	15th	6.0			Milwaukee Brewers	13	13	2.5			San Francisco Giants	13	13	4.5
	Washington Nationals	12	14th	6.0			Chicago Cubs	12	14th	3.5			Arizona Diamondbacks	11	15th	6.5
	New York Mets	11	16	7.5			Pittsburgh Pirates	12	15th	4.0			San Diego Padres	10	17th	8.0
							Houston Astros	10	17th	6.0

Explanations: see AL

May

As of May 31, the National League ranked as follows:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Philadelphia Phillies	34	21st	-		2	St. Louis Cardinals	33	23	-		▲ 3	Arizona Diamondbacks	30th	25th	-
WC	Florida marlins	31	22nd	2.0		▲	Milwaukee Brewers	30th	25th	2.5		▲	San Francisco Giants	29	25th	0.5
	Atlanta Braves	30th	26th	4.5		▼	Cincinnati Reds	28	28	5.0		▼	Los Angeles Dodgers	26th	30th	4.5
▲	New York Mets	25th	29	8.5		▲	Pittsburgh Pirates	25th	28	6.5		▼	Colorado Rockies	25th	29	4.5
▼	Washington Nationals	23	31	10.5		▼	Chicago Cubs	23	30th	8.5			San Diego Padres	24	31	6.0
							Houston Astros	21st	34	11.5

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. April, ▼ worsening vs. April, otherwise see AL April

June to All-Star Break (July 10, 2011)

At the All-Star-Break (July 10, 2011) the following placements were made in the NL:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Philadelphia Phillies	57	34	-		▲ 3	Milwaukee Brewers	49	43	-		▲ 2	San Francisco Giants	52	40	-
▲ toilet	Atlanta Braves	54	38	3.5		▼ 3	St. Louis Cardinals	49	43	-		▼	Arizona Diamondbacks	49	43	3.0
▲	New York Mets	46	45	11.0		▲	Pittsburgh Pirates	47	43	1.0		▲	Colorado Rockies	43	48	8.5
▲	Washington Nationals	46	46	11.5		▼	Cincinnati Reds	45	47	4.0		▼	Los Angeles Dodgers	41	51	11.0
▼	Florida marlins	43	48	14.0			Chicago Cubs	37	55	12.0			San Diego Padres	40	52	12.0
							Houston Astros	30th	62	19.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. May, ▼ worsening vs. May, otherwise see AL April

Second half of July and August

As of August 31, 2011, the NL had the following placements:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Philadelphia Phillies	86	46	-		2	Milwaukee Brewers	81	56	-		▲ 3	Arizona Diamondbacks	78	59	-
WC	Atlanta Braves	80	55	7.5			St. Louis Cardinals	72	64	8.5		▼	San Francisco Giants	72	65	6.0
	New York Mets	65	69	22.0		▲	Cincinnati Reds	67	69	13.5		▲	Los Angeles Dodgers	65	70	12.0
	Washington Nationals	63	71	24.0		▼	Pittsburgh Pirates	62	74	18.5		▼	Colorado Rockies	64	73	14.0
	Florida marlins	60	75	27.5			Chicago Cubs	59	78	22.0			San Diego Padres	60	77	18.0
							Houston Astros	47	90	34.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, otherwise see AL April

September (end of season)

The final tables in the National League after the last matchday (September 28) show the following picture:

East Division						Central Division						West Division
PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB		PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB
1	Philadelphia Phillies	102	60	-		2	Milwaukee Brewers	96	66	-		3	Arizona Diamondbacks	94	68	-
	Atlanta Braves	89	73	13.0		WC	St. Louis Cardinals	90	72	6.0			San Francisco Giants	86	76	8.0
▲	Washington Nationals	80	81	21.5			Cincinnati Reds	79	83	17.0			Los Angeles Dodgers	82	79	11.5
▼	New York Mets	77	85	25.0			Pittsburgh Pirates	72	90	24.0			Colorado Rockies	73	89	21.0
	Florida marlins	72	90	30.0			Chicago Cubs	71	91	25.0			San Diego Padres	71	91	23.0
							Houston Astros	56	106	40.0

Arrows: ▲ Improvement vs. July, ▼ deterioration compared to July, otherwise see AL April

On September 14th, the Philadelphia Phillies secured their postseason participation, on September 17th the NL East Division won the fifth consecutive win. This time they achieved it by a record with 102 wins and only 60 losses. The Milwaukee Brewers celebrated winning the NL Central Division on September 23rd. On September 23, the Arizona Diamondbacks secured victory in the NL West Division; on the final day of the game, the St. Louis Cardinals got the wild card seat instead of the Atlanta Braves, who lost their 10-game lead.

Postseason

→ Main articles: NLDS 2011 , ALDS 2011 , NLCS 2011 , ALCS 2011 , World Series 2011

Mode and participants

As in previous years, the best four teams play the winners of the American League or National League in the postseason, which then determine the World Series winner in the 2011 World Series.

The Division Series and then the respective Championship Series have been played since September 30th and until October 17th 2011 at the latest. To this end, the three division winners and the best runner-up (so-called wild card) meet in two division series matches in the best-of-five mode ( ALDS or NLDS = American or National League Division Series). The winners of the Division Series matches then play the respective League Champion in a best-of-seven procedure ( ALCS or NLCS = American or National League Championship Series).

The wild card winners usually play against the best division winner, i.e. the team with the most wins from the regular season games. However, if the team with the most wins comes from the same division as the wild card winner, the wild card team will play against the second best division winner in their league in order to avoid an intra-division duel.

The participants in the American League were the New York Yankees (winner AL East), Texas Rangers (winner AL West), Detroit Tigers (winner AL Central) and the Tampa Bay Rays (Wild Card). Because of the rule described above, the Rays did not meet the Yankees (with the best record), but the Rangers.

In the National League , the Philadelphia Phillies (winner NL East), the Milwaukee Brewers (winner NL Central), the Arizona Diamondbacks (winner West) and the St. Louis Cardinals (Wild Card) qualified for the postseason.

Scheme

The following results were found in the postseason:

	League Division Series					League Championship Series					World Series
	1	New York Yankees	2
	3	Detroit Tigers	3
						2	Texas Rangers	4th
	American League
						3	Detroit Tigers	2
	2	Texas Rangers	3
	WC	Tampa Bay Rays	1
											AL	Texas Rangers	3
											NL	St. Louis Cardinals	4th
	1	Philadelphia Phillies	2
	WC	St. Louis Cardinals	3
						2	Milwaukee Brewers	2
	National League
						WC	St. Louis Cardinals	4th
	2	Milwaukee Brewers	3
	3	Arizona Diamondbacks	2

ALDS, NLDS (Division Series): Best-of Five; ALCS, NLCS (Championship Series): Best-of-Seven

Special achievements and milestones

Individual services

• David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox made his 1004th RBI as a Designated Hitter on April 2nd , setting a new MLB record in this category.

honors and awards

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Player of the month July in the AL .

Pitcher CC Sabathia. Pitcher of the month July in the AL .

Player of the month

month	American League	National League
April	José Bautista	Ryan Braun
May	José Bautista	Jay Bruce
June	Adrian Gonzalez	Prince Fielder
July	Dustin Pedroia	Emilio Bonifacio
August	Curtis Granderson	Dan Uggla
September	Adrián Beltré	Ryan Braun

Pitcher of the month

month	American League	National League
April	Jered Weaver	Josh Johnson
May	Jeremy Hellickson	Jair Jurrjens
June	Justin Verlander	Cliff Lee
July	CC Sabathia	Clayton Kershaw
August	Ricky Romero	Cliff Lee
September	Doug Fister	Javier Vázquez

Rookie of the month

month	American League	National League
April	Michael Pineda	Darwin Barney
May	Jeremy Hellickson	Justin Turner
June	Ben Revere Jemile Weeks	Craig Kimbrel
July	Eric Hosmer	Freddie Freeman
August	Mike Carp	Craig Kimbrel
September	Eric Hosmer	Dee Gordon

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mark Newman: 2011 MLB Slate Packed With Exciting Matchups . In: MLB.com . September 14, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
2. ↑ Steve Gilbert: D-backs to host 2011 All-Star Game , MLB.com. April 11, 2009. 
3. ↑ Civil Rights Game to feature Braves, Phillies ( English ) Major League Baseball. January 13, 2011. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
4. ^ Baseball Almanac, MLB Player of the Month
5. ^ Baseball Almanac, MLB Pitcher of the Month
6. ^ Baseball Almanac, MLB Rookie of the Month