Goodbye, April

April is now behind us. The Red Sox finished the month at .500, going 11-11, which I think is pretty respectable considering how the month started. However, the Red Sox are still in last place in the division, a half-game back from the Blue Jays and 3 ½ back from the division leading Rays.

Everyone who knows baseball knows that the AL East is considered one of the best, if not the best, divisions in baseball (the top division is typically the NL East). Even just looking at the standings as of today, if the Red Sox were in any other division in the American League, they would not be in last place. In fact, they would be tied for second place in the Central with the White Sox and Tigers (behind the Indians) and in second place in the West, behind only the Rangers.

With that said, I’m glad to see April gone (though I flipped my Red Sox calendar today to be greeted by John Lackey’s picture. Not what I wanted to see). It seems like the Red Sox are starting to hit their stride, much like they did last year. By comparison, the Red Sox went 11-15 in April last year.

There are definitely some things the Red Sox need to work on: like Buchholz pitching (though you can argue that 5 of his earned runs from last night may have been do to Valentine keeping him in too long), Youkilis needs to start hitting more (he has done better lately), the bullpen needs to work out a few more issues (Aceves’ ERA is still over 10, but has come down drastically), among other things.

Hopefully today, we should hear what the Red Sox decided to do with Aaron Cook. He has a May 1st opt-out clause and will surely be swiped up by another team (Yankees?). Ellsbury has been reportedly slowly getting better, but there still is no timeline when he should return. The same can be said with Crawford and Bailey, though Bailey’s looking like around the All-Star Break.

What will this team accomplish with the pieces it has now? What will the team accomplish with the pieces that will hopefully be coming back (Matsuzaka, Crawford, Ellsbury, Bailey)? Let’s hope things just keep getting better for the Red Sox this year.