Sunday, July 02, 2006

Senior Ciruit Breaker?

No wonder they call it the Senior Circuit. Are they using Senior Citizens to play against the AL?

MLB designed interleague play to create additional fan interest. I suppose the true local rivalries (Yankees-Mets, Dodgers-Angels) do, but the Red Sox- Phillies, or Florida-Tampa Bay? Well, Brett Myers did create additional local interest. Guess that the old saw about 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' hit him in the face.

Aside from the false premise, we have the lopsided results and some really useless stats like "Derek Jeter has the most hits in the history of interleague play." Oh, and of course, Manny Ramirez has a higher salary than the Florida Marlins payroll. But don't worry, Florida is trying to fix that, looking to dump Dontrell Willis so most of the Yankee starters will have a higher salary than the Florida payroll. Ironically, Florida is one of only two teams with winning records (Colorado being the other) against the AL.

By division, the Al East is 53-32 against the NL East, the AL Central is 60-25 against the NL Central, and the AL West is 35-32 against the NL West. Overall, that's 148-89, a .624 winning percentage, better than the best winning percentage in the NL (the Mets at .600).

The mighty Cardinals, one of the best teams in the NL, is 4-10 against the AL Central, and Seattle has moved over .500 by pitch-slapping the NL West, going 14-3. The Cardinals would probably be the fourth best team in the AL Central, if they could get by the Tribe. Tony LaRussa must truly be a genius, to have gotten out of the AL.

Five AL teams, Boston (15), Minnesota (15), Seattle (14) - yeah, you read it right, Chicago(14), and Detroit (14) have won over 80 percent of their games against the NL, and collectively are 72-13 against the 'Senior Circuit'.

Kansas City, arguably the worst team in baseball is 10-7 against their National League brethren.

Is it the 'rich' franchises (New York, Boston, LA Angels of Anaheim, California, Milky Way Galaxy) are all in the AL? What about the Mets, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, and Braves? Or that the Moneyball teams (Boston, Toronto, Oakland) live there? Or are all the best watering holes and gentlemen's clubs in AL cities, leading the NLers astray? We have to know.

Or maybe it's the defense.

Sox fans thank the scheduling gods for this reprieve from AL hitters, allowing their young pitchers to get their feet wet against inferior competition.

Interleague play. It sure looks like this dog won't hunt.

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