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The American League Dominance Explained

S soxnole1,000+ posts
The gap is becoming the Grand Canyon.

According to "Baseball Prospectus" an AL player switching league's can expect to increase his average and OBP 10 points. His Slugging would increase 20 points.

AL pitcher's can expect their ERA to drop 0.25 after accounting for the DH.

AL teams would win an average of 10 more games if it could face NL teams. NL teams would have the opposite 10 game fate. (Yankees of 07 would have had 107 wins while the Mets would have had 87).

The "gap" is widening. AL teams spent 75 mil to the NL's 71 million in 2004. In 2007, it's 93 mil to 74 mil. (Actually this is good news for the cubs).

The Chicago White Sox, KC Royals and Toronto Blue Jays are the surprising culprit's in this salary increase.

Another major factor is the overall Bill Wirtz like stinginess of NL owners who have signifigantly more profitable franchises (NL's 19.9 mil profit to the AL's 12.7).

Even these stat monster's admit how much luck it takes to win in the playoff's and they blame the Cardinal's (would have been the 11th best team in the AL last year) for allowing the trend to continue and the gap to widen.

Source's: (Story in today's NY Times)
Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus
Dan Rosenheck of the NY Times
Bill James of the Red Sox
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itsrosyitsrosy1,000+ posts
Sox,

I enjoyed reading your information. I think these stats are very meaningful, unlike Beenthere. Actually I don't understand his post at all.

JMO, Bill James has revolutionized the way teams look at players and their production. This also plays a huge roll in drafting, building a team and deciding what to do as players approach free agency. Stats are the key factor in the signing of free agents and one only need to look at the Oakland A's and all of the great players they have lost due to budget restraints, but Billy Beane has them contending each and every year. He may be the best, but other GM's are copying his methods and seeing success.

Note: No NL owner is anywhere near as stingy as Dollar Bill Wirtz.
Last edited by itsrosy
B BeenthereILHSBBWeb Old Timer
Its...Not sure why it is so difficult to understand...title of the post "American League dominance"...

My point: How could there be AL dominance when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last year and they are a National League team?

Nothing matters during the season. It matters who gets to the post season and then WINS.

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FastballDadFastballDad1,000+ posts
There is obviously a lot of truth in Soxnole's post.

I guess you only remember who wins, but I still think of those Twins teams of the 80's who won as being the worst teams ever to win the WS. The 2006 Cards were the same kind of team.

It used to be that the best team won the WS most of the time, but now with Wild Cards and two playoff levels before you get to the WS, the likelyhood of the best team winning it all is much lower.
itsrosyitsrosy1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by BeenthereIL:
Its...Not sure why it is so difficult to understand...title of the post "American League dominance"...

My point: How could there be AL dominance when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last year and they are a National League team?

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Been, My point is that just because the AL didn't win last year's WS, doesn't mean that from top to bottom the AL is, by all measures, the far stronger league right now. As FBD said, because we no longer have a post-season with 2 pennant winning teams doing battle in the WS, there are many more opportunities for a wild card or poor-record division winning team (2006 Cardinals)to get hot and win the series. While I'll always be a NL guy, a fan would really have to be biased to not see that the 'other' league is really where it's happening. I would choose to watch tonight's Yankees vs Red Sox game before I'd watch any NL game except maybe a peek at Cubs-Cards.
FastballDadFastballDad1,000+ posts
Doggywoggy, you are right the DH is a big part of that statisical difference between the leagues. There are also a few more owners eager to win in the AL as well.

That said, The DH is the worst thing to happen to baseball...just as bad as steroids. Took 90% of the strategic game away from the AL.

Just call it "Baseball For Dummies."
S soxnole1,000+ posts
I call it "Baseball for hitters".

As for strategy, there are a lot of managers that feel the DH brings more to the game than the NL's marching a pitcher up to SF or using a .220 bench player to do the same. Sweet Lou and the OZ are 2 of them!

For every move you can think of without the DH there is an extra move/decision to be made with it.
FastballDadFastballDad1,000+ posts
Perhaps Soxnole.

The different ways strategy is effected are sometimes difficult to figure.

The main difference is that no matter the score, you can just leave your pitcher in.....you never have to decide about pinch hitting or leaving him in. I also believe that it encourages offenses to be slugger oriented rather than moving runners, etc. With the DH, every manager is Earl Weaver.
S soxnole1,000+ posts
"You never have to decide about pinch hitting or leaving him in"

There are fewer pinch hitting decisions, I'll grant you.

But you still must decide when to take out your pitcher, just at a different point in the game.

Leaving the pitcher in or taking him out is alway's in question.

Deciding when to take him out is more difficult in the AL, imo.

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