Interleague: Is the AL Really Dominant?
[New York. June 11, 2007.] We just finished our first weekend of the “real” interleague matchups. Last month, we were greeted with the “rivalry” interleague matchups. So, shall we start the debate as to which Major League Baseball Conference is superior? These two interleague weekends have given us 84 total interleague games. Luckily, there were no postponements. Each of the 14 American League teams played in two series (6 total games each). Since there are 16 National League teams, 10 played 6 games and the other 4 played in only 3 each (remember, those four had to play each other to keep it all even). To preempt any arguments about where the games were played — there were 42 games played in National League parks and 42 games in American.
In those 84 games so far, the American League won over 60% of the games. To be exact, the American League was 51-33 (.607) in those games, thus, the National League was 33-51 (.393). Even though interleague play has only just begun, these numbers appear to be consistent with the overall power of the leagues. But for the Mets, it is hard to imagine any of the other National League teams consistently beating any of the American League power-houses (the Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Indians, Angels, etc.). And those Mets, they just lost two out of three against the Tigers. That series puts the two leagues in perspective. The Mets shut out Detroit in game one with an amazing outing by their number five starter, Jorge Sosa. But, when they sent their top two starters out there in the next two games, they lost both, surrendering 23 total runs in those two games.
A summary of each teams current record, along with their interleague record, is as follows:
American League [51-33] (.607)
AL East
Boston 40-22 (.645) 4-2
Yankees 30-31 (.492) 4-2
Toronto 30-32 (.484) 3-3
Baltimore 29-34 (.460) 3-3
Tampa Bay 28-33 (.459) 2-4
AL Central
Cleveland 37-24 (.607) 3-3
Detroit 36-26 (.581) 5-1
Minnesota 30-31 (.492) 3-3
White Sox 27-32 (.458) 2-4
Kansas City 24-40 (.375) 4-2
AL West
Los Angeles 40-24 (.625) 5-1
Seattle 33-26 (.559) 4-2
Oakland 34-28 (.548) 5-1
Texas 23-40 (.365) 4-2
National League [33-51] (.393)
NL East
Mets 36-25 (.590) 3-3
Atlanta 35-29 (.547) 1-2
Philadelphia 32-31 (.508) 3-3
Florida 31-33 (.484) 4-2
Washington 26-37 (.413) 3-3
NL Central
Milwaukee 34-29 (.540) 2-4
St. Louis 27-33 (.450) 1-5
Cubs 27-34 (.443) 2-1
Houston 26-36 (.419) 3-3
Pittsburgh 26-37 (.413) 0-3
Cincinnati 25-39 (.391) 3-3
NL West
San Diego 36-26 (.581) 2-4
Arizona 37-27 (.578) 1-2
Los Angeles 35-28 (.556) 1-5
Colorado 31-32 (.492) 3-3
San Francisco 28-34 (.452) 1-5
We will be back after the next set of interleague games to discuss. I know St. Louis fans will argue that their team won the World Series, but that was a seven game series. The data above gives us the analysis of 84 games thus far. And trust me, I wish the National League would win 60%, so long as my American League team was in the 40%…
June 11th, 2007 at 03:53pm Brian
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