Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 28, 2006
The AL Wins Again

The American League dominance over the National League continues. With nine of the fourteen interleague games decided so far, eight went to the AL team, with only the Reds beating the Royals. Why is this?

If you take the pitchers out of the equation, here's how the NL and AL stack up average wise:

Non Pitchers, 2006ALNL
Batting Average.274.270
On-Base Average.341.341
Slugging Percentage.437.437

The AL contributes more hits to it's OBA than the NL, but it's a pretty small difference. The non-pitchers in the leagues have exactly the same OBA and slugging percentage! Why should these NL teams do so poorly when they should be so evenly matched? Is it just that the matchups this year happened to really favor the AL? I'm open to explanations.

Luck is still a good one. The AL is 30-14 in one run games vs the NL this year.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:11 PM | Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Watching a lot of players come to the Red Sox from the NL, the game there these days seems to be "swing at all the fastballs and hope you hit one." You send a offspeed stud like Bronson Arroyo to the NL and suddenly people are talking Cy Young....

Pitchers that come over to the AL seem to have to adjust and throw more offspeed stuff early. Hitters like Loretta and Alex Gonzalez and Renteria all have commented on how many fewer fastballs they see, especially in what they consider "fastball counts."

Posted by: Steve Brady at June 28, 2006 10:38 PM

i dont have any statistics to back this up, but could it be that AL teams have to carry nine starter type hitters including one who doesnt have to have any fielding talent? In the NL you could never get away with a David Ortiz or even really a Jason Giambi - guys who are great with the bat but cant play in the field. One would think this would give the AL teams an edge when they meet with NL teams...

Another possible explanation (again not backed by any real stats) is that the AL teams have the biggest money franchises - NYY and Boston, causing everyone in the AL to spend a little more to try to stay up....

Just a coupla guesses.

Posted by: Sam Neff at June 28, 2006 10:53 PM

One problem I have with the popular argument of different pitching/playing styles etc. thats often made is that I really dont see what the difference between the AL and NL are at this point. The NL has double switches and that seems to be it to me. The strike zone is the same since the umpires are MLB, the players go back and forth between leagues etc.

There may be a small leaning towards NL teams emphasizing small ball based on the idea that since they have one less effective hitter in the lineup, they should be scoring less, and therefore each run is slightly more important... but im not sure if i even buy that argument. In playing style im just not sure why there should be a difference except for the existence of the DH.

And since the DH allows a team to carry the best hitter available regardless of other abilities, the AL should have an advantage when playing at their home parks. Seems to make sense to me...

Posted by: Sam Neff at June 28, 2006 11:09 PM

How much does looking at each leagues batting stats tell us when they came against different competition and in different ballparks? Maybe AAA batters also have similar batting stats but that doesn't mean they are the equal of major leaguers.

I think the AL just has better players.

Posted by: mike l. at June 28, 2006 11:43 PM

David, I'm confused by those stats. Are they for interleague games only?

Posted by: studes at June 28, 2006 11:47 PM

I think Cub-funk has infected the rest of the league over there.

Posted by: Token at June 29, 2006 12:12 AM

I think the AL just wants it more. :)

Posted by: Ryan at June 29, 2006 12:24 AM

If you win 1 run games you have timely hitting (as opposed hitting when your team already has a big lead).
Or you have an effective late inning pitcher who can protect a 1 run lead.

Posted by: susan mullen at June 29, 2006 01:04 AM

Studes,

No that's all games.

Posted by: David Pinto at June 29, 2006 07:16 AM

Actually, the way I always figure it, if your winning percentage varies significantly in one-run games from your OVERALL winning percentage, then you've been at least somewhat lucky or unlucky. How different is that .667 winning percentage for the AL in 1-run decisions, from their winning percentage in the rest of the interleague games? Not that far apart, suggesting to me that the one-run games fell close to where we would expect.

Posted by: steverino at June 30, 2006 12:30 AM
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