June 06, 2007
Power Rankings
Here's an example of using betting lines to gauge team strength. And here's the same thing for the NL. I surprised the Yankees are so high in the AL and the Marlins are so low in the NL. But that's the wisdom of crowds.
The big reason is that there are so many New York fans willing to bet on their team. Contrast that to Toronto, which is arguably the better team, which ranks 10th of 14 teams. It has fewer fans, so it has many less people betting on it.