Division imbalances are crazy this year

baulderdash77 · Post #1 » by **baulderdash77** » Fri May 18, 2012 4:44 pm

Normally everyone expects the AL East to be much better than the rest of the AL but this year it's really out of line.

Right now only 6 teams in the entire AL have positive run differentials (including none from the AL Central). The AL East has 5 of those 6 teams.

Considering that the schedule is so unbalanced and the AL East teams have to bash each other up, this level of disparagement is crazy. It's mostly as a result of Baltimore's surprising success but even terrible Boston has a positive run differential.

BTW the Jays have the 2nd best run differential in the AL behind Texas. Texas' differential is pumped up by getting to play in the otherwise terrible AL West.

pinklemo · Post #2 » by **pinklemo** » Fri May 18, 2012 4:47 pm

with houston moving to the AL West next year, I hope that gives Selig incentive to change the divisions.

baulderdash77 · Post #3 » by **baulderdash77** » Fri May 18, 2012 4:48 pm

Another addendum- Toronto has the 4th lowest ERA and lowest BAA so far this season. Our starters are really dominant. They have the 2nd more IP and lowest ERA (3.32) in the AL.

As the offense improves we're in really great shape.

Attonitus · Post #4 » by **Attonitus** » Fri May 18, 2012 6:33 pm

Boston is heating up, it is very likely within the next week we will see all the teams in the AL East above .500, that means dominance against the rest of the AL.

AL East vs. AL Central - 35-19
AL East vs. AL West - 29-22
Total vs. Rest of AL - 64-41

Only two teams outside of AL East with winning records vs. East (Detroit and Texas) and of the teams without winning records vs. the AL east, all of them have a better record vs. their own division and the other non Al East division.

The only team in the AL East with a losing record vs. any of the other AL divisions is the Red Sox who are 3-4 vs. the West.

Sifu · Post #5 » by **Sifu** » Sat May 19, 2012 1:08 pm

The NL East is similarly stacked. Every team there has a winning record.

Sifu · Post #6 » by **Sifu** » Sat May 19, 2012 1:12 pm

To make matters worse for the Jays, their interleague games are all against teams with current winning records or were in the playoffs as recently as last year (Milwaukee). No respite for them in interleague play.

baulderdash77 · Post #7 » by **baulderdash77** » Sat May 19, 2012 3:29 pm

The Jays always have one of the 2 or 3 hardest schedules every year, so they're used to it.

The current division scheme really puts a lot of imbalances in everything. The 2nd wild card helps a bit but the schedule difference is huge.

I really liked the old 2 division per league format better. Also I used to like playing the Tigers back in the day. I don't think it's going to change but hopefully something happens in the next few years.

With only 2 divisions the schedules become balanced. Plus 2 division champs and 3 wildcards pretty much ensure that the best 5 teams would get in the playoffs each year.