Not to demean any fans of NL clubs, but their output has been downright pathetic against the AL lately.They've been swept in two straight world series, and haven't won an all-star game since 1997 (to be fair, not all of them mattered, though). Interleague play has been downright horrendous this year. The only two teams from the NL >.500 against the AL are Rockies and the Giants (the Marlins are exactly .500). The record in interleague play is now 1,250-1,202, AL. The AL went 154-98 (.611) against the NL. Probably one of the most disheartening things is that the Cards have gone 5-10. That's just sad. Step up your game and win this all-star game, NL!(My prediction: AL:13 - NL:8)If you're interested in any 2006 interleague stats, you can find them here. (it's a .pdf, by the way)
AL certainley has a slight edge..But this year, the rookies/2nd year players are really dominating both leagues. Brian McCann, Francisco Liriano, Jonathon Papelbon, Justin Verlander, Francour, theeres more..The future of MLB looks very bright though.
Your right, the N.L has been owned by the A.L in recent years, including this year. Alot of that has to do with the American League having more big market teams in big market cities than the N.L does. Because of this the American League has more money to spend than the National league has, so more of the big stars are getting bought by the American league teams. From watching alot of baseball though, i like watching the National League better than the American league. The A.L has the bigger stars, and bigger power hitters, so it seems to be more of a long ball league when i watch. The National league is more of the base stealing, bunting, and manufacture runs type of league. I have always been a bigger fan of that type of baseball than the hit home runs, play power ball game that the American League seems to key on more. It's probably because it's the way i played growing up, but either way, i like watching the national league better.
Yeah, normally it's because there's more big city teams... this interleague thing isn't because of that, I don't know.I mean, the Cardinals are doing terribly, but the Twins and even the ROYALS are doing well?! I think I heard on ESPN that the Royals won like 11 out of the last 14.
Detroit's got a population of under 1 million (I remember because two years ago when that occured Dallas officially became the most dangerous city in America - thank God that's not the case anymore), Chicago historically has favored the Cubs, the Twins almost had to move because their market is so small, and Oakland has no money to speak of. And a Canadian team is two games back of the Yankees.Stats about payrolls:The AL has the top four payrolls (Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, White Sox), but one of those teams (Angels) is in last place in their division. The NL has spots 4-10 (Mets, Dodgers, Cubs, Atlanta, Houston, San Fransisco). So it's not like NL teams don't spend money. Except for Florida.
The Angels are only something like 4 games back (before tonight's game) though, so saying they're in last place doesn't mean a whole lot... 4 games is pretty much negligible at this point in the season.The Cubs, on the other hand, will be in trouble.Hey, if you like NL clubs, that's cool. I just get sick of all this, "The NL is so much better, because it's about strategy!" As though AL clubs don't use strategy. The AL has been beating the NL to a bloody pulp in AL and NL ballparks... it's partly about money, sure, but not as much in these recent interleague games.
The AL doesn't have as much in-game strategy as the NL because there's not the pinch-hitting for pitchers and such, but the DH causes managers to shift their lineups frequently to find the right fix. So there's easily strategy in both leagues.The NL just sucks right now. The AL West, which is weak this year (odd for a perennial powerhouse), is better than the NL West, and about as good as the Central. Besides the Mets, they're probably better than the East, too.I don't see the Angels finishing over .500 this year, though. They're just not playing well at all. Seattle's overachieving and will come down to Earth, and the Rangers will do better once they have Adam Eaton and once Rudy Jaramillo gets their hitting back in shape. The A's are the team to beat, though, and are on one of their huge hot streaks.
This is actually quite funny because you go back 20 or so years and the NL completely ruled the AL. Like today and like valo stated, the AL played longball while the NL had to fight for runs and play small ball.Also, you go back 5 years or so and what do you have?Mcgwire hitting 60 homeruns.Sosa hitting 60 homeruns.Gonzalez(Diamondbacks) hitting 57 homeruns.Bonds hitting 72 homeruns.This recent AL surge is something out of the blue really, due to injuries and age the NL hasn't been able to compete anymore. Mcgwire retired, Sammy is about to retire if he hasn't yet, Gonzalez is way past his prime and Bonds has been struggling to hit a single home run.You have players in the AL like Ortiz and David Wright who are star players and hit lots of homerunes. From '63 to '82 the NL had the better pitching while the AL had the better batters in general, now it seems like it's flipped. Especially with Chicago and Boston winning the world series it just gets tougher, Boston really didn't really have much trouble against the Cardinals and Houston struggled for the most part against Chicago.
It's not really any different today. Sure, the top two guys in HRs are Ortiz and Thome, but then the NL has Ryan Howard, Pujols, and Dunn right there only a few back. Maybe the teams in the AL hit more homers, but it's probably not that much and is probably partly due to the pitcher/DH thing, of course. I just don't really think people watch a certain league because they play strategy ball or because of the power-hitting, that just seems silly to me. It's whatever team you were raised on, from what I've seen. But I kinda disagree... the AL has been mostly dominant for more than a decade. Maybe the styles of play have changed to some degree, but the general outcome seems to be the same.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Justice @ Jul 8 2006, 02:21 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It's not really any different today. Sure, the top two guys in HRs are Ortiz and Thome, but then the NL has Ryan Howard, Pujols, and Dunn right there only a few back. Maybe the teams in the AL hit more homers, but it's probably not that much and is probably partly due to the pitcher/DH thing, of course. I just don't really think people watch a certain league because they play strategy ball or because of the power-hitting, that just seems silly to me. It's whatever team you were raised on, from what I've seen. But I kinda disagree... the AL has been mostly dominant for more than a decade. Maybe the styles of play have changed to some degree, but the general outcome seems to be the same.</div>The AL isn't doing better because of homeruns but because they are just flat out better. The homerun thing is for publicity, shortly after the DH was introduced the AL homeruns started to soar and so did the number of people who wanted to watch AL games. I agree that people usually like the league they were raised in, most of the time at least. The last decade has been dominated by the AL (including the three peat Yankees) but the batting in the NL has changed. We went from averaging 60-70 homeruns to averaging 40. It's not even the all-star game and Ortiz already has 30, you know hes gonna hit more then 40. From 1963 to 1982 the NL took 12 out of 20 world series and 19 our of 20 all-star games. Each era has had there fair share of victory. The NL has more youth though which leads me to believe they will be better in the future, I could be wrong though.
I was watching sportscenter (or baseball tonight, I can't remember) for a bit today, and they said this is the first year that an AL player has led the MLB in HRs at the all-star break since McGwire in 1997. Hahaha.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Justice @ Jul 4 2006, 05:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>(My prediction: AL:13 - NL:8)</div>I was almost right as far as the ratio goes...Michael Young babbbbyyyy!Garner is a horrible manager, by the way.
Wow Trevor Hoffman blows....! How about when Vernon Wells gunned down Soriano at the plate from CF that was the most exciting play of the All-Star game
The NL just can't catch a break. They're one out away from winning the game and BAM, they give up two runs and lose. The AL is simply dominating the NL this year. They even do it in NL ballparks, so that takes away from the whole DH argument. The AL Central has been amazing. Did you see on SC last week that the Twins won like 12 out of their last 13 or something and only gained a half game in the standings. That's just incredible.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (boykinsforpresident @ Jul 12 2006, 01:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Wow Trevor Hoffman blows....! How about when Vernon Wells gunned down Soriano at the plate from CF that was the most exciting play of the All-Star game</div>Yeah, this was probably one of the most boring MLB all star games ever. Usually you have something interesting happen... Ripken belting one, Kruk almost getting beaned by The Big Unit, Don Zimmer getting knocked over, etc. This one was just boring... a pitchers' duel (or melee, I suppose). The homerun derby was more entertaining.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Stonesalltheway @ Jul 12 2006, 10:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The NL just can't catch a break. They're one out away from winning the game and BAM, they give up two runs and lose. The AL is simply dominating the NL this year. They even do it in NL ballparks, so that takes away from the whole DH argument. The AL Central has been amazing. Did you see on SC last week that the Twins won like 12 out of their last 13 or something and only gained a half game in the standings. That's just incredible.</div>Yeah, none of the NL teams did well against the BoSox, White Sox, Twins, etc. The standings didn't change too much because most of the great AL teams remained great. On the other hand, the Brewers, Astros, and Reds picked up a lot of ground, because the Cards sucked in interleague play.And yeah, like you said, the DH argument is pretty meaningless. The pitchers for the AL actually hit better than NL pitchers. Imagine that.
