Is the NL Central still the worst division in baseball?

[BrewCityUnit]

I'm pretty sure ESPN won't be broadcasting how bad the AL East has been this year

 

sports.espn.go.com/mlb/standings

[rluzinski]

Boston is very good.

 

The Yankees still have a run differential of +47 and have a record outside the East of 29 - 24. They are a good (not great) team that has gotten their but handed to them in the East.

 

Toronto also has a positive run differential but look like nothing much more than mediocre.

 

Baltimore is a little below average. Tampa stinks as usual.

 

I would think that they still have more overall talent than the NL Central.

[naivin]

Yes.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

AL WEST = +22

NL WEST = +17

AL CENTRAL = +13

NL EAST = -3

AL EAST = -13

NL CENTRAL = -36

 

I'm fairly certain the NL Central is still (by far) the worst division in baseball though the AL CENTRAL, AL WEST, and NL WEST are pretty much a tossup for the toughest division (I'd say AL Central who probably have three of the top five teams in the AL in that division)

[patrickgpe]

i think it is, just because you have so many teams that are completely done half way through the season. The stats by twinsbrewers world series is a little misleading because we have 6 teams while the east division only have 5, which the 2 west divisions only have 4. Therefore it isn't completely fair to add up games under/over 500.

[whynotthebrewers]

It might be but I don't think run differential is the only thing that will tell us that. But I think it comes down to the big market thing again. When the brewers struggle it's because they are really not ready for the big time and not that good. When the mets, yanks, boston, or LA struggle, its because they are in a slump and will work out of it. So they are always a story either way. It sucks but thats the way sport and media are these days.

[TerraceReserved]

-----"When the brewers struggle it's because they are really not ready for the big time and not that good. When the mets, yanks, boston, or LA struggle, its because they are in a slump and will work out of it."-----

 

That statement is just plain wrong. When the Brewers struggle it has nothing do to with them "not being ready for the big time." When they struggle its becuase they're in a slump, just like the Mets, Yanks, Boston and LA. And they work out of it, just like those teams. (hence 10-20, then 12-3 after, excluding Cubs series) And saying they struggle becuase they're "not that good" is blatantly incorrect also.

 

Edit: See my below post.

[1992casey]

TR, it looks to me that whynotthebrewers is on the same page as you.

 

But this discussion is on which division is the worst. We shouldn't get sidetracked.

[Thurston Fluff]

I guess it really depends on how worst is defined. If considering top to bottom performance yes it is the worst. If judging by how many competetive teams are in the division then no the AL east is the worst. Some may still feel the Yankees are going to get hot and eventually be a contender but I think that has more to do with history than it does this year's version.

[madcrewfan]

Well, the cubs are in the NL Central. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/roll.gif

[TerraceReserved]

Wow, after reading whynotthebrewers post again, I now feel very, very stupid. I thought what he said was his opinion, and I didn't pick up that he was referring to that of the big market. I misinterpreted it. My bad.

[BrewCityUnit]

I just think it is funny that the AL East has one team over .500 but the media hasn't said one word about it. I do think talent wise the AL East is better than the Central, but wins and losses do matter more than run differential or atleast that is what determines who makes the playoffs. It just seems like some people always need to find a stat to argue wins and losses. I'm pretty sure the Cardinals didn't care what their run differential was last year.

[BrewCityUnit]

The Yankees still have a run differential of +47 and have a record outside the East of 29 - 24. They are a good (not great) team that has gotten their but handed to them in the East.

 

I actually root for the Yankees over the Redsox but getting your butt handed to teams in the East shouldn't be an excuse for their overall record. So what you are saying is that out of the 4 teams handing it to the Yankees, 3 of them are below .500 baseball teams.

[1992casey]

If you want to sort out 'worst, bad, good, better, best', you'll certainly want to include differential as part of the discussion. You'd probably also want to include your perception of what teams are 'supposed' to be doing.

[Ennder]

The NL Central is 36 games under .500 outside the division, that is just terrible.

[rluzinski]

So what you are saying is that out of the 4 teams handing it to the Yankees, 3 of them are below .500 baseball teams.

 

What I'm saying is that a simple, dirty way to judge the relative strengths of each division is to compare their out of division records and run differentials.

 

And people who think run differentials and extreme records in 1 run games don't belong in a thread about team talent should take note of the "crappy Cubs."

[BrewCityUnit]

And people who think run differentials and extreme records in 1 run games don't belong in a thread about team talent should take note of the "crappy Cubs."

 

I agree with this statement I guess when trying to project the rest of the season but after 162 games it really doesn't matter.

[Thurston Fluff]

The NL central has an average record of 38-43.5.

The AL East has an average of 39.4-41.4.

So if I did my math right the NL central is leading the AL East in putridity by 1.75 games.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif With A-Rod down for a while I'm sure the AL east can muster up enough suckyness to overtake the title form us.

[rluzinski]

I agree with this statement I guess when trying to project the rest of the season but after 162 games it really doesn't matter.

 

It depends on what we mean by "worst division". I took that to mean actual talent, just not a team's record. If he just meant division records, then add them up ans spit out the result. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[mothershipconnection]

I'd say yes for sure. IMO:

 

Boston>Brewers

Yankees=or>Cubs

Toronto>St. Louis

Baltimore=Houston

Tampa

[BrewCityUnit]

I guess what I was trying to get at was that no one is mentioning that Boston is winning the AL East by such a wide margin because the rest of the league is under .500 and somebody has to win the division......the way they were talking about the Brewers earlier in June. I think the AL East is definately better than the NL Central....I just got a little frustrated that the media isn't even mentioning how poor the record's are of the teams in the mighty AL East.