Why St. Louis is the Ultimate Baseball Town

Leather

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Jul 18, 2005
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EpsteinsGorillaSuit said:
 
Yet in a growing and affluent market with the highest rents in the country, a vibrant tech industry that attracts a huge number of 20- and 30-something sports fans, and a huge flux of tourists coming through all summer long. Of course the Giants should be doing well.
 
So all it takes is a fanbase with the right demographics have a regular World Series contender for 10-15 years?
 
 
That hasn't been true in a fairly long time, if it ever was.    Case in point: Seattle.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Aug 12, 2009
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Also, regarding the ludicrous claim of the NL Central being the toughest division in baseball history, here are the win totals and winning percentage by division this year:

AL East: 419 / .517
AL Central: 409 / .506
AL West: 403 / .498

NL East: .374 / .462
NL Central: 427 / .527
NL West: 397 / .490

Slight advantage over the next best AL East, but by a grand total of 8 games, or 1% better winning percent - they were barely the best division this year.
 
HowBoutDemSox said:
Also, regarding the ludicrous claim of the NL Central being the toughest division in baseball history, here are the win totals and winning percentage by division this year:

AL East: 419 / .517
AL Central: 409 / .506
AL West: 403 / .498

NL East: .374 / .462
NL Central: 427 / .527
NL West: 397 / .490

Slight advantage over the next best AL East, but by a grand total of 8 games, or 1% better winning percent - they were barely the best division this year.
 
They had the best record, but against vastly inferior competition
 
 
jon abbey said:
Yeah, I've been saying this for a few months now, thanks for going into it in such detail. Two factoids to add:
 
1) Seven of the eight worst teams in MLB were in the NL this year. 
 
2) The Mets finished the season 38-22 after their deadline deals, 37-17 if you throw out their final week of coasting after they clinched. Over that period, they played all four non-Blue Jay AL East teams and lost series to TB/NYY/BOS while splitting 2 with BAL, going 4-7 overall, while they were going 33-10 against the rest of their cream-puff laden schedule. I don't think they make the playoffs as an AL team, I think they'd be in the same boat as teams like CLE and BOS, coming on strong late, but not enough to make up for the first part of the season. 
 
Also I think it's illuminating to actually spell out the run differential by division, which makes it clear that the NL Central wasn't even the best division this year, let alone of all time:

AL East: +304
AL Central: -85
AL West:  +10
 
NL East: -297
NL Central: +108
NL West: -40
 
One might argue that TOR's massive run differential skews that, which there is some truth to, but even if you subtracted their entire +221. the AL East still wouldn't be too far behind the NL Central, and if you dropped out both TOR and STL, the AL East is still way ahead (AL East: +83, NL Central: -14). 
 
Thanks for adding this. Run differential tells an even more impressive story in the sense that a division's total run differential is entirely determined by non-division opponents (due to the fact that ever run scored/allowed in intradivision games is canceled out evenly by the additional run scored/allowed by another member of the same division). 
 
The AL East just crushed the rest of baseball, and yes that is Toronto to a large extent but why shouldn't we count them? They were the best team in baseball this year, and when you look at their roster it's not surprising why.
 

E5 Yaz

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You bumped a thread after more than a month to post a rant from a high school kid?