The American League

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

...is so much better than the National League, it's not even funny.

I'd say there are exactly 2 good teams in the NL: Mets and Cardinals.

Whereas in the AL, the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers, White Sox, Twins, and Angels are all better than anyone else in the NL. And, I still think the Indians have the talent, especially among their bats (Hafner, Sizemore, V. Martinez) to be better than they've shown.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

I have to disagree with one thing, I think the Mets are better then the Angels, Blue Jays, and possibly a couple other teams you listed..

You're right though, the AL is stacked.. I mean just imagine for a sec if the Twins somehow snuck into the playoffs.. Who would want to face the combination of Santana, Liriano, and Radke?

It's going to be very interesting to see who makes it to the playoffs, it could come down to who makes a couple big moves before the trade deadline..

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

I meant that all those teams are definitely better than any team in the NL other than the Mets and Cardinals. Like, the 3rd best team in the NL would be the 8th best team in the AL, or possibly worse

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Oh I see. I thought you were saying the best 6 or 7 teams are all in the AL haha..

Yeah, I agree the National League is crap.. I mean when you have the Giants in 1st when Bonds has done nothing, you know the league has problems..

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Yeah, I think the Reds have the 3rd best record in the NL. I mean, they have a nice little team and all, but c'mon...

Simon

Founder/Admin

The NL absolutely BLOWS.

Pedro left Boston not because of just the money, its because he gets to face 7,8 and 9 hitters in the NL constantly.

Same reason Roger didnt come to Boston or NYC.


Here's this for food for thought too. Not only are the best lineups in the AL, but they also have to start piling on the best pitching to try to get out the great lineups.


Most of the best young arms are all in the American League. Harden, Haren, Santana, Lirano, Kazmir, Lester, Beckett etc etc, whereas the NL has guys that are perhaps trying to pad their stats towards the end of their careers. Clemens, Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux.

The best young pitcher that I can think of in the NL is either Jake Peavy and Dontrelle Willis, both are also being talked about getting traded to the AL in the next week.

How's this for food for thought.

Bronson Arroyo in his best year won 14 games for the Sox, Not bad, but not great either. He gets traded to the Reds, has 9 wins right now and is on pace to have an ERA under 3. Weird, wild stuff.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

I recently read an article which suggested how the balance of power shifted so strongly to the AL. There were a couple of one-sided trades, including Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano to the Twins for AJ Pierzinski (who returned to the AL a year later) and Scott Kazmir to the Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano. It was pretty interesting. I dont remember where it was though.

Oh, and I just wanted to bring up the fact that, for all the talk of the Wild Card coming from the Central this year, if the season ended today the Yankees and Red Sox would both make the playoffs...

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Yeah, I know.. the White Sox have taken an unexpected tumble here of late.. but now the Twins are in the mix..