May 8, 2005
BASEBALL: Division and Conquest
Each of baseball's divisions, of course, has a .500 record against itself. Take those out, and what are the records of each division solely against out-of-division opponents? Let's rank them by winning percentage through Sunday's action:
Division | W | L | % | +.500 |
NL East | 29 | 13 | .690 | +16 |
AL Central | 23 | 21 | .523 | +2 |
AL West | 29 | 30 | .492 | -1 |
AL East | 22 | 23 | .489 | -1 |
NL West | 21 | 22 | .488 | -1 |
NL Central | 20 | 35 | .364 | -15 |
(Current standings here). The NL East is 11-4 vs. the West and 18-9 vs. the Central, so it's not just having a lot of games against the weak sisters of the Central; the East is one tough division even in spite of the apparent lack of a single dominant team. Note that the powerhouse Cardinals are 3-7 outside their division, 16-4 in their own pond.
Nice chart.
The result is that the fourth place team in the NL East, the Mets, is 2 games over .500 on 5/9, and the last place team in the division has the best W/L record of any last place team in the majors.