The AL is a Wee Bit Better than the NL

The smiles wouldn't last once he had to actually face AL batters

I’m certainly not the first one to bring this to light, but the AL is a wee bit whole lot better than the NL.  Over the past decade or so the Junior Circuit is junior in seniority only.  Allow me to lay out some evidence of the following:

Exhibit A: Since the start of interleague play in 1997, AL teams have won 52.2% of their games against the NL.  That includes ALL games, including the Royals playing the Cubs.  Over the past 5 years, the AL has won 56.6% of all interleague games.  Over the course of a season, that equates to 92 wins – that competes for the NL wildcard.

Exhibit B:  Thanks to some research from the Baseball Prospectus guys – Jay Jaffe in particular – we learn that even the worst 7 AL teams (half) beat the bottom the NL teams 52% of the bottom.  Consider that those same teams against other AL teams only win 45% of the time.  Ahh, if only they could play the NL all of the time, they’d be over .500

Exhibit C:  The AL hasn’t lost any of the last 13 All-Star games.  Sure there have been some flukes along the way, but the trend is pretty clear.  Over the last 13 All-Star games, the best of the best in the AL is better than the best of the NL.

Exhibit D:  John Smoltz, 2009.  Over 40 IP in the AL, Smoltz accrued an 8.32 ERA.  He struck out 33 batters – 7.4/9 IP.  His WHIP was 1.7.  Need I say more??  He was awful.  Over 11 IP in the NL, Smoltz has a .82 ERA, a WHIP of .72, and struck out 12.3/9  IP.  Not once in the AL did he throw 11 innings and only allow 1 run.  Thats how he started his NL stint.

Exhibit E: Brad Penny, 2009.  Over 131+ IP in the AL, Penny racked a 5.61 ERA allowing almost 11 hits per 9 IP.  In his first NL start?  O earned and 5 hits in 8 IP.  While pitching for the Red Sox, he accrued a 2.7 ERA in his interleague starts.  2.7 vs NL teams, 6+ vs AL teams.  For the season, he now has a 1.82 ERA against NL teams.

Exhibits F & G: Lee, Sabathia, 2009, & 2008, respectively.  In both cases the pitcher was having a decent year for the Indians, was traded midseason to an NL squad, and tore it up.  Sabathia went 6-8 in the AL and 11-2 in the NL.  Lee is off to a similar start.

The evidence and exhibits are almost endless.  It leads me to wondering a.) what would happen if the Blue Jays were in the NL West?  Playoff contender?  and b.) do my power rankings need a serious overhaul?  I already get all sorts of hate from Jake in the weekly rankings, but in reality they may not favor the AL teams enough.

Over the course of a 7 game series, anything can happen.  But the evidence is pretty compelling – the level of play in the AL is far superior to that of the Senior Circuit.

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