Another Keith Law Slap In the Face !!!
by: South Side Rob
Keith Law did a chat today on ESPN. I didn't partisipate but I did read the transcript and early on there was this question:
Jeff (Boston, MA): 3 best teams in baseball right now.
Keith Law: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit. I like the Brewers, really impressed by how Doug Melvin et al built that team, but in the AL they'd be a .500 club.
Would he feel the same way if the Cubs or the Cardinals were 14 games over 500? I doubt it.
Maybe people agree with this. Maybe they don't.
What's your take?
I believe those three teams are better. But the Brewers are playing very well. Remember whether NL fans like it or not, it is a weaker league. How many wins would they have in the AL East or AL Central. They may be better then we all think. But I don't think they are quite to the level of the three teams Keith mentioned.
http://statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com/
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Joseph, they only shut down hitters like Albert Pujols, Carlos Lee, Nomar Garciaparra, Derrek Lee, Alphonso Soriano, etc...
Plus, they beat pitchers like Roy Oswalt (twice), Carlos Zambrano, and Derrek Lowe.
Are you saying those players are only average if they play in the American League?
Right now, calling the American League better, deeper, or stronger is just a matter of opinion. How on earth did the Cardinals win the World Series last year based on those opinions???
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So do you think the NL is as strong as the AL? Rob Neyer said in a blog that the AL is 10 games better than the NL. So the Mets won 97 games in the NL last year I believe. In the AL they would only win 87, according to him. I don't think it is this drastic, but I strongly believe that the AL is better. If there was not a wild card then the Cards probably wouldnt have been in the playoffs. I know they won the division, but with no wild card and two divisions the Mets would have won that division by 14 games. It isn't clear cut because there would be different schedules and such. The Cards were the best team in the playoffs and maybe they were the best team because of it. But honestly with the same roster they had last year, beginning this year would they even have made the playoffs? Again they might have, but they might have finished third. The thing that the regular season is supposed to do is to separate the good teams from the teams that are not as good. If a team is clearly better over an incredibly large sample of a 162 games, then they shouldnt have to play more than one team that is "inferior." Which is why beating the Yankees, meant so much more to me than winning the World Series in 04.' So there are two ways to look at this: The best team is the team that plays the best when it matters most (playoffs). Or the wild card opens up the possibility of an inferior team beating a superior team in what is in easier format (5 or 7 games versus 162 games). And now I am going to post this as a blog to get others opinions. haha.
statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com
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Major League Baseball (In my opinion), is balanced in both leagues. While the perception is there are more stacked teams in the AL than the NL might very well be true, but both leagues have their share of bottom feeders.
6 of the top 10 teams in baseball with the highest team on base percentage comes from the National League (Phillies, Mets, Braves, Rockies, Brewers, and Marlins).
6 of the top 10 teams in baseball with the lowest team earned run average comes from the Nation League (Mets, Dodgers, Brewers, Cubs, Padres, and Diamondbacks).
With the NL having two more teams, the above statistics tell me that both leagues are equally competitive, otherwise, either hitting or pitching would be more unbalanced than what it is.
Fact is, the Brewers are one of the 3 best teams in baseball RIGHT NOW.
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I agree with Rob that it is balanced. The OBP especially prooves it considering you have an almost guaranteed out coming up in the 9th spot 2 or three times a game. Whereas in the AL the ninth hitter is sometimes almost as good as the leadoff hitter.
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Eveyone should check out the new ESPN power rankings. "Brewer's break out" is the heading. Not only is it dead on,but if you read on into the comment section, some of the comments are on target with our subject. It's nice to see. Also, all day yesterday and today the Brew Crew has been the story on just about all the worldwide leader's shows. Let's stop complaining about some national writer nitwit and bask in the glory of all things Brewers.
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Can you feel the choke? That is the inevitable choke of the Brewers in the next six weeks. How many teams have we seen have a hot May and suddenly we're dubbing them the 1927 Yankees. J.J. who? That average should drop off quite a bit in the coming weeks and I'm still waiting for the annual Ben Sheets season-ending injury. Bottom line is that the Brewers will be in the basement of the NL Central when this whole thing is over.
-- Brian Brenn, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Apparently The Hoosier State Has Something Against The Brew Crew. SI.com's Tom Verducci Stands up for the Brewers a in his weekly mailbag, while pointing the reader in the direction of his latest article http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/05/15/brewers.forreal/index. But seriously who is this guy kidding? To say as rediculous comments as those he has to be a cubs fan
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