All division leads are not created equal

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/standings/grid

The site above gives some interesting persepctive to the baseball standings. for example:

Boston has a 3 game lead in the East, due in large part to their 16-2 interleague record. Their intraleague record is a pedestrian 37-32

In comparison, the Yankees were 40-28 vs the AL, but a mere 10-8 interleague.

The Tigers were 15-3 vs the NL, along with adding a whopping 9 wins vs powerhouse KC. Against the big boys? 1-2 vs Boston, 1-5 vs CWS, 1-3 vs the Yanks.

So lets not get carried away by the standings just yet.

Date

Fri 07/14/06, 9:24 am EST

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Bobbyjim45Draft Pick

1219 days ago

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Yankees fans are just trying to grasp something so they take the Sox fantastic interleague record. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the Yankees had to play pretty much the same exact NL teams as the Sox. Therefore, you can't say that the Yankees are a better team simply because the records are misleading. The records aren't misleading because we've played the same teams.

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AndersedJV Squad

1219 days ago

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I agree with the point on the Tigers. It seems pretty clear that they won't win the division, particularly when it gets down to them and Chicago. They have about zero advantages. As an impartial West Coast fan who is sick of the Red Sox and Yankees (read my recent column), there are many more splits one could do to show that the Red Sox or Yankees are the better team or have a great chance of winning the division. The interleague split is just one.

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