Secrets of the AL Central X - Bland as We Wanna Be
Here's what the five teams of the AL Central have done since the end of May:
- Is "boat race" the best term, or does that imply too much excitement?
- Quite the surge by the White Sox, who have managed to play .522 ball for two and a half months. In the Central, that's enough to turn heads. If someone can play .540 baseball for two months or more, they should have epic poems written about them.
- No, I did not cherry-pick this date to highlight how bad the Royals have been. By the end of May the Royals were already 23-27. If I had chosen the infamous 18-11 date, things would have been much worse.
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8 comments
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Just hammers home how bad the Royals are
They are getting completely creamed despite being in a very very poor division.
by kcbottom9th on Aug 17, 2009 1:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Contract The Division?
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Aug 17, 2009 1:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
No, Expand the Divisions, NBA/NHL-style
AL Southwest Division:
Anaheim
Texas
AL Northwest Division
Minnesota
Seattle
AL Shared History Division:
Kansas City
Oakland
AL Central Division:
Chicago
Cleveland
AL International Division:
Detroit
Toronto
AL Southeast Division:
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
AL East
Boston
New York
8-team playoff (7 division champs + 1 wild card).
by Gopherballs on Aug 17, 2009 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Modify this to include a Shared History wild card ever year, and playoffs here we come!!!
Extremis malis extrema Soria.
by 2X2L on Aug 17, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Due to pressure from MLB's broadcast partners
the Office of the Commissioner has adopted the AL East Wild Card.
by Gopherballs on Aug 17, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Hilarious, but surely you knew somebody would do this research:
Realistically, I limited this up going back to 1998, because that was the first year TB existed.
Using the divisions above, Royals would have qualified for the playoffs only one-half of a season out of 12, assuming they don’t catch Oakland this year. Only “good” result would have been last year, when both teams finished 75-87, thus requiring a one game playoff. (I’m sure we would have won it. NOT)
By the way, on AVERAGE, we would have finished 20 games out of first each year! In five of the years, we would have finished 31 or more games out.
Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!
by loyal2sdad on Aug 17, 2009 4:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Wow
Sox only went up two games and are in the race. I wonder if the Sox were in the AL East, they would be a lot worse off. The Royalsm can turn it around. It would be interesting to see the Byrce Harper race since the draft or somthing.
Carlos Guillen, the Latino Nick Punto - BouJouma
Please takeyour latte circle jerk to another thread. -WU
babies are young and under team control for at least 12 years -Billyok
i heard kenny williams' mother bought a lottery ticket and lost so kenny williams traded his mother - Billyok
by The_Fan on Aug 17, 2009 5:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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![Fresh on the heels of my award-winning 2008 Royals O-Swing Percentage Graph, here is a graph the O-Swing (percentage of pitches swung at outside of the strike zone) for all the teams of the AL Central from 2005-2008 by year, also compared to the MLB average. Remember -- this is for hitters, so lower is better.
(Maybe I [or someone else, of course] will do something like this for pitchers next week).
The results speak for themselvs, I guess, but they are saying all sorts of things. Discuss and enjoy!
For a larger version, click here (opens in new tab/window).
Consider this a humble appendix to the "Secrets of the AL Central" series.
All data via FanGraphs, of course.](http://cdn0.sbnation.com/fan_shot_images/31963/file_small.jpg)












