Saturday, May 21, 2011

Has interleague play run its course?



Another bad thing about interleague play? This hat.

Interleague play began in 1997 in the hopes of raising interest in the baseball.

It worked, for a while, and now its time interleague play goes away.

When I'm looking for interesting matchups, the Pirates and the Orioles are not near the top of my "must-watch" list.

This is not to say there are not matchups that create interest.

A's and Giants. Yankees and Mets. Rangers and Phillies. Cubs and Red Sox.

But there are a number of games that make no sense and creates an imbalance in scheduling.
Let's take the National League West.

The Giants face Oakland, Minnesota, Detroit and Cleveland.

Combined winning percentage (entering Sunday): .488

Colorado faces the Yankees, White Sox, Indians, Tigers and Royals.

Combined winning percentage: .513

San Diego gets Seattle, Boston, Minnesota and Kansas City.

Combined winning percentage: .458

Arizona pulls six teams with Oakland, Cleveland, Kansas City, the White Sox, Detroit and Minnesota.

Combined winning percentage: .481

Lastly, the Dodgers have the White Sox, Angels, Twins and Tigers.

Combined winning percentage: .445

Teams within the same division do not end up playing the same teams, some face better teams.

The NL West was won by two games last year and the difference between playing the Yankees and Red Sox or drawing the Mariners and Royals can make or break a team's chances of being in the playoffs.

Major League Baseball has to come up with a more fair way of deciding interleague games.

Each team within a division should be playing the same teams to equal the competitive balance.

Without it, baseball will be looking at teams that lose a division because they faced a first place team in interleague play while the division winner played the last place team in the same division.

Not really fair is it?

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