"by far" might be an exaggeration but of the top 12 pitcher-friendly parks, 7 are NL parks - nationals park, mccovey/AT&T, petco, busch, citi field, dodger stadium and PNC park
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 23 February 2015 17:52 (nine years ago) link
but how would that lead to AL teams having a competitive advantage?
― Karl Malone, Monday, 23 February 2015 17:53 (nine years ago) link
i'm admittedly spitballing here - in theory, you have a chance at developing better offense in a park more conducive to hits, right? although i'm sure it also doesn't work out that way in practice. 'twas just a thought
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 23 February 2015 18:00 (nine years ago) link
yeah nvm if you go by top 10 run differentials last year 6 out of 10 are AL teams, and out of those 6 only 2 (detroit and baltimore) played in what park factors identified as notably hitter-friendly parks.
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 23 February 2015 18:03 (nine years ago) link
welp, looks like renowned sports journalism outfit the Wall Street Journal has an article about this:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-al-batters-the-nl-at-home-the-dh-1405704990
it's a he said she said - some people say it's because of the DH thing that i mentioned above, while obscure people like Bill James argue that it's just because the AL teams are better, flat out.
― Karl Malone, Monday, 23 February 2015 18:04 (nine years ago) link
yeah, and it can't just be a money thing bc teams like the cubs, phillies, mets and cards are in the top 10 richest teams as of march 2014 alongside the yankees and los dodgers, and the former four except the recent cubs aren't regularly attracting valuable FAs like the yanks and dodgers are
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 23 February 2015 18:34 (nine years ago) link
AL teams are definitely better. One theory was that the AL is more attractive for free agents because of the DH -- hitters know they can extend their careers by getting days off from playing in the field, and pitchers don't have to worry about working on their hitting. It all leads to a steady drift of top talent from the NL to the AL. I think Fielder and Pujols were used as examples, but those guys aren't exactly tearing it up in the AL, so I'm not sure if there's anything to this idea.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 08:49 (nine years ago) link
xp Mets don't spend like richest team, Phillies run by morons basically (although they did attract Lee and Halladay in the past), and Cardinals are content to play with a MOR payroll...
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 14:54 (nine years ago) link
but for every Fielder and Pujols you also get a Thomas or Ortiz.
― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
Arguably, there is more focus on sabrmetrics in the AL.
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:32 (nine years ago) link
per the MLB section of this http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12331388/the-great-analytics-rankings# that is indeed the case - 6 out of the top 10 analytics-using clubs are AL, and 6 of the least analytics-heavy teams are NL
― slothroprhymes, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 19:30 (nine years ago) link
NL > AL! Maybe?
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/death-of-a-14-year-streak/
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 19 September 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link
The evidence (and explanation) looks totally convincing to me.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 19 September 2018 20:38 (five years ago) link