The AL East Race

[Brass]

Certainley going to be interesting going down the stretch. As I am typing, the Red Sox have a 9-1 lead over Tampa in the 7th inning. Hopefully tonight I can say "Yankees lose, Yankees lose, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, Yankees lose!"

What are your thoughts about it? Here is what I think the standings might be this when the season concludes:

Red Sox ----

Yankees 2 1/2 GB

Orioles 3 1/2 GB

Blue Jays 10 1/2 GB

Devil Rays 33 1/2 GB

[jkrdevil]

It's going to be a great race that goes down till the last week. Who wins I can't say. What makes it real interesting is other teams in other divisions also have a shot at the wild-card.

[goalieboy82]

From Family Guy

John 3:16, And the Lord said GO SOX

[gashouser27]

I think the O's with Burnett would be formidable

[CC97]

It's going to be a great race that goes down till the last week. Who wins I can't say. What makes it real interesting is other teams in other divisions also have a shot at the wild-card.

It's a good thing Halladay and Koskie's injured, eh AL East?

[Audiodrama]

Boston --

New York 4 GB

Baltimore 5 GB

Toronto 12 GB

Tampa Bay 28 GB

[Suigi]

It's gonna be a spiffy year for the AL East. Here's my predictions.

Boston --

Toronto 3 GB *WILD CARD*

New York 4 GB (we beat 'em on the last day! HA!)

Baltimore 4.5 GB

Tampa Bay 15 GB

[Dilbert]

Baltimore--

Boston 1GB(Wild Card)

New York 3 GB (HaHa! No Playoffs for Yankees!)

Toronto 9 GB(back down there with the Dead Rays)

Tampa Bay-- who cares we all know they will come in 5th

[Cujo]

You guys are giving Baltimore way too much credit. There's still two and a half months go to in the season.

Final AL East Standings:

Boston --

New York 3 GB

Baltimore 9 GB

Toronto 14 GB

Tampa Bay 33 GB

[pcgd]

don't we get enough of this on ESPN?

[NJTank]

Oh you Mean AL EaStPN

[See Red]

... Yeah, why ESPN shows so much of two of the most popular teams is completely beyond me. That silly ESPN, they're always showing what they think will land them the best ratings. In fact, while we're at it -- let's get the Rockies, Royals, D-Rays more play time on Baseball Tonight and some more Nationally televised games.

[NJTank]

Lol but everytime ESPN shows the Yanks I dont get the game in HDTV I get some analog alternate game.

[Cujo]

So true. I don't think I've ever seen Peter Gammons do a segment or report a trade rumor without mentioning the Yankees or Red Sox.

[pcgd]

Lets compare the media coverage of 2 leagues with very different levels of parity.

NFL. Fairily even media coverage. At least not focused on two teams, there are at least 5-10 that get a majority of the coverage, if not more. For the most part, sell outs everywhere. Very few people can predict where everyone will stand at the begining of the year cause its so even compared to most sports. Pretty much hands down most popular sport in America.

MLB. Focus entirely on the megaopolis of New York and Boston, which of course is where the most money is. You can pretty much predict without too many issues where each team will finish in their division. Sell outs at some places, but too many teams playing with half empty stadiums. A few surprises, a few disapointments, but not nearly the way you have it in the NFL.

If its population, why don't you see the NFL networks focus on the Giants, Jets and Patriots? (the latter is true but they are really really good) Why aren't we all sick of the celtics and the knicks?

If its popularity, why don't you see the Cardinals or the Cubs on national TV more? Chicago's huge and the Cubs have fans everywhere, I'd say Cub nation is near the size of Red Sox Nation. The Cardinals have an solid 8 state fan base and are always drawing 3 million plus. Or the LA teams? Its the 3rd biggest TV market...seems like there might be some money there to be made...

[See Red]

Aren't the Braves and Cubs always on National TV with WGN and TBS? I know I get them out here, so I figured that's the case pretty much everywhere. The 4 most popular teams generally seem to be the Braves, Cubs, Yankees, and Sox -- as I mentioned, I think most people already get just about all of the Cubs and Braves games -- that's not the case for the Sox and Yankees.

Look who's one and two in road attendance -- the Red Sox and Yankees. Look at what's largely considered to be the best rivalry in sports -- why would they not show their games against one another on National TV?

[jkrdevil]

Lets compare the media coverage of 2 leagues with very different levels of parity.

NFL.  Fairily even media coverage.  At least not focused on two teams, there are at least 5-10 that get a majority of the coverage, if not more.  For the most part, sell outs everywhere.  Very few people can predict where everyone will stand at the begining of the year cause its so even compared to most sports.  Pretty much hands down most popular sport in America.

MLB.  Focus entirely on the megaopolis of New York and Boston, which of course is where the most money is.  You can pretty much predict without too many issues where each team will finish in their division.  Sell outs at some places, but too many teams playing with half empty stadiums.  A few surprises, a few disapointments, but not nearly the way you have it in the NFL.

If its population, why don't you see the NFL networks focus on the Giants, Jets and Patriots? (the latter is true but they are really really good)  Why aren't we all sick of the celtics and the knicks? 

If its popularity, why don't you see the Cardinals or the Cubs on national TV more? Chicago's huge and the Cubs have fans everywhere, I'd say Cub nation is near the size of Red Sox Nation.  The Cardinals have an solid 8 state fan base and are always drawing 3 million plus.  Or the LA teams?  Its the 3rd biggest TV market...seems like there might be some money there to be made...

I have to diagree with on this. You can not compare baseball to the NFL because they are 2 different animals. NFL popularity is how it is setup and has nothing to do with parity. The NFL only plays 16 games a year, they only play once a week, all (with the exception of 2 or 3 games) are played on the same day. The NFL set it's sport up so year each game would be an event. Every game in the NFL is an event in which people have parties around and gather with it's friends. It's limited games and once a week format has caused the NFL success. NFL games are a party and fans for the most part don't care where their team is in the standings, they are still going to go to the game. If their in first place it's a bonus.

Baseball can't match this because they play every single day. People aren't going to show up at the ballpark every single day. Every game isn't an event. Therefore fans need more motivation to go to the games. Thus winning is more important in baseball. The teams that draw large crowds will be the teams that get the media attention. The Yankees and Red Sox are an unique situation where 2 teams in very large markets are good, they have played each other in the past couple of playoffs. So they are going to get most of the attention. I think the Cubs-Cards is a bad example because I would think they are 3-4 on the list of attention teams get. The Cubs would probably get more attention nationwide if they could play more night games. As is they get a lot of attention because with WGN there games are broadcast over a lot of the country. More night games would give them more attention just like the BRaves and TBS.

Now if you want to talk parity you have to look at this fact that the NFL plays only 16 games. Sure the cap helps however with fewer games there is more of a chance a team can sneak in the playoff race. If the NFL played 162 games you could probably predict the standings and get most of it correct. Baseball does get hurt because of the cap but there won't be this turnover like the NFL.

Here Are the baseball Standigs as of April 21st. Most teams play 16 games at that point.

AL EAST:
  Boston  10 6 .625 - 6-2 4-4 10-6 0-0 0-0 0-0 8-2 W2 
   Baltimore  9 7 .563 1.0 5-5 4-2 7-4 1-1 1-2 0-0 6-4 L2 
   Toronto  9 8 .529 1.5 2-3 7-5 5-5 0-0 4-3 0-0 4-6 L2 
   New York  7 9 .438 3.0 4-4 3-5 7-9 0-0 0-0 0-0 4-6 W2 
   Tampa Bay  6 10 .375 4.0 5-6 1-4 3-8 0-0 3-2 0-0 3-7 W1 

  CENTRAL W L PCT GB HOME ROAD EAST CENT WEST NL L10 STRK 
   Chicago  12 4 .750 - 6-2 6-2 0-0 10-3 2-1 0-0 8-2 W4 
   Minnesota  10 6 .625 2.0 6-2 4-4 0-0 8-5 2-1 0-0 7-3 W2 
   Cleveland  6 10 .375 6.0 2-4 4-6 0-0 6-8 0-2 0-0 3-7 L3 
   Detroit  6 10 .375 6.0 3-5 3-5 1-1 5-9 0-0 0-0 3-7 L3 
   Kansas City  5 11 .313 7.0 2-6 3-5 0-0 3-7 2-4 0-0 2-8 L2 

  WEST W L PCT GB HOME ROAD EAST CENT WEST NL L10 STRK 
   Los Angeles  9 7 .563 - 6-4 3-3 0-0 3-2 6-5 0-0 6-4 W2 
   Oakland  8 8 .500 1.0 3-3 5-5 4-5 0-0 4-3 0-0 5-5 W1 
   Seattle  8 8 .500 1.0 3-5 5-3 0-0 5-4 3-4 0-0 6-4 L1 
   Texas  8 9 .471 1.5 4-5 4-4 3-3 0-0 5-6 0-0 5-5 L1 

National League 
  EAST W L PCT GB HOME ROAD EAST CENT WEST AL L10 STRK 
   Florida  9 7 .563 - 6-5 3-2 9-7 0-0 0-0 0-0 6-4 L1 
   Washington  9 7 .563 - 4-3 5-4 6-7 0-0 3-0 0-0 6-4 L1 
   Atlanta  8 8 .500 1.0 3-3 5-5 7-7 1-1 0-0 0-0 4-6 W1 
   New York  8 8 .500 1.0 5-1 3-7 5-5 3-3 0-0 0-0 7-3 W1 
   Philadelphia  8 8 .500 1.0 5-5 3-3 5-6 2-1 1-1 0-0 5-5 W1 

  CENTRAL W L PCT GB HOME ROAD EAST CENT WEST AL L10 STRK 
   St. Louis  9 5 .643 - 3-4 6-1 1-2 8-3 0-0 0-0 7-3 W1 
   Cincinnati  8 7 .533 1.5 7-3 1-4 3-0 5-7 0-0 0-0 5-5 L1 
   Houston  8 7 .533 1.5 7-2 1-5 1-4 7-3 0-0 0-0 4-6 W3 
   Chicago  8 8 .500 2.0 3-3 5-5 0-0 6-4 2-4 0-0 5-5 L1 
   Milwaukee  5 10 .333 4.5 2-6 3-4 0-0 5-8 0-2 0-0 2-8 L7 
   Pittsburgh  5 11 .313 5.0 1-6 4-5 0-0 3-9 2-2 0-0 3-7 W1 

  WEST W L PCT GB HOME ROAD EAST CENT WEST AL L10 STRK 
   Los Angeles  12 3 .800 - 5-0 7-3 0-0 2-0 10-3 0-0 8-2 L1 
   Arizona  8 8 .500 4.5 6-3 2-5 0-3 2-1 6-4 0-0 5-5 L1 
   San Diego  8 8 .500 4.5 5-3 3-5 0-0 4-3 4-5 0-0 5-5 W1 
   San Francisco  7 8 .467 5.0 5-3 2-5 0-0 0-0 7-8 0-0 4-6 W1 
   Colorado  4 11 .267 8.0 3-4 1-7 1-1 0-0 3-10 0-0 3-7 L1 

AS you can see there some are how it is now but there have been changes where teams at the top are nnow at the bottom. The Dodgers were in first and had the best record in baseball. Cincinnati was in second in the NL central 1 game out of the wild card. Texas was in last.

You really can't compare the NFL to any sport because it's popularity has little to do with how things are on the field. And a lot of the parity in the league come from the fact they only play 16 games a year.

[pcgd]

Parity in the NFL is a result of all the teams drawing well, the salary cap, and the NFL wanting it to be even.

Because there are more games in baseball, those first 16 games don't matter as much as if it were the only 16 games. I understand your arguement but if there were only 16 games in the big leagues, you'd agree that teams would play a little bit differently.

I know I'm not comparing apples to apples with the NFL and MLB, but I think all leagues can take a look at the NFL as the way to make a successful league. 20 years ago it was a mess, and look at it today. Its a very even league. Some teams get lucky, and a few teams are much better than the rest. They've always played once a week, but they haven't always filled the stadiums.

But its not hard to wonder why a fan of the pirates doesn't care about his team when nobody on earth seems too. I think it'd be better for the game if at least on a show called "Baseball Tonight" they focused on more than the Yankees and Red Sox. I understand that ESPN wants to make money, and that those areas have alot of population. I understand that the Yankees are popular as are the Red Sox. But there are plenty of other places that have enough support and population to make money off of as well. For some reason these areas aren't given nearly the attention that the Sox and Yanks are.

Even when they weren't doing well, we heard about them constantly. The only people that are baseball fans that think its fine are Yankee and Red Sox fans. Its better for the game if there is more even coverage to make the sport popular. It'll be great if the next generation is all Yankee and Red Sox fans cause that's all they see won't it? That'll be fun!

I'd enjoy a Tampa Bay vs. Royals game on ESPN. I'd watch it if there wasn't a Cardinals game on. I'm not suggesting ESPN start doing that, but a little more coverage would be nice. Maybe if they cut out the promos with Billy Bob Thorton they'd have time for an extended White Sox highlight instead of showing a Garland strike out and then straight to the box score. But, they'd probably just fill it up with more Yankee trade rumors.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Aren't the Braves and Cubs always on National TV with WGN and TBS? I know I get them out here, so I figured that's the case pretty much everywhere. The 4 most popular teams generally seem to be the Braves, Cubs, Yankees, and Sox -- as I mentioned, I think most people already get just about all of the Cubs and Braves games -- that's not the case for the Sox and Yankees.

But TBS and WGN are based in Atlanta and Chicago, respectively. They're home-grown independents...they're gonna show their home town. They're not the world sports empire that ESPN markets itslef as.

So, what was your point again?

[KCScout76]

If the Orioles' bats keep going and the Yankees pitchers are doing better, this will be the best race of the lot. Shall we have another Boston-NY playoff game.

Sorry, Bucky Dent can't make it.

Go O's.