There are, however, delusional people who will argue with that comment—silly as they are.
So, with this in mind, I took a twist off my game logs script to do a little automated tallying, comparing divisions to divisions, which in the new-look BBA that is without interl-eague play is particularly tasty in that one can now can get a pretty clean cut on intra-league comparisons, but inter-league are still the realm of one upsmanship and whataboutisms. Bottom line: What I found was just kind of fun.
Let’s look at them League-by-League, starting—of course—with the superior …
FRICK LEAGUE
- 2040-FL-H2H-August.PNG (22.55 KiB) Viewed 3650 times
Bottom line, despite all the washtub beating and chest pounding happening in the highly hyped Pacific Division, the Heartland holds a fourteen game lead (231-217) in head-to-head play. And it’s not just the vaunted Yellow Springs (39-17 against the FLP) and Louisville (31-25) teams that are contributing to that span. Omaha is 30-26, and Nashville is dead even at 28-28. Both Des Moines and Twin Cities are a couple games off the pace, but not far. Only Chicago (25-31) and Madison (24-32) are struggling against the Pacific—though, oddly, both are a game to the positive inside the Heartland.
Valencia (34-22) has feasted on the Heartland, and San Fernando (31-25) has had a strong showing, but otherwise only California (30-26) is playing a bit above .500 against the better division.
The Lumberjack in the room, of course, is the expansion team in Portland. Removing them pretty much evens out the two divisions in head-to-head play. Of course, given the great pre-season hype that said the Pacific was hands-down better, even this has to be seen as a net win for the Heartland—who some called Yellow Springs and Friends at times, ignoring the fact that Louisville may well be the second best team in the Frick League right now.
Of note might be that, in both Heartland and Pacific divisions (and as we’ll see in the junior league), winning inside your division is vital to keeping your head above water in this 4x8 configuration. The lone exception at present is Valencia, who as noted before has pounded the Heartland, but is just s shade over .500 in division.
Now let’s look at the…
JOHNSON LEAGUE
- 2040-JL-H2H-August.PNG (21.97 KiB) Viewed 3650 times
The clear-cut winner as best Johnson League division here is no surprise. The Frontier has been a woodchipper all season and holds a 257-191 advantage in head-to-head games. Yes, it’s fair to note that expansion team Charlotte is the source of 30 of those extra losses, but even removing them doesn’t come close to evening the 66-game gap.
Six of the eight Frontier teams are over .500 against their Atlantic counterparts, and a seventh, Wichita, is sitting at 27-29. I mean, seriously, Edmonton, Vegas, and Calgary are a combined 95-73 against the Atlantic as a whole. Of note is that Rockville, the Atlantic leader, is only 26-30 against Frontier teams. Of some note is the case of a team like San Antonio, which is holding its own against Atlantic (29-27) foes, but getting drubbed in division (26-51). Similarly, Mexico City is enjoying playing the East Coasters to the tune of 32-24, but has only mustered a .461 showing in the Frontier.
One is tempted then, to say that the Frontier is the best division in baseball…but, of course, that is something only a lesser intellect would glom onto. One can’t actually say which division is the best using this data, so we must obviously fall back on the empirical view that the Heartland is stronger—and support that view by noting that the Heartland is making it’s advantage over a healthy Pacific, whereas the Frontier is merely feasting on the lowly Atlantic.
See how obvious that is once you take the right perspective?
Of course, the devout and perhaps lesser-educated followers of the Johnson League will still not be swayed by such logic. That’s the beauty of the post-season in this world of no interleague play. The Landis will eventually carry the whole weight of this question.
Until then, though: The Heartland Rulz!
