The problem with baseball is competitive imbalance. Not with payrolls, but with interleague play.
Beginning tonight, the National and American Leagues square off, continuing their 10th season of cross-pollination. The Rockies play along by hosting Toronto for the first time.
While the NL holds bragging rights over the AL all-time, last season the American League went top rope on its brethren, providing a WWE smackdown. The junior circuit’s 136-116 record was made beefy by its four playoff teams – Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels – who went a combined 47-25 against the NL.
Compare that with the NL’s four postseason clubs – the San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros finished 31-32 – and it’s no wonder the senior circuit entered this season with a reputation as the junior varsity. Not to mention the NL champion has been swept in the past two World Series.
Of more concern to the contending Rockies specifically and the NL West in general is how interleague play will influence the division race. Only two games separate the first-place and last-place teams in the NL West, the lone division in which every team has won at least 20 games.
“Everyone says this division is terrible. That’s bull,” Dodgers catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. said. “It’s equally balanced, and we are going to spend all season playing each other. There’s not one team that everyone is going to beat up. That’s why interleague play is important. You can’t let that part of the schedule get away from you.”
The Rockies have fallen into that trap, a pothole that blended seamlessly into disappointing seasons. They own the fifth-worst winning percentage (.423) in interleague competition (55-75). They went 6-9 last season, when every team in the NL West had a losing record against the AL.
It raises the question: Can the two rounds of AL bouts – this weekend and June 19 through July 2 – determine the NL West champ?
“If you are going to look at it that way and worry about those (15 to 18) games, then you had no chance to win the division anyway,” Rockies reliever Ray King said. “I wouldn’t say the AL is the superior league anyway, because you look at what happens when they have to sit down their designated hitter, like in Chicago where (Jim) Thome or (Paul) Konerko might not play.”
There are quirks in the schedule that reek of inequality. Because the Rockies lack a natural rival, they picked up their extra games this season against the Blue Jays, a strong playoff contender.
San Diego extends its “rivalry” with Seattle, which has struggled. Then there’s San Francisco, which gets a home-and-home series with Oakland – the best team in interleague play.
“When I was a GM (of the Diamondbacks), there were a thousand things out of my control,” said Joe Garagiola Jr., now in MLB operations. “And which American League teams the rest of the division played was at the top of the list. That’s the great thing about the imbalanced scheduled. Ultimately, the winner is going to be decided by how you do against the teams in your division.”
In theory, that is correct. But does it account for the perceived disparity between the leagues this season? A year ago Cleveland became an AL contender by beating up on the NL West, going 15-3 overall in interleague.
Players such as King, Alomar and Jose Mesa dispute the notion the AL is superior. What isn’t debatable is the AL’s superiority, or lack thereof, will be measurable by the all-star break. It also may determine the length of seasons in the NL West, specifically which team will be playing in October.
“The National League isn’t as strong this year. There is no real dominant team out there,” Padres general manager Kevin Towers said. “I am not sure there will be even five teams with 90 wins. So it will be interesting to see (the interleague impact).”
Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
