American League Domination

American League
Interleague domination
Won’t last through the month

This past Friday, we embarked on the second series of interleague play. At that point, the rankings looked a little skewed towards the American League, with only Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee in the top half of the rankings. With more interleague games over the weekend, it was reasonable to expect more National League teams to move up the rankings. Exactly the opposite happened. Now, only Philadelphia and Atlanta are in the top half, and Minnesota is the lowest ranked AL team at 18. That’s what happens when the AL has scored more than a run per game more than the NL in interleague games with a total advantage of 433-332 over 94 games through Monday, a 1.07 run per game edge. While the AL is most likely the stronger league, this type of domination will not continue. Last year, the AL scored 0.28 run per game more than the NL in interleague games. So after a few more weeks, expect the NL to close this gap in run differential as their teams move up The Power Rank.

Rankings through Monday, June 20, 2011:

1. Boston, 44-28, 1.64
2. New York Yankees, 42-29, 1.56
3. Texas, 39-35, 0.76
4. Detroit, 39-34, 0.69
5. Tampa Bay, 40-33, 0.63
6. Toronto, 36-37, 0.54
7. Philadelphia, 45-28, 0.41
8. Cleveland, 39-32, 0.39
9. Chicago White Sox, 35-39, 0.39
10. Los Angeles Angels, 36-38, 0.37
11. Seattle, 37-35, 0.30
12. Oakland, 33-40, 0.29
13. Atlanta, 41-33, 0.10
14. Baltimore, 33-37, 0.02
15. Kansas City, 31-41, -0.07
16. Washington, 35-37, -0.14
17. Cincinnati, 38-36, -0.19
18. Minnesota, 31-39, -0.19
19. St. Louis, 40-33, -0.25
20. Milwaukee, 40-34, -0.27
21. New York Mets, 35-37, -0.31
22. Colorado, 36-36, -0.32
23. Arizona, 39-34, -0.34
24. San Francisco, 39-33, -0.37
25. Pittsburgh, 35-37, -0.57
26. Florida, 32-41, -0.81
27. Los Angeles Dodgers, 33-41, -0.85
28. San Diego, 30-44, -0.87
29. Chicago Cubs, 30-42, -1.17
30. Houston, 27-47, -1.37