This thread (threat?) was inspired by a discussion on the gameday talk on sunday.

 

The general tone of the discussion was that the National League is way worse than the American League. Some of the comments that i can remember were (not word for word):

 

- The National League is like AAAA.

- Ryan Sweeny would hit 30 homeruns if he played in Arizona.

- Andre Ethier and Carlos Gonzalez only hit so well because they are in the National League.

- There are hundreds of players who were medicore in the American League and crushed the National League.

 

Challenged by a member to find one player from the National Leage that went to the American League and did well i started to look around but couldn't really find a good article about players who changed leagues and how well they did. There are articles about the American League is the better League of the both and I don't even argue that. The American League in general is better, but I don't think it's so good that every medicore player of the American League turns into Pujols just because he changes the leauge.

 

This is why i looked for some big name players who changed leagues and compared their statistics from before and after the change. Here are some i came up with.

 

 

JD Drew		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2004	NL (AT)	28	145	130	132	35	1005
2005	NL (LA)	29	72	113	115	34	932
2006	NL (LA)	30	146	118	99	22	891
2007	AL (BO)	31	140	116	91	13	769
2008	AL (BO)	32	109	119	117	28	927
2009	AL (BO)	33	137	129	97	28	914

 

His production is a little bit down in the AL eventhough he had a good year in 2008. You probably could make a case that the AL was tougher from him.

 

 

Bobby Abreu		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2004	NL (PH)	30	159	118	129	41	972
2005	NL (PH)	31	162	134	117	31	879
2006	NL (PH)	32	98	142	150	33	864
2006	AL (NY)	32	58	145	92	28	921
2007	AL (NY)	33	158	118	86	26	814
2008	AL (NY)	34	156	113	76	23	842

 

The midseason switch in 2006 was good for him, but afterwards his production dropped some. AL seemed tougher for him.

 

 

Ivan Rodriguez		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2001	AL (TE)	29	111	107	34	36	888
2002	AL (TE)	30	108	107	38	29	895
2003	NL (FL)	31	144	104	62	18	843
2004	AL (DE)	32	135	109	49	23	893

 

He switched league for one season in 2003 and did actually worse in the NL.

 

 

Mark Teixeira		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2006	AL (TE)	26	162	128	89	33	885
2007	AL (TE)	27	78	137	93	27	921
2007	NL (AT)	27	54	138	81	51	1019
2008	NL (AT)	28	103	110	102	31	902
2008	AL (LA)	28	54	69	96	39	1081
2009	AL (NY)	29	156	118	118	41	948

 

He only played a little bit in the NL. When he changed the league midseason in 2007 he rocked but the year after it was the other way around.

 

 

Miguel Cabrera		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2005	NL (FL)	22	158	128	66	34	946
2006	NL (FL)	23	158	111	88	27	998
2007	NL (FL)	24	157	131	82	35	966
2008	AL (DE)	25	160	128	57	37	886
2009	AL (DE)	26	160	108	69	34	943

 

Did a little bit better in the NL maybe, but was totally fine in 2009. He hit more HR in the AL.

 

 

Jason Bay		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2006	NL (PIT)	27	159	159	104	36	928
2007	NL (PIT)	28	145	158	66	23	745
2008	NL (PIT)	29	108	129	89	33	894
2008	AL (BO)	29	49	169	73	30	897
2009	AL (BO)	30	151	174	101	39	921

 

No indication that he had a harder time in the AL here.

 

 

Matt Holliday		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2006	NL (CO)	26	155	115	49	36	973
2007	NL (CO)	27	158	129	65	37	1012
2008	NL (CO)	28	139	121	86	29	947
2009	AL (OA)	29	93	101	80	19	832
2009	NL (STL)	29	63	111	67	33	1023

 

Did clearly better in the NL.

 

 

 

Manny Ramirez		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2006	AL (BO)	34	130	127	125	44	1058
2007	AL (BO)	35	133	112	86	24	881
2008	AL (BO)	36	100	139	84	32	927
2008	NL (LA)	36	53	107	107	52	1232
2009	NL (LA)	37	104	126	111	30	949

 

Obviously he did well when he changed leagues in 2008 and was good in 2009 too. Of course he did well in Boston as well. Tough to say because of age and all if the league change benefited him.

 

 

Raul Ibanez		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2006	AL (SE)	34	159	117	66	34	869
2007	AL (SE)	35	149	105	58	23	831
2008	AL (SE)	36	162	110	64	23	837
2009	NL (PH)	37	134	144	68	41	899

 

This is a case where i can see the league changing argument making sense. He did very good in 2009.

 

 

Carlos Lee		Age	Games	K/162	BB/162	HR/162	OPS
2002	AL (CH)	26	140	84	87	30	843
2003	AL (CH)	27	158	93	38	32	830
2004	AL (CH)	28	153	91	57	33	891
2005	NL (MIL)	29	162	87	57	35	811
2006	NL (MIL)	30	102	62	60	44	896
2006	AL (TE)	30	59	71	137	25	894
2007	NL (HO)	31	162	63	53	32	882
2008	NL (HO)	32	115	69	52	39	937

 

 

Interesting case because he changed leagues more than once. Homeruns are a little bit up in the NL, but otherwise pretty similar. Walked a ton in 2006 in the AL.

 

 

let's look at some pitchers.

 

 

Johan Santana		Age	IP	BB9	K9	HR9	ERA
2005	AL (MI)	26	231.2	1.7	9.2	0.9	2.87
2006	AL (MI)	27	233.2	1.8	9.4	0.9	2.77
2007	AL (MI)	28	219.0	2.1	9.7	1.4	3.33
2008	NL (NY)	29	234.1	2.4	7.9	0.9	2.53
2009	NL (NY)	30	166.2	2.5	7.9	1.1	3.13

 

Very strange that his strikeouts actually went down in the NL. It should be higher with the league change, players facing him for the first time and especially facing a pitcher in the line-up. His number defenitely don't show that the NL is "easier".

 

 

Barry Zito		Age	IP	BB9	K9	HR9	ERA
2004	AL (OA)	26	213.0	3.4	6.9	1.2	4.48
2005	AL (OA)	27	228.1	3.5	6.7	1.0	3.86
2006	AL (OA)	28	221.0	4.0	6.1	1.1	3.83
2007	NL (SF)	29	196.2	3.8	6.0	1.1	4.53
2008	NL (SF)	30	180.0	5.1	6.0	0.8	5.15
2009	NL (SF)	31	192.0	3.8	7.2	1.0	4.03

 

Doesn't look like the NL is easier for him.

 

 

Dan Haren		Age	IP	BB9	K9	HR9	ERA
2005	AL (OA)	24	217.0	2.2	6.8	1.1	3.73
2006	AL (OA)	25	223.0	1.8	7.1	1.3	4.12
2007	AL (OA)	26	222.2	2.2	7.8	1.0	3.07
2008	NL (ARI)	27	216.0	1.7	8.6	0.8	3.33
2009	NL (ARI)	28	229.1	1.5	8.8	1.1	3.14

 

His numbers are a little bit better in the NL it seams. But nothing drastic.

 

 

Javier Vazquez		Age	IP	BB9	K9	HR9	ERA
2003	NL (MO)	26	230.2	2.2	9.4	1.1	3.24
2004	AL (NY)	27	198.0	2.7	6.8	1.5	4.91
2005	NL (ARI)	28	215.2	1.9	8.0	1.5	4.42
2006	AL (CH)	29	202.2	2.5	8.2	1.0	4.84
2007	AL (CH)	30	216.2	2.1	8.8	1.2	3.74
2008	AL (CH)	31	208.1	2.6	8.6	1.1	4.67
2009	NL (ATL)	32	219.1	1.8	9.8	0.8	2.87

 

An other good case because he changed leagues a couple of times. In 2005 the change didn't seem to have an effect but last year in atlanta he was very good in the NL.

 

 

So, this are just some players I found. For Ibanez the change really seemed to have a great affect but for most of the other players the change didn't seem really that big. Nothing that indicates that the NL is a AAAA league.

 

What do you guys think? Would be interested if you know any players where it was really the case of medicority in the AL and stardome in the NL.

This is maybe not the best first post, since it doesn't even concern the Athletics, but it might be interesting for some of you anyway.

I switched in on the Yankees game on Saturday against the Royals and something funny happend in the 4th inning (If you have MLB.com maybe you can go and have a look).

Damon is on first and Jeter is hitting. Damon steals second and is safe. The umpires have a short discussion send Damon back to first because of interfirience.

So far so good, the only thing, Jeter is not out. The showed the reply and Jeter was not actually in the way. He swung and stayed in the batters-box crouching down. The catcher however touches Jeter after he threw the ball.

I never heard of this ruling and it seems wrong to me. Either it is interfierence or it is not. This is like a middle thing, sending the runner back and letting the hitter continue.

The Royals manager came out and the umps explained it for a couple of seconds and that was that. No big discussions, nothing.

Are there any rule gurus here that know what was going on here?