MLB: NL & AL Rankings; Rockies, the View From Above; Baseball-International.   

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MLB Rankings  ---   THE National League Central’s leading team, the St. Louis Cardinals, tied this week with the American League West’s number one club, the Texas Rangers, at 30 wins apiece. This put them at the number one spot, both MLB leagues. And, seven other franchises are atop MLB’s remaining four divisions with regard to number of games won. That adds up to nine baseball clubs leading the six divisions that constitute the majors. How could that be? Easy enough to understand regarding games won, when three teams are tied for first place within the NL West---the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies and the San Francisco Giants, each at 21 wins as of this morning, while inside the AL the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have the same number of won games keeping them above their competing AL East teams---28.

A sure divider concerning the two MLB leagues remains the number of teams above .500 but under .600, there being only four within the NL versus the AL’s six. That said, the AL has six teams at or above .600, while the AL has only two in this category, though three of the NL’s four clubs over .600 are within a single division, the NL Central. Yet the NL has three teams below .400, and the AL but one team under .400---the AL West’s 14-33/.298 Houston Astros. At this time, no MLB division can boast of every club within being over .500. Worst team in both leagues today? The NL East’s 13-34/.277 Miami Marlins. From all of this, the two leagues seem closer in ability to win games, than they appear apart, but they appear different in how won games and standings have added up re. either league.   

First and second place teams within each division are, of course, the hottest of contentions. Presently, the only deep division disparities between first and second place MLB franchises include the Rangers five game lead over the Oakland Athletics, and the five games that the San Diego Padres are behind the three NL West teams that are now tied at first position. The 28-18 Atlanta Braves are four games ahead of the Washington Nationals today, and the 25-22 Baltimore Orioles are behind the tied Yankees/Red Sox by three wins, but the 29-18 Cincinnati Reds are behind the Cardinals by only one game, the Detroit Tigers are back of the Cleveland Indians also by just one win.

Fact: were the MLB divisions in contention with each other, the NL Central would be leading the NL now with 124 wins over the NL West’s 118 and over the NL East’s 105. The top division re. won games in the AL today, that’s the AL East having 125 and being the only MLB division with just one team under .500, the 20-27/.426 Toronto Blue Jays. Next best division within the AL is the AL Central with 119 wins, last being the AL West with 109 wins, this number odd in that atop the AL West are two of the hottest AL teams, the Rangers and the 25-23/.521 A’s.

Best division re. wins in the MLB, then, is the AL East, one game up over NL Central.

So, which is best? When looking at all of this as an East vs.West tourney, the NL East appears to prevail over the AL West with its 118 wins over 109. The NL Central tops the AL Central with 124 won games against 113, but the NL East’s 105 knees to the AL East’s 125.

Next question, “Is one league really better than the other, if total number of wins to date is the measure?” With all those differences shown, and our adding up the wins of each league, surprisingly each league’s total number of wins is today the same: 347 won games apiece.

More than one wise GM and club manager has thought to himself, “Do the math in baseball enough times and what you come up with in the end is the phrase, 'Go figure!'”

Rockies    ---    For the Colorado Rockies now it has to be about gaining the tags “Intrepid,” “Consistent,” “Powerful leading club,” and that will take the usual requirements +, in other words a starting rotation that can maximize strikeouts while minimizing opposing team runs, and a line-up that can deliver extra-base hits and furnish RBI’s, therefore keeping to a minimum runners left on base from third outs. What are the necessary plusses? Among them, there’s that most careful calculation when by a fourth or fifth inning a Rockies starter has kept the opposing club scoreless but starts throwing fewer strikes and allowing more hits, i.e., is it time then for manager Walt Weiss to call his currently high above the margin bull pen, is it time to send the right reliever to maintain that big Zip other side of the mound, or should the starter continue? Probably the correct thing to do is to call that constantly imporving bull pen. Right now, the Rockies relievers are among the best within the NL’s top seven teams, holding a 3.8 ERA, including LH Rex Brothers, who managed a scoreless 16 innings streak, and closer RH Rafael Betancourt, he has 10 of 10 saves this year. 

Too, the line-up that’s helped to take the Rockies back from the dark side and up through the gray area into the light of being tied at first place with the Giants and the DB’s, such needs no mending now, not past the D.J. LeMahieu replacement for infielder Josh Rutledge being suddenly off-game in the field and hitting well below .300, while at Triple-A LeMahieu had been batting above .330, succeeding as shortstop although he’ll be a second baseman starting tonight vs. the Giants.

Weiss may have hit upon a batting order that eluded former manager, Jim Tracy, during the 2012 MLB season, now having lots of flexibility via either Dexter Fowler (OF) or Eric Young, Jr. (OF), maybe Johnathan Herrera (IF) leading off, giving deep ball hitters Carlos Gonzales (LF) and Troy Tulowitzki (SS) the opportunity for putting numbers on the board early on, with next-up hitters being catcher Wilin Rosario, first baseman-alternates Todd Helton and Jordan Pacheco plus third baseman, Nolan Arenado, each continuing the line of power at a high enough level to push RBI’s the likes of those that helped the Rockies win series recently vs. the Giants and the DB’s. Leading off with Fowler has had high value, he’s batting over .310. Gonzalez, Tulowitzki and Pacheco are also batting above .300.

After playing the Giants, for the Rockies it’s the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers, six games vs. teams that are last in their respective divisions and far below .500.

With the vs. Giants series starting today, the Rockies have solid opportunities across nine games for summiting and leaving the other NL West teams behind.

World   ---   This year’s World Baseball Classic drew enough viewers to cause TV and venue execs to shout “Give us more,” while a greater number of MLB players have expressed interest in being a part of the WBC’s next go-round. It’s quite possible that as many as 30 countries will be sending teams for it by the next decade, more than in any WBC to date.

But what caught our attention this week is a seeding that has begun to internationalize baseball as played in America, much in the manner that the National Basketball Association has gone “world,” though, by comparison baseball’s internationalization has been at a narrower and slower pace.

Nearly every NBA team has one or more athletes from countries outside the U.S., and the variance is more like the United Nations than baseball having leaned for years mostly into Central America and Japan for gifted ballplayers. NBA players are from the African nations, from Germany, Italy, France, Argentina, Croatia, Israel, Turkey, China, from several other countries, as well.

Baseball’s seeding for international expansion has existed quietly at what’s been MLB’s “Europe Academy,” based at an Olympic training center, Tirrenia, Italy, and the second graduate of this institution to hit the majors in America is Don Lutz (raised, Germany), a new Cincinnati Reds outfielder who hit his first career home run on May 13. He follows Italian ballplayer, Alex Liddi, now with the Seattle Mariners.

The “Europe Academy” functions throughout August every summer, with MLB responsible for, and managing, the program that is limited to approximately 60 players selected from the European and African countries. MLB has operated a similar program for Asian athletes at Australia. Go World, Go!

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