Records Undistinguished Since All-Star Break

[infohawk]

I was curious to evaluate how AL teams are doing since the All-Star Break. Here is what I found:

Sox 8-6 (+2)
Twins 6-9 (-3)
Rangers 5-10 (-5)
Orioles 4-10 (-6)
Red Sox 7-7 (0)
Yankees 8-6 (+2)
Angels 7-7 (0)
Oakland 11-3 (+8)
Royals 8-7 (+1)
Indians 6-9 (-3)

I also looked at the second-best-record-in-baseball Cardinals. They have gone 8-5 (+3).

Quick observation. With the exception of Oakland, none of the teams I looked at have been overly impressive since the break. In fact, the only teams playing over .500 are the A's, Cardinals, White Sox, Yankees and, gulp, Royals. I know this is only a couple of weeks worth of games, but I found the results of my inquiry surprising. After all, most of these AL teams are in the hunt for a playoff spot. It will be interesting to see if this is a further sign of increasing parity in the league or just some kind of abberation. If parity is the reason, the accomplishments of the Sox and Cardinals in running out so far ahead of everyone else may be vastly underappreciated.

[Madvora]

Good post to calm some people down around here. Some seem to have forgotten the 4 game sweep of Cleveland.
We're doing just fine.

[mdep524]

Good post to calm some people down around here. Some seem to have forgotten the 4 game sweep of Cleveland.
We're doing just fine. But if you take out that 4-game sweep we're only 4-6!!!

...Just like if you take out our three 8-game winning streaks we're only 6 games over .500 for the season!!!

[Moses_Scurry]

It's the dog days of summer. Everything slows down. THe recent crappy play of the Sox has been taking place with all of the top-tiered teams.

It's my opinion that this is the sole reason for the Braves winning the division every year. For some reason, they play their best during the dog days, while all the other teams seem to coast. How many years have the Braves been "dead and buried" in June or July, only to come back and win it. I don't know what it is, but the Braves hold the key to winning during the dog days of summer.

The A's hold the key to a lesser extent. It's a good thing the Sox have built such a big lead.

You can feel it as a fan too. This is the time of year that you just want the regular season to end! Especially if your team is in first place or completely out of the running. Things will heat up as October approaches.