Fun with numbers: The East is the Beast

Manny before he left the best division in baseball to go to the worst.

The lack of balance in MLB is clear when you tease apart the records of all the teams. And it may produce - as it has in the past - an unfair end-of-season result.

It's clear from today's standings (Sept 2nd) that the AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, even with the Yankees completing their five-year swoon. They never did recover from Josh Beckett's masterpiece in 2003, did they?

At any rate, the AL East stands at 58 games above .500 (370-312). The only division close is the NL Central, 34 games above .500 (429-395). Each team in the NLCentral averages 6.8 games above .500, while teams in the AL East - a division with fewer teams - average 11.6 wins above .500.

Incredibly, 4 of 6 divisions in baseball are below .500 and the AL Central is only 3 games above even. So excellence is concentrated in just a few teams and a couple of divisions. But while it seems inconceivable to think that the NL wild card will come from anywhere but the Central division, it's possible that the best division in baseball will produce only one playoff team. It hardly seems fair, especially in baseball with its unbalanced schedules. Some credit should be given to the teams that battle at a high level all year. It would be an unfitting end to the year if Boston did not make the playoffs or if the Dodgers, currently just 2.5 half games back in the worst division in baseball, somehow did.