harmony

The Red Sox played precisely .500 ball after the All Star break until getting a final chance to feast on the NL East. With the sweep of the Washington Nationals the Sox finished 37-34 after the All Star break and 16-4 against the NL East. Good luck in the postseason.

The AL East is guaranteed to have one team in the American League Championship Series ... ... but is guaranteed of having no more than one team in the ALCS.

Compare those numbers to those of the 2021 Seattle Mariners: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/2021.shtml 63 players on the active roster, including 38 pitchers, 21 with at least 22 innings Baseball writers may be ready to move on from Alex Cora's suspension stemming from the sign-stealing scandal. Or not. At the All Star break CBS Sportsline writers voted Cora the Manager of the Year (to that date), surmising that the suspension would not hurt Cora in the ultimate voting. Seattle manager Scott Servais finished third in the midseason voting. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/2021-mlb-midseason-awards-cbs-sports-staff-picks-for-mvp-cy-young-rookie-of-the-year-and-more/ FWIW after the All Star break the Red Sox posted a 37-34 record and the Mariners a 42-29 record.

To throw another name out there: Scott Servais of the Seattle Mariners. With an Opening Day payroll of $81.8 million, the Mariners finished with 90 wins despite preseason projections of 74 wins*. The M's lost 2020 Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis and 2020 Gold Glove winner Evan White, plus James Paxton and two others from the six-man rotation that opened the season. Seattle finished with a 19-15 record against the AL East but a 9-11 record against the NL West. With 92 wins the Red Sox exceeded their preseason projection of 85 wins. Despite an Opening Day payroll of $182.5 million, the Sox posted a 15-18 record against the AL West but a 16-4 record against the NL East. Congratulations to the Red Sox on a successful season. * https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds?date=2021-03-31&dateDelta=

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There you go ... 3-0.

FWIW the Seattle Mariners opened the season by taking an interleague series against the winningest team in baseball, the San Francisco Giants.

No one cares but ... The Seattle Mariners lost to injuries three pitchers on the six-man rotation that opened the 2021 season. Injuries sidelined 2020 Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis and 2020 Gold Glove winner Evan White. The Mariners' current standing is somewhat confusing ... perhaps that's why they call it Chaos Ball.

Like getting demolished when it really counts: https://www.talksox.com/forum/threads/20247-9-28-at-O-s?p=1428587#post1428587 But it's not over.

Is Peter Gammons a reliable unbiased source?

The national media makes amends ... at least for one morning:):

ESPN and other media are big business that make solid business decisions to pander to the largest audiences. This West Coast fan is not offended by the fiscally justified bias.

The total number of miles traveled each season. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map The Mariners should not complain about playing in a division with two teams that are located closer to Boston than to Seattle but to suggest that the Mariners have a homefield advantage overlooks the disadvantages of the extensive travel schedule. Again, no complaints.

Adaptability can be an asset. Still I have been in a marriage for 27 years, the same job for 25 years and the same house for 19 years. I don't follow football much but I pull for my childhood favorite college team against the university where I have two advanced degrees when the two Big Ten rivals meet each November. Perhaps that's loyalty.

Not especially. The Padres are my favorite National League team because of my wife's roots in San Diego. I have two adult daughters, one in Oakland and one in San Diego, so I follow those teams even if my daughters don't.

Any homefield advantage is outweighed by the homefield disadvantage on road games.

Uh, the Mariners have the significant disadvantage of traveling to 81 games on the road, easily the most strenuous travel schedule in baseball: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map The Mariners and other West Coast teams also deal with rainout makeup games east of the Rockies while West Coast games are almost never rained out.

Note the company the Padres keep in the 538 rankings: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2021-mlb-predictions/

What a collapse by the Padres! Half of Seattle's negative 48 run differential can be traced to the Padres' three-game sweep in May when the Mariners were outscored 31-7.

I switched from the Twins to the World Series-bound Royals in 1980 while attending law school 200 miles from Kansas City. I switched to the Colorado Rockies for their inaugural 1993 season after living in the Rocky Mountain West for six years. I switched to the Mariners for their magical 1995 season after moving to the Pacific Northwest shortly before the strike ended the 1994 season.

Growing up a Minnesota Twins fan this poster remembers the Twins with a one-game lead over the Red Sox with two games remaining at Fenway Park the final weekend of the 1967 season. The Red Sox swept their way into the World Series. This poster is no stranger to disappointment. The Seattle Mariners caught a break this weekend when the Los Angeles Angels scratched Shohei Ohtani from his scheduled Sunday start. The Mariners will send Marco Gonzales, Chris Flexen and Tyler Anderson to the mound for the three-game home stand against the Angels. Gonzales is 7-0 with a 2.57 ERA over his last 11 starts. Flexen had a 3.67 ERA in 30 starts this year. Anderson has a 4.50 ERA in 12 starts with the Mariners despite giving up nine earned runs in two innings on Saturday (Anderson came back with four solid innings Tuesday on only two days rest). Regardless of how the season ends for the Mariners, the September run has provided valuable experience for rookies Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert, Jake Fraley and Cal Raleigh. Fraley and Kelenic had critical two-run doubles in the pair of 4-2 wins over the Athletics on Tuesday and Wednesday. After Wednesday's outing Gilbert has a 2.70 ERA in six September starts and may get the call if the Mariners advance to a play-in or Wild Card game. Let the games begin.

The top four teams in the AL East have a 54-23 record in interleague play against the NL East (with three games remaining) while the top four teams in the AL West have a 40-40 record against the far tougher NL West. There's the difference in overall wins. Overall the AL East is 61-36 against the NL East while the AL West is 47-53 against the NL West. The myth is that the Big Bad American League East is a dominant division. The AL East is among several competitive divisions in baseball. Major League Baseball is a big business and it's hard to dispute that the AL East is a major revenue generator in that big business. As a result, Major League Baseball and the baseball media pander to the AL East. Those solid business decisions may lead to a public misperception about the comparative strength of the AL East. The numbers, however, suggest relative parity on the field. Let's enjoy the final days of the 2021 regular season.

The difference is highly relevant in a discussion about four potential 90-game winners in the AL East. And the wins are unlikely to be distributed evenly among the top four teams. The chances of having multiple 90-game winners are significantly reduced.

FWIW this year the AL East will finish with a winning record in head-to-head competition against the AL West, currently holding an 83-81 edge with only today's matchup of the Astros and Rays remaining.

The Baltimore Orioles deserve some credit if the AL East ends up with four 90-win teams. FWIW in 2002 three clubs in the four-team AL West posted at least 93 wins apiece (without a 107-loss team in the division): https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2002-standings.shtml In 2002 the 93-win Seattle Mariners would have tied the Red Sox for a second Wild Card slot; the Mariners won the season series with the Red Sox that year.