Interleague baseball lineal wide open at All-Star break

As the 2021 baseball season reached its midpoint, the lineal title across the big leagues had no clear favorites, other than a predilection to remain in the American League. But there's still time for an NL club to run a championship.

The race to the lineal championship across big league baseball in 2021 came to the All-Star break as a wide-open proposition. Except that it was all happening in the American League.

The championship has changed hands 12 time so far, each time going to an American League club. National League teams have failed in four attempts to wrestle the championship from the American League. The closest the NL came was the Colorado Rockies losing two of three at home to the Oakland Athletics in early June, and even then, the A's won the first two, so there was no rubber game.

The standings at the All-Star break show a pretty even race, with five teams reaching 10 games of championship and no one winning 20.

A Super League berth could hang in the balance here, and it will be decided by criterion. The A's and Angels have qualified for the stat-off by already reaching some combination of championships and defenses adding to five or better. The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays will qualify with one more championship. 

The Boston Red Sox will qualify with their next title, so long as they don't fail in a challenge some time during the season. They are the only team among the early contenders that has not failed a challenge.

The Seattle Mariners won the championship by taking two of three from the Angels during the final weekend before the break. But the two clubs will rematch in Anaheim when play resumes.

If the Mariners win that series, they will put it up to a challenge against Colorado, another chance for the NL. But if the Angels win, they will put it up to challenge to Oakland, another chance for the A's.

Elite Division adds juice to 2018 baseball pyramid

The establishment of an Elite Division for 2019 made the 2018 baseball pyramid chase all the more interesting. Somehow, though, the Dodgers are left out of the party.

The 2018 baseball season began with a decree that a new competition would be established for 2019, a champions league that would include the top finishers at every level of the promotion/relegation pyramid from the previous season. It shall be called the Elite Division.

The idea is along the lines of the various continental champions leagues produced each year by FIFA, the international governing body of soccer. Each of the national leagues has an allotment of teams in its continental champions league, depending on the strength of the league.

In this baseball arrangement, of course, we're just looking at the big league clubs across North America, but we do have them in four divisions. And it does seem, without putting pencil and paper to it, that the leading clubs from the lower divisions wind up being competitive year by year. So, we'll find out, sort of.

Here's the scheme, which will run across every promotion/relegation pyramid in these pages. In sports with four levels to the pyramid, the next year's champions league will include the top half of the first division (four teams), the top three in the second division, the top two in the third division and the top team from the fourth division.

The effect, one supposes, would be to add a bit of juice to the middle of the top divisions and create a little more value for winning the bottom rung. The top two clubs from every division except the first always have been promoted. But there has been nothing in it for the second-place team in the top division. Now, there is a prize for finishing in the top half of the top tier, and also for the third-place team in the second division.

The new league will embrace all of the pyramid champions from the previous season, along with a few others with demonstrated competence. Not only will the new league juice the pyramid, but it shall stand at the top of the pyramid system as a fascinating competition in its own right. That is the dream.

The additional competition succeeded in making the baseball pyramid in 2018 even more interesting than usual. And more heartbreaking. Yes, the dream already is coming true.

Take, for example, the First Division. As the regular season ended, the Dodgers were in fourth place at 13-12, followed by the 13-13 Arizona Diamondbacks. Neither club was eligible for promotion or relegation at that point, because each had only two opponents from the First Division (three is the minimum). However, that stipulation will not apply to eligibility for the champions league. If the season had ended then, the Dodgers would be in the 2019 champions league.

However, because of the imbalance in baseball schedules, it is the one sport with a pyramid in which the postseason is included. And it happens that the Dodgers lasted to the World Series, where they met the Boston Red Sox of the First Division.

The Red Sox already had clinched the First Division championship and still would have won it by five games even if they had been swept by the Dodgers. The stakes for the Dodgers were much higher, for they would have to win the World Series to make the champions league. If the Dodgers took it to seven games and lost, they would have finished 16-16, .500 with the Diamondbacks in fourth place, and the Diamondbacks held the tiebreaker for their 11-8 record head-to-head against the Dodgers.

We all know, of course, that the World Series went badly for the Dodgers. The Red Sox beat them in five games. The Dodgers finished 14-16 in the First Division, fifth place. The Diamondbacks are going to the champions league. The Dodgers were the best club across the National League for two years running, but in these tests weighted to the top teams in the game, their failures against the Diamondbacks and Red Sox cost them dearly.

The Dodgers, however, never had to fear relegation, a fate that the Cleveland Indians escaped, but the Washington Nationals and Toronto Blue Jays did not.

In the Second Division, the added arrangement produced a new prize, for while first and second places always have earned promotion, third place now has the champions league sweetener. And that still wasn't enough to account for the strong group of clubs that bunched in the middle of that second tier, all from the National League Central Division.

None of them could match the Houston Astros, who now have climbed the ladder in the three-year minimum after spending 2011 through 2016 in the Fourth Division. The Astros will be in the First Division in 2019 after a 21-8 showing to top the 2018 Second Division.

The race for the other promotion was much more thick, made juicier by the addition of a champion's league berth for the third-place club. Four teams were in this thick, and they know each other well.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the scrum with a 38-32 (.543) record among Second Division clubs, still 3½ games behind the Astros. Within 1½ games of the Cardinals were the Pittsburgh Pirates (36-31, .537), the Chicago Cubs (35-32, .5223) and the Milwaukee Brewers (36-33, .5217).

So, the Cardinals, along with the Astros, are promoted to the First Division in 2019, and now they have the additional distinction of joining the champion's league. The Pirates, finishing third, also are ticketed to the 2019 champion's league.

Not necessarily for nothing, we note that this result is almost precisely opposed to how it actually went down in the NL Central race. In that form, the Brewers nosed out the Cubs by a game, with the Cardinals finishing well down and the Pirates even further back.

It is unusual for any of these pyramid divisions to include four clubs from the same Major League division. These 2018 results show what a difference it makes, because the games those four clubs play amongst themselves are weighted much more heavily in the pyramid divisions than in the Major League standings.

The Brewers were 27-31 in their games against the Cubs, Cards and Pirates. They won their big league division over those teams without beating those teams. They were 69-36 against everyone else. Head-to-head among the four clubs, the Cubs were 30-28, while the Cardinals and Pirates each were 29-28. The Brewers won the NL Central. In the Second Division, they're out of the money.

The Cardinals actually made the race for second place more interesting than necessary, dropping five of six to the Brewers and Cubs during the final week of September. Third place actually came down to the one-game playoff for the NL Central title between the Cubs and Brewers on Oct. 1. The Brewers won it, 3-1. The Brewers were out of contention by then, but a win for the Cubs would have put them in a flat-footed tie with the Pirates. The Cubs held a 10-9 tiebreaker, but they also might have faced the Brewers and Astros later in the playoffs.

More heartbeak in the Third Division, where the Angels, Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins tightly bunched at the top. Percentage rules here, so the Rockies took it at 15-9, .625.

The Twins (27-18, .600), and Angels (15-10, .600), were right there. But the Twins took the second promotion for their lead over the rest in the games column. When the championship  is split like this between the categories, the percentage leader is declared champion, but the games leader also will be promoted. In principle, a team playing to some high percentage in more games is more accomplished than another team reaching that same percentage in fewer games.

There was much less controversy at the bottom of the Third Division, with the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox ticketed downward. Two American League West clubs, the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners, were clearly the best two clubs in the Fourth Division. Between them, the A's were better. Both are going up to the Third Division, but the A's are going to the champion's league.

Yankees pass Angels for AL season traveling title

The Angels all but had Team of the Year for the American League traveling championship clinched, but the New York Yankees got their mitts on it, then produced a torrid September to prevail.

The American League (AL) traveling championship raised two questions, which amounted to one: Did the New York Yankees win it? Or did the Angels lose it?

On the morning of Sept. 3, the Angels were a lusty 26-12 for the AL traveler, winning it three times,  defending it five times in eight tries and holding 30 games of title defense. They were tied, 1-1, against the Texas Rangers in Arlington with the rubber game of their three-game series coming up that day. A win would allow the Angels to take the prize with them to Oakland and, maybe, later, to Seattle. 

Only the Seattle Mariners were making any kind of claim to contest the Angels for the season title. Despite leading all AL clubs with five titles, though, the Mariners were only 22-25 for the prize, succeeding only twice in seven defenses.     

We'll never know if a win for the Angels on Sept. 3 would have sealed the season title or not. Anyway, it didn't happen. The Rangers won that day, 7-6. The Angels staged a furious three-run rally in the ninth to come in a run short. Turned out to be their dying gasp.

The problem was that the Rangers had the New York Yankees as their next AL opponent after taking a weekend detour in the National League against the Atlanta Braves. And the Yankees, unlike the Angels, Rangers or Mariners, were in the playoff hunt.

The Yankees were 8-6 in the AL traveler with one title at that point. But they wanted the September games the most, and they won them. First, they won two of three against the Rangers to gain the championship for the first time since Aug. 2. They followed with consecutive defenses against the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Minnesota Twins. 

The Toronto Blue Jays took two of three from the Yankees Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Yankee Stadium to temporarily derail the New Yorkers. The Jays held the prize by winning two of three from the Red Sox at Fenway Park before a return match with the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

There, the Yankees reclaimed the crown with two wins in three games to end the regular season and take the prize into the playoffs. A one-game playoff win against the Twins preceded a five-game win in the American League Division Series (ALDS) against the Cleveland Indians. The Houston Astros claimed the prize from the Yankees with a seven-game win in the American League Championship Series, but the Yankees were in by then with the traveling championship for the season.

The Yankees did a season's worth in September, winning the title twice and making five defenses in seven tries for a 19-11 overall record and 26 games of title defense.                                                                                                                                                         

A new way to regionalize baseball standings

Here is a plan for realigning baseball that makes some regional sense. It places each team in three divisions at the same time.

Roughned Odor helped the Texas Rangers to three division titles in 2016, under a regional alignment scheme proposed here (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

Some years ago, we proposed a way for Major League Baseball to realign without really realigning. The proposal was to keep the American and National Leagues as they are and overlay three regional leagues. 

The idea works especially well during those seasons in which the interleague division pairings are East vs. East, Central vs. Central and West vs. West. The regional leagues would be, of course, a West League, a Central League and an East League.

We actually played it out in 2015, the only season, so far, in which that was the schedule and the two leagues each were divided into the right three divisions of five teams. The 2015 season showed that the regional approach is good fun to follow. 

But what about the other two seasons out of every three, in which the major leagues give us pairings that can't possibly make sense? It's fun when the Dodgers play the Angels, but do we have to pay for it with meetings between the Baltimore Orioles and the San Diego Padres that have no meaning for anyone?

Last year, we worked up another arrangement, a bit more complicated. But it played out well enough, so we'll do it again this year, following the results on these pages.

We began by breaking the 30 major league teams into four regions, one for each quadrant of the country. Consider each of these a league unto itself. Call them quadrants. 

Of course, it doesn't divide evenly. The division here is two quadrants of eight and two quadrants of seven. We put Chicago in the west, putting 16 clubs in that half of the country. Now, cutting the west in half, we have the northwest and southwest quadrants. Do the same with northeast and southeast, and we have four quadrants.

Here is how the quadrants played out in 2016. The games counted are head-to-head within each quadrant.

These don't come out perfectly. They come out half-perfectly. The western half is perfect. Each quadrant in the west has four clubs from each major league, so a lot of these teams will play each other. The east is a mess. The north half has only two National League clubs and the south half has only two American League clubs. Depending on how the the major leagues line up for interleague play, some teams stand to play light schedules within their quadrants – the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays in the southeast and the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in the northeast.

But that's not, for many reasons, a fatal problem. The main reason is that we're not done yet. 

From these resources, the four quadrants, we now have the resources to form four new regional leagues, each with two divisions. We now can create the North League, the South League, the East League and the West League. 

Consider the Southwest quadrant, which includes the Dodgers and the Angels. The Southwest quadrant is simultaneously the South Division of the West League and the West Division of the South League. In the West League, we count, say, the Angels' games against their own quadrant and the Northwest quadrant (The Northwest quadrant would be the North Division of the West League. And the West Division of the North League.). Counting those games gives us the Angels record in the West League.

What this means is that the Angels are simultaneously in three leagues – three championship competitions -- as a member of their quadrant. At once, they are playing to win the Southwest quadrant, the West Division of the South League and the South Division of the West League. Of course, the Angels won none of those. The Texas Rangers, who really roughed up the clubs in their southwest quadrant, won all three of them.

Here is how the West League turned out.

Notice, the Chicago Cubs didn't win their own Northwest quadrant, finishing behind the Chicago White Sox. But the Cubs made up well more than enough ground after factoring in how the clubs in the Northwest and Southwest quadrants did against each other.

Deciding the league champion is a bit of a process. We're working with the real schedule, which doesn't conform directly to our purposes, so we make due. That's the case with all of this.

If the two division winners meet in the playoffs, then we can consider that the league championship series. If not, the we see if the two teams played head-to-head during the season and use that. If not that, then we simply won't declare a champion in that league that year. 

In this case, the Cubs and Rangers happened to meet during the season and, unbeknownst to anyone, that set of games would retrospectively be declared the league championship series. And the Cubs won it, two games to one.

How about the Angels and the Dodgers in the South League? Here are those standings from 2016.

Note, first, that Baltimore won the East Division of the South League. That pointless series between the Orioles and Padres? No, it actually was a South League series of some importance. The Orioles prevailed over the Washington Nationals in the South League's East Division, in part because the Orioles were 3-1 during the season against the San Diego Padres.

We go by winning percentages here, noting that we are bound to have wide disparities in the numbers of games played by any two teams. Obviously, the team playing more games has a huge advantage in the games behind column, if that team is good. In this case, the Nationals were only one game better than the Orioles by that measure, even though the Nationals played 26 more games than the Orioles.  

In the Southeast quadrant, which includes the Orioles, we declared a split championship, because the Orioles, with a short schedule, won by percentage points against the Nationals, again, while the Nats won in the games behind column. In this case, since there's no reason to pick a playoff representative, we just went ahead and split the championship.

The Nationals got their championship in the East League, as the South Division champion. In this case, the title was undisputed. But there was no overall league champion declared here, since the Nationals never played against the Cleveland Indians, who won the East League's North Division.

That Northeast quadrant had four(ish) different championships by this reckoning, more than any other. The New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays were declared split champions in the Northeast quadrant. However, in the Northeast quadrant's guise as the North Division of the East League, the Cleveland Indians won the championship with in that group. And as the East Division of the North League, the result was something else, again.

Here, the champions were the Detroit Tigers, but really by a hair, and a technicality. We don't recognize winning percentages that go out more than three decimal places except as a distant tiebreaker. Like the standard, we round down to the thousandth of a point. If there is no difference at that point, we go to the games behind column.

In this case, the Tigers and Blue Jays both are .563, but if we go a little further out, the Blue Jays are .5632 and the Tigers are .5625. But in our reckoning, they both are .563. And the Tigers won in the games behind column.

As is always the case when playing out some different arrangement in baseball, we live with the fact that not all of the teams play each other. It's been known to happen in some college conferences, but baseball is unique among the major sports that play more than, say, 16 games in that it doesn't have a round-robin schedule all the way across.

In the NBA and the NHL, every team plays every other team at least once home-and-home and at most twice home-and-home. You can chop up those leagues however you want and everyone will play each other a fairly even amount.

But a baseball team that really gets around only plays about two-thirds of the other teams. A baseball team plays about half of its games against some set group of four other teams (the teams within its division), then plays the other half against a group of 15 teams (the remaining teams in its league and the teams in its interleague division). Then, there's another 10 teams it doesn't play at all.

With interleague play and expanded playoffs in the last 20 years, baseball has gone so far off the old path that it might as well pave a new way. By balancing out the schedule, leagues such as what we're supposing would work even better.

First Division title a three-way split in 2015

We ended up declaring tri-champions for the First Division in 2015, giving equal due to the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays. On the bottom end, the Angels defended their 2014 title poorly to earn relegation, along with the Atlanta Braves.

There was never much clarity on top of the First Division in 2016 as the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays set a strong pace all year and never came apart from each other.

In the end, it came to a split championship between those three clubs.

Normally, the call is made by winning percentage, but we always split titles when there is a discrepancy between winning percentage and the games behind column. In this case, the Cardinals were 15-10, .600, to lead the way in winning percentage. But that's one-half game behind the Giants (26-20, .565), who led in the games behind column.

Then again, the Rays (19-14, .576), finished ahead of the Cardinals in the games behind column and ahead of the Giants in winning percentage. At the same time, they tied with the Giants in the games behind column and behind the Cardinals in winning percentage.

So, there was no boiling this one down to one club, or even two.

The split championship was a first in the First Division in more ways than one. It also marked the first time the Cardinals claimed even a share of the title, even though they are the only club that has been in the First Division continuously since tracking began in 2010.

On the bottom of the First Division, the Dodgers escaped relegation by winning 12 of their last 20 after finishing July in last place at 10-18. The Dodgers finished 22-22, sixth place, ahead of the Atlanta Braves and the Angels, who both will be relegated.

The Angels won the First Division in 2014, but came back with a last-place performance in a limited 2015 schedule, finishing 6-16.

Coming up from the Second Division to replace the Braves and Angels in the First Division will be the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers.

Dodgers win wild West League in 2015

The Dodgers rallied through the final two months of the 2015 West League season, while the Houston Astros faltered on the road. Thus, the Dodgers overtook the Astros to claim the West League championship.

Adrian Gonzalez led the Dodgers' batting order through a championship campaign during the 2015 West League season (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

The Dodgers looked finished in the West League after the Houston Astros swept them three Aug. 21-23 in Houston, starting with a no-hitter for Houston hurler Mike Fiers in the Friday night opener.

After that series, the Astros were 42-26, four games up on the Dodgers, who wallowed at 37-29 second place. 

But the road took a toll on the Astros in the final month, as two three-city trips through the circuit yielded combined results of 4-15. 

The better seasoned Dodgers campaigned on their big road trip, a Sept. 3-13 three-city swing through San Diego, Anaheim and Arizona that went 7-3, one loss in each location.

By the time the Astros took a 2-8 beating going through Oakland, Anaheim and Arlington, TX, Sept. 7-17, the Dodgers were in command.

The Dodgers went to the final week of the season with a two-game lead on the Astros and a three-game lead on the Angels and San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers then split four in San Francisco before sweeping three at home against the San Diego Padres to secure a 5-2 week, which no one else surpassed and only the Astros matched.

Ending the regular season, the Dodgers remained two up on the Astros. The Dodgers, Astros and Rangers remained alive in the Major League playoffs. Though the Rangers won the American League West at 88-74, two games ahead of the Astros and three ahead of the Angels, they were also-rans in the West League.

The Rangers finished 47-49 in the West League, sixth out of 10 clubs. So, the Rangers didn't hold up very well against their regional competition, but they were 41-25 outside the West League. The Astros were 32-34 outside the West League. The Dodgers were 36-30 outside the league

As the playoffs began, the possibility existed that the Astros and Rangers could meet again for the World Series berth, also giving the Astros one last run at the Dodgers in the West League. But the Astros couldn't get past the Kansas City Royals and the Rangers couldn't get past the Toronto Blue Jays.

Thus. the Dodgers prevailed in the first year of playing out the West League, which will next play out when the interleague divisions align for it in 2018. Meanwhile, it has been decided here to track a different disalignment in the next two seasons, based on whether clubs are original or expansion franchises. If we applied it to the 2015 season, the results are quite surprising.

With their league win, the Dodgers also claim the title in the league's South Division. In the North Division, the Giants prevailed by one game over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Indians bid for Selig East threepeat

One might protest that the Bud Selig East is an arbitary sampling of teams and that its champion is rather a fluke because of it. But how does that differ from how the Major League Baseball regular season is structured to decide which clubs go to the playoffs?

Terry Francona, the most successful manager in the history of the Bud Selig East, is trying to pilot the Cleveland Indians to their third straight championship (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

To begin, we note that the Cleveland Indians, as poorly as they've gone this season, still are making a strong bid to win the Bud Selig East for the third consecutive year.

They happened to lose a tough one Monday afternoon to the Chicago Cubs, who prevailed on a homer by Kris Bryant in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 win at Wrigley Field. The Cubs now are 44-31 in the Bud Selig East, with the Indians 3½ games down at 38-32.

Two questions might immediately arise. Both are reasonable. The first would be, "So, what?" The second would be, "In what kind of a league are the Cleveland Indians 38-32?" In the real American League standings, the Indians began Tuesday's games 58-66. That means they are really terrible, 20-34, playing outside of the Bud Selig East.

The Bud Selig East is just a personal thing for the writer, who is happy to share it with the baseball public, though with no expectation that the baseball public wants it. The short explanation of the Bud Selig East is that it's half of a mash-up of the Joe Cronin and Chub Feeney Leagues. The long explanation is here. That's the answer to "So, what?" A shrug.

The second question is more interesting, because it says something about how the competitive integrity of the Major League Baseball (MLB) schedule has been sacrificed since the start of interleague play back in 1997.

Quickly, Indians are 38-32 in the Bud Selig East because that's their record against opponents in the Joe Cronin and Chub Feeney Leagues, which accounts for 15 other clubs across the Major Leagues. Is it not interesting that if you just consider the Indians against a particular cross-section that includes half of the Major League clubs, they're actually pretty good?

If you have any inclination to say that the Indians' work against the unbalanced selection of clubs in its Bud Selig East record is not representative of what the Indians are, we agree. But if we agree on that, we should also agree that the MLB schedule raises the same concerns, perhaps to an even greater degree, and certainly to a more serious degree.

Ever since interleague play began, we have to live with teams fighting for playoff entry on the basis of different schedules, which is inherently unfair and which seriously damages the integrity of that competition. If your interleague opponents are poor and the team against which you are jockeying for a wildcard berth plays good interleague opponents, that is an advantage for your side.

It would seem that about 99.9944 percent of baseball fans don't think it's anything to be concerned about. And if the fans and media don't see a problem, then the MLB offices definitely won't see a problem. Over here, though, we think it's a problem.

Take a look, for example, at the race for the second wildcard in the American League. Basically, it's a scrum of .500ish clubs fighting for survival. But the American League East clubs (the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays) in that mix are at a huge advantage against the AL West clubs (the Angels and Texas Rangers) and the AL Central club (the Minnesota Twins) who are in that fight.

The interleague schedule is set up this year so the eastern divisions play each other, as do the central divisions and the western divisions. So, if you're in the AL East, you're playing interleague against three dreadful clubs (the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins), a talented club that plays messy baseball (the Washington Nationals) and an underwhelming club with young and talented pitching (the New York Mets).

Three of the six worst winning percentages across MLB are in the NL East, the Nats struggle to stay even and the Mets have only recently advanced from having the worst record among the division leaders. All of that is rather an achievement when one considers that the NL East clubs play 56 percent of their games against each other.

There's not a truly good club in that whole NL East mix, and those are the clubs against whom the AL East clubs are bidding for wins and losses towards a playoff berth that will be decided by a game or two.

The Twins are playing their interleague games against two poor clubs (the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers), as well as an awesome and pretty lucky club in the St. Louis Cardinals, a strong club in the Pittsburgh Pirates and a club on its way to being strong in the Chicago Cubs. If you're the Twins, wouldn't you rather play the National League clubs who the Rays and Orioles are playing? Wouldn't you like your chances better that way?

The Angels and Rangers are playing interleague against the NL West, which includes one bad club (the Colorado Rockies), two decent clubs (the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres) and two good clubs in the Dodgers (who aren't even as good as they should be) and the Giants (who have a way of getting better in the Fall).

So, if you're an AL East club, you get three interleague patsies. If you're in the AL Central, you get two interleague patsies, and you only get one if you're in the AL West.

Entering Tuesday's games, the contenders for the second AL wildcard were the Rangers (64-59), Angels (63-61), Twins (63-61), Orioles (62-62) and Rays (62-62). And here are their interleague records: Rangers (9-8), Angels (7-10), Twins (8-12), Rays (11-6) and Orioles (9-8).

The Orioles and, especially, the Rays are in this thing and might prevail because they have a much easier path than the Twins, Angels or Rangers. And that simply is not in the spirit of how playoff berths should be decided. Sure, the Twins could have won another game or two against the Reds and Brewers, and so forth, but the point is that the Twins, along with the Angels and Rangers, have a much tougher assignment overall to win 90 games, or whatever that number becomes to win a playoff berth.

A little further down the AL wildcard standings, we find the Detroit Tigers (59-65), Chicago White Sox (58-65) and the Indians (58-66). How many of these clubs would be matching the Rays and Orioles at .500 if they played the Braves, Phillies and Marlins instead of the Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs? Could be all of them.

One might suppose that the Twins are at an advantage against the Rays and Orioles because they play a lot of games in the AL Central against the Tigers, White Sox and Indians. But as the point just made shows, that's somewhat begging the question. It is often enough true, though, that the team in a weaker division has an edge for wildcard entry over a team from a stronger division. And that always looms as a possibility in baseball wildcard races, which is one reason why, in this corner, we do not like wildcards at all.

The races for division championships make a little more sense. At least all the teams within a division play all the same clubs. But MLB has even messed that up.

In the AL East, for example, the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were tied on top at 69-55 before Tuesday's games. But the Yankees play six times against the Mets and three times against the Braves this year, while the Jays play six against the Braves and three against the Mets. And if the Jays win the division by a game and kick the Yankees down to a wildcard, we're supposed to think that didn't make a difference.

But we do think it makes a difference. It's only sensible to think it makes a difference. Hence, the contrivances of the First Division, the Bud Selig East and all of the other competitions created on this site. If MLB believes its regular season competition with all these imbalances is legitimate, then nothing we can dream up with these imbalances is any less legitimate on that basis.

Many years ago, your friendly Major Leagues of professional baseball believed that a championship season called for a balanced schedule, at least an arrangement in which the playoff contenders would play the same schedule towards determining who went to the playoffs.

Seems fair. If one team plays an easier schedule than another, then why should the team prevailing against the easier schedule take a playoff berth from the team that was slightly less successful against a slightly tougher slate of games?

It's an important point, which, like so many others, has been lost by Major League Baseball, in part because the media and the fans don't insist on it. But it is no less important for that.

Way back in time, before expansion, each of the Major Leagues had eight clubs. Each club within a league played each of the other clubs 22 times, adding up to a 154-game schedule.

In 1961 (in the American League) and 1962 (National League), we saw expansions to 10 clubs in each league, and they maintained the principle of balance by having each club play every other club in its league 18 times for a 162-game schedule.

In 1969, each league added two clubs and divided into two divisions. As the division winners were to meet in the playoffs, those teams played out schedules in which each team played every other team within its division 18 times and played every club in the other division 12 times each. The team that you beat (or that beat you) for the division title still played the same schedule that you played.

Even when the American League added two more clubs in 1977, one for each division, the league tried to maintain balance as closely as possible, scheduling each club 15 times against each club in its own division and 10 or 11 times against each of the clubs in the other division.

But the clubs in the west complained that they were losing home gates against the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In those days, before the business began to figure out television, the team in Minneapolis or Kansas City really suffered that lost gate against the Yankees. So, the AL went away from scheduling heavily within divisions and balanced its schedule as much as possible across the league, so each AL team played every club within its division 13 times and every club in the other division 12 times.

Balance still ruled. And when the National League expanded to 14 clubs in 1993, it followed that 13 and 12 format.

Following the 1994-5 player's strike, MLB began making all sorts of marketplace compromises, including the fool's gold of interleague play and the wildcards, which actually were to begin in 1994 but were postponed by the strike.

Now, we have each club in the Major Leagues trying to stuff 19 different opponents into a 162-game schedule. Each ends up playing every team in their own divisions 19 times each, every other club across its league six or seven times each, then each of five interleague opponents three, four or six times each. It's a ghastly concoction.

So, we can agree that the Bud Selig East and others like it on these pages smack of being arbitrary and accidental. But they are no more arbitrary and accidental than the playoff races across the Major Leagues, nor are they any more of a departure from the balanced structures that once made the playoff race an even fight. And the Major Leagues shouldn't be especially proud about that.

Bud Selig League standings through August 23

Bud Selig West W     L      Pct.     GB St. Louis 48 27 .640 — Texas 35 28 .556 7 San Diego 31 28 .525 9 DODGERS 28 27 .509 10 Minnesota 27 26 .509 10 ANGELS 24 29 .453 13 Milwaukee 29 37 .439 14½ Houston 25 31 .446 13½

Bud Selig East W     L      Pct.     GB Chicago (NL) 44 31 .587 — New York (AL) 30   24 .556 3½ Cleveland 38 32 .543 3½ Chicago (AL) 33 34 .493 7 Tampa Bay 27 29 .482 7½ New York (NL) 26 29 .473 8½ Miami 21 34 .382 13 Cincinnati 23 44 .343 17

Fiers starts WL series no-hitting Dodgers

Houston Astros right-hander Mike Fiers launched a key series against the Dodgers with a no-hitter Friday night, giving the Astros a two-game lead on the Dodgers in the West League. This weekend's series is the only time the two top clubs in the loop will meet this year.

Mike Fiers, recently acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers, threw a no-hitter at the Dodgers Friday night (Steve Paluch/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

The Dodgers have only one crack this year at the Houston Astros, it began Friday night, and, so, far, the Dodgers haven't hit them.

Astros right-hander Mike Fiers, acquired with center fielder Carlos Gomez from the Milwaukee Brewers at the non-waiver trading deadline, put a no-hitter on the Dodgers Friday night in Houston for a 3-0 victory to begin a three-game series.

The series is the only one this year between the Dodgers and Astros, who have gone back-and-forth on top of the West League standings all season. Friday's result increased Houston's lead over the Dodgers to two games, with the San Francisco Giants now 2½ games back.

The no-hitter by Fiers continued a tepid stretch for the Dodgers, who were swept in two games on the road by the Oakland Athletics Tuesday and Wednesday. The Athletics entered that series with seven straight losses.

Through Friday's games, the Astros are 40-26 in the West League, followed  by the Dodgers at 37-27 and the San Francisco Giants, 38-29. So, it has come down to those three clubs in the West League.

The Angels, who began Friday only 2½ games behind the Astros in the American League West division, now are six behind the Astros in the West League. The Angels opened a three-game series this weekend in Anaheim against the Toronto Blue Jays in an attempt to save their First Division season. However the series will have no effect on the West League.

The difference between the Astros and the Angels in the West League comes down purely to how those clubs have fared this year against the National League West, which is supplying their interleague opponents this season (hence, the activation of the West League).

The Astros are 12-3 in those games, compared with 7-10 for the Angels. In those games, then, the Astros are six games better than the Astros. Throw in the fact that the Astros are 8-5 this year against the Angels and we find, a bit startlingly, that the Astros are 20-8 combined against the Angels and interleague opponents, while the Angels are 12-18 against the Astros and interleague opponents. Yet, the Astros were only 2 ½ games better in the AL West.

Against the other AL West teams (the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers), by the way, the Angels are 23-15, compared with 20-18 for the Astros. The Angels have 19 games left against those clubs and the Astros have 18 left against them. The Angels and Astros have six games left against each other.

The Astros had a run of seven losses in eight games against the West League from Aug. 3-11, helping the Dodgers whittle a 3½-game deficit to nothing.

The Dodgers began Friday with little activity in the West League since July 1, just six games with the Angels and Athletics, which they split.

Of course, the September schedule is packed with divisional games across Major League Baseball, and it's all going to come down to that final month.

But if the Dodgers are going to do anything about it directly against the Astros, this weekend is their only chance.

So far, they don't even have a hit.

West League Overall W     L      Pct.     GB Houston 40 26 .606 — DODGERS 37 27 .578 2 San Francisco 38 29 .567 2½ Arizona 33 31 .516 6 ANGELS 35 33 .515 6 Oakland 32 31 .510 6½ San Diego 32 35 .478 8½ Seattle 31 34 .477 8½ Texas 29 37 .439 11 Colorado 21 45 .318 19	North Division W     L      Pct.     GB San Francisco 38 29 .567 — Arizona 33 31 .516 3½ Oakland 32 31 .510 4 Seattle 31 34 .477 6 Colorado 21 45 .318 16½ South Division W     L      Pct.     GB DODGERS 37 27 .578 2 Houston 40 26 .606 — ANGELS 35 33 .515 6 San Diego 32 35 .478 8½ Texas 29 37 .439 11
Friday's results Houston 3, DODGERS 0.	Saturday's games DODGERS at Houston.

Dodgers, Angels still fighting to stay in First Division

The Dodgers improved their status in the First Division during the weekend, but at the expense of the Angels. The Dodgers swept three games from the Orange County club, pushing themselves slightly out of the relegation zone while the Angels fell to last place in the top tier.

Don Mattingly continues to do a lot right managing the Dodgers, but his club's struggle against top clubs continues to be costly in the First Division, despite a three-game sweep of the Angels during the weekend (Cbl62/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The First Division came to August divided into two divisions, with half of the teams seriously in the fight to win the championship and the other half desperately fighting to stave off relegation to the Second Division for 2016.

The Angels and Dodgers both are in the wrong half of that mix, and that didn't change with the Dodgers sweeping the Angels in a three-game series during the weekend at Dodger Stadium. What did change is that the Dodgers no longer are the bottom team in the top tier. The Angels have taken their place.

The dramatic home run hitting of Andre Ethier lifted the Dodgers in a big way Sunday. His solo homer in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. His two-run homer in the bottom of the tenth gave the Dodgers a 5-3 win to go with wins of 5-3 on Saturday and 3-1 Friday.

With those victories, the Dodgers improved to 13-18 in the First Division, barely out of the relegation zone. The Dodgers are one-half game ahead of the Atlanta Braves, who are 12-18. The only club beneath the Braves is the Angels, who are defending their First Division championship from 2014 with a 5-11 performance in 2015.

The bottom two teams in the First Division are relegated to the Second Division for 2016.

The Dodgers never trailed in either of the first two games, winning Friday night behind right-hander Zack Greinke and winning Saturday afternoon behind left-hander Clayton Kershaw. Newly acquired right-hander Mat Latos wasn't bad, either, giving up one run on four hits Sunday in his six-inning Dodger debut.

The Angels are attempting to defend their First Division title from 2014 with a light schedule, which can work, but, as this season has shown, might not. The Angels have only six games left this year in the First Division, all at home – three against the Toronto Blue Jays Aug. 21-23 and three with the Dodgers Sept. 7-9.

The Angels could escape relegation by winning a majority of those games, but that remains to be seen and it will have a lot to do with how the Dodgers, Braves and Toronto Blue Jays (10-13) play out the rest of the year. Even if the Angels win a substantial portion of those six games, four or five of them, it guarantees nothing.

The Angels have the unwelcome distinction of being the best club ever relegated from the First Division, finishing 16-18 (.474 winning percentage) in 2011 and still going down. The Minnesota Twins that year turned in the worst ever performance for a First Division club with an 11-26 record (.297).

That demotion began a free fall for the Twins, who then were demoted to the Third Division for 2013 and the Fourth Division in 2014 before rising back to the Third Division this season.

Now the Twins are making a strong bid for a promotion to the Second Division as they lead the Third Division at 15-9, one-half game in front of the Arizona Diamondbacks (13-8). The Philadelphia Phillies (9-7) and Boston Red Sox (11-9) are the top teams in pursuit of those top two slots for a 2016 promotion.

The Angels barely missed promotion back to the First Division with a strong Second Division showing in 2012, but they won the Second Division easily in 2013 and took the First Division championship last season. In 2014, the Angels became the second team in as many years, and the third in four years, to win the First Division fresh in from a promotion. Now, the Angels are in danger of repeating the performance of the Texas Rangers, who won it in 2013 right off of a promotion, then bottomed into relegation a year later.

For the Dodgers, it's a matter of being unable to hold up against the better clubs, which we have seen again and again this season. Last week, the Dodgers went to Atlanta for three games against the Braves, a First Division team which, by the lights of the Major League standings, probably are the worst club in the top tier this season. But the Braves beat the Dodgers twice.

The Dodgers don't have a lot of First Division games left, either. In addition to the three in Anaheim against the Angels, they will play three against the San Francisco Giants at home Aug. 31-Sept. 2 and four in San Francisco Sept. 28-Oct. 1.

Rangers drop Giants, keep Dodgers safe with Aaron

Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer for the Texas Rangers Sunday, giving his club a 2-1 win against the San Francisco Giants, along with retention of the Henry Aaron Award. Because the Aaron remains in the American League, the Dodgers are safe with their lead in the Henry Aaron standings.

Josh Hamilton was a hero Sunday for the Texas Rangers, and, indirectly, the Dodgers (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Dodgers are a long way past dodging trollies, but they did dodge a bullet Sunday, when the Texas Rangers took down the San Francisco Giants, 2-1, to keep the Henry Aaron Award.

With a win in that game, the Giants would have captured the series and the Aaron, setting themselves up for a chance to surpass the Dodgers on top of the standings for the interleague traveling trophy.

Instead, the Dodgers remain the top club in the Aaron, and they stand to remain that way for some time, especially with the Aaron now living in the American League.

The Giants remain second to the Dodgers in the Henry Aaron standings this season, though the Giants have played nine times this season for the award, breaking their tie at eight with the Dodgers. The Dodgers still have the better overall performance, going 15-10 in Aaron games with one title, six defenses in seven attempts and 22 games holding the title. The Giants are 14-14 with one title, four defenses in six attempts and 18 games holding the title.

Not incidentally, the Angels have made a strong run with the Aaron since the start of July. After taking the Aaron in a three-game sweep of the Rangers July 3-5 in Arlington, the Angels ripped through four strong title defenses before the Rangers took it back from them by winning two of three last weekend in Anaheim. However, the Angels did a lot with their run, going 14-5 with four title defenses in five attempts and holding the prize for 16 days to reach the thick of the standings in their only turn this season with the interleague traveling trophy.

The Rangers held the Aaron by the skin of their teeth last week in a four-game split with the New York Yankees. The Rangers only held the Aaron because no team can lose that prize in a split series. However, the Yankees did take the Harmon Killebrew Award from the Rangers, who also won that prize last weekend in Anaheim. The Yankees beat the Rangers in the total runs tie-breaker for the Killebrew, 35-19.

Josh Hamilton may be a pox on the Angels, but he is a hero today for the Dodgers after hitting a two-run homer in the sixth inning Sunday to give the Rangers their deciding victory over the Giants. Hamilton hit the bomb against right-hander Mike Leake, acquired by the Giants from the Cincinnati Reds in a deadline deal earlier in the week.

With the Rangers, by the way, Hamilton has a .742 OPS, which is about how he produced with the Angels in 2013 (.739) and last year (.745). He has five homers and 16 RBI in 118 plate appearances, which include eight walks and 31 strikeouts.

The Rangers are defending the Aaron Monday through Wednesday at home against the Houston Astros, who, for all their resurgence this season, have been no factor in the Aaron or Dick Allen Awards.

It remains that the Rangers lag in the Henry Aaron standings, though their two titles this year are the most for any club. They need a couple more weeks of title defenses before they're pushing on the Dodgers.

Local deadline trades solid, not shiny

The Angels and Dodgers each made helpful moves going up to the July 31 trading deadline, though neither club made big headlines across the game. The Dodgers added depth to their pitching rotation, while the Angels added veteran outifielders who will give them flexibility.

If Mat Latos gets back to being what he used to be, then the Dodgers have added a solid No. 3 starting pitcher to their rotation (Arturo Parduvila III/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The two Los Angeles clubs went to the trading deadline with very different purposes. Neither club ended up making much of a splash, though it still could be that they did what they needed to do.

The Dodgers needed help in their starting rotation because Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy both are down for the rest of the season. As it turned out, the price for a premium ace pitcher was too high, the Dodgers didn't want to meet it, and you really can't blame them.

The Angels just needed someone they could stick in an outfield corner without leaving a gaping hole in their batting order. A left-handed slugger like Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds would have fit great, but the Angels still improved by adding a lot less and they didn't lose anything.

Neither club made big headlines. Neither club made big mistakes, either.

Probably more often than not, the team receiving prospects wins these deadline deals because the team trading for the big gun is willing to overpay for that shot at the gold, and that big gun ends up not being worth it if the gold does not arrive. Last summer, the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers went all in for pitchers and neither ended up any better than the Dodgers, who wisely held on to outfielder Joc Pederson, shortstop Corey Seager and pitcher Julio Urias.

The newest update to the prospect ranking on MLB.com has Seager as the No. 2 prospect across the game and 18-year-old left-hander Urias as the No. 5 prospect. That's a strong hand for a contender in search of a pitching ace. It's also a strong hand to take into the future. We've now seen two Dodgers general managers, Ned Colletti last year and Farhan Zaidi this year, both hold their young cards.

The Dodgers ownership has said from the start that it wants to build a team from within and, for all the club's high-profile signings and acquisitions, it has held onto the young jewels. It's fun to get juiced up about the possibility of adding Cole Hamels or Johnny Cueto, but the Dodgers don't absolutely need a No. 1 or No. 2 starter and it would not repay them sufficiently to get one if it means off-loading serious prospect talent.

The Cincinnati Reds sent Cueto to the Kansas City Royals for three hard-throwing left-handers – Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed – all of whom are advanced at least to Class AA and putting up good numbers this season. Later, the Philadelphia Phillies sent ace left-hander Hamels and reliever Jake Diekman to the Texas Rangers for a package of five prospects and veteran left-hander Matt Harrison. Three of the prospects – pitcher Jake Thompson, catcher Jorge Alfaro and outfielder Nick Williams – all are at least in the top 75 prospects on at least one of the major lists (Baseball America, MLB.com and BaseballProspectus.com). Later still, the Detroit Tigers moved ace lefty David Price to the Toronto Blue Jays for three pitching prospects, including Daniel Norris, who is a Top 20 prospect across the game.

It appears that nothing short of Seager and/or Urias was going to bring back one of those three ace pitchers to the Dodgers, who were unwilling to make that move. So, the Dodgers did what they could do with what they were willing to offer, and it wasn't bad. The big deal was the three-way trade with the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins that brought back veteran right-hander Mat Latos from Miami and left-hander Alex Wood from Atlanta.

Latos has battled injuries for the last couple of seasons, but he recently returned from the disabled list and gave up six earned runs in 26 innings over his last four starts (2.08 ERA), allowing 17 hits while striking out 23. Wood isn't the most stylish left-hander we'll ever see, but he's 24, he's cost controlled through 2019, he has a 3.10 career ERA in 369 innings and he threw two quality starts at the Dodgers this year (four earned runs, 13 2/3 innings, 2.63 ERA).

The Dodgers also brought back quite a lot else. From the Braves, they added Jim Johnson, the former Baltimore Orioles closer who bounced back from hard times with a 2.25 ERA for the Braves this season, as well as Luis Avilan, a solid left-handed reliever in his age 25 season.

In addition, they hauled in Jose Peraza, a 21-year-old shortstop counted as a Top 100 prospect preseason by all the major rankings. Peraza batted .294 in the International League this season. He hasn't walked much, but he also has been three to six years younger than the leagues the Braves have put him in for the last three years. In the very same trade, the Dodgers picked up veteran right-handed power hitter Michael Morse, who they flipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Jose Tabata. Once a big prospect for the Pirates, Tabata has never made it happen, but he's 26, so wait and see.

For all that, the Dodgers didn't give up anything they stand to miss. Left-handed reliever Paco Rodriguez hasn't been able to find his way onto the big league roster with any consistency. The Dodgers made big news by signing Cuban infielder Hector Olivera last winter, but he's 30 and hasn't been anywhere near making the big league club. Along with sending those two to the Braves, the Dodgers dealt three minor league pitchers of little distinction to Miami – Kevin Guzman, Jeff Brigham and Victor Araujo.

Really not bad, and maybe even pretty good. The Dodgers improved their starting rotation from both sides, they improved their bullpen from both sides, and they added a good shortstop prospect, plus Tabata. The only question is whether they will end up missing Rodriguez, Olivera or the three minor league pitchers. Might end up giving the Dodgers an "A" for that trade.

The Angels couldn't find a huge bat, but they brought in some veteran flexibility for their outfield and now it's a matter of how manager Mike Scioscia mixes and matches them. For 34-year-old Shane Victorino from the Boston Red Sox, the Angels paid infielder Josh Rutledge, who lost his spring bid for second base in Anaheim to Johnny Giavotella. For 35-year-old David DeJesus, a left-handed hitter from the Tampa Bay Rays, the Angels dealt right-handed pitcher Eduar Lopez, a 20-year-old in the Pioneer League. For 33-year-old outfielder David Murphy, another left-handed hitter, the Angels sent light-hitting Class AA shortstop Eric Stamets to the Cleveland Indians.

The best of the new outfielders right now is Murphy, a steady everyday player for the last eight years who works well as a six or seven hitter. Some years, he's a little more than average for a left fielder, and, some years, he's a little less. This year, Murphy ran an OPS-plus of 115 for the Indians, compared with an OPS-plus of 66 for Angels left fielders and a relative OPS-plus of 102 for left fielders across the Major Leagues. So Murphy stands to be an improvement.

None of these veteran outfielders will blow the lid off of Angel Stadium, but they can take turns and keep the line moving often enough to help the Angels score.

On the whole, the Angels and Dodgers made solid moves that improve their clubs immediately at little or no cost to their future prospects. That's about as much as you would reasonably hope to do at the trading deadline.

Angels unique among expansion teams

Just going by the regular season histories, the Angels are the most successful expansion franchise in  Major League Baseball, being the only expansion franchise with a winning record through its entire life. The Angels went over. 500 in July 2014 and they have kept winning.

Gene Mauch won two division managing the Angels before their golden age of the 21st century (Topps baseball card. It is believed this low resolution, cropped and watermarked image of a poster to identify the subject of this story is fair use in the absence of a public domain image of the subject.).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

It's worthwhile to note a unique anniversary that passed last month for the Angels.

A year ago on July 10, the Angels became the first and only expansion team across the Major Leagues to achieve a winning record historically. The Angels went over the top for good (so far) with a 15-6 win against the Texas Rangers in Arlington that night, bringing their all-time record up to 4274-4273-3. Since then, the Angels are 99-71, bringing themselves up to 4,373-4,347 all-time entering games of August 1 (all numbers in this piece are from Baseball-reference.com).

Out of 30 Major League franchises, 13 are breaking even or better historically in regular season games. Of those 13, 12 are original "modern era" franchises, meaning they go back at least to the founding of the American League in 1901. 

Presumably, the traditional franchises would have winning records because they could fatten up on expansion teams through the years, but it hasn't always worked out that way, especially not in the American League, where three franchises lost so much before expansion that they still haven't caught up. They are the Baltimore Orioles (formerly the St. Louis Browns), the Minnesota Twins (formerly the Washington Senators) and the Oakland Athletics (formerly of Philadelphia and Kansas City), who could pretty reliably be counted upon to finish in the second division of the American League when it was said that the World Series wasn't official unless it included the New York Yankees.

The only pre-expansion National League team with an historical losing record is the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies also are more games under .500 (1,111) than any other pre-expansion team, followed by the Orioles (840), the Twins (698) and the Athletics (440). In the pre-expansion American League, one team won a lot (the Yankees) and three teams (the Senators, Athletics and Browns) lost quite a bit. In the pre-expansion National League, three teams won quite a bit (the Cardinals, Dodgers and Giants) and one franchise (the Phillies) lost a lot.

Behind the Angels, the next best expansion team relative to .500 is the Toronto Blue Jays, who are 59 games short of breaking even since their debut in 1977.

Two other teams in recent years have flirted with reaching .500 historically.

The Atlanta Braves succeeded, and they now are a robust 48 games over .500 in their 140-year history, which began in 1876 as the Boston Red Stockings of Harry Wright and George Wright. The Braves were so consistently terrible through their last 50 years in Boston that they didn't reach .500 until 2012. Think about this: The Braves won 14 straight division titles from 1991 through 2005, and that still wasn't enough to break them even.

The Houston Astros failed to become the first expansion team to reach .500 a couple of times in the last 10 years. A run of excellent Houston clubs from 1993 through 2006 brought the Astros within four games of .500 entering the 2007 season. But the Astros finished 73-89 in 2007, putting themselves 20 games under. An 86-75 effort for the Astros in 2008 brought them back within nine games of .500. But the Astros went 74-88 in 2009, and the losing has continued all the way up until this season. The Astros now are 205 games below .500 in their history.

Getting to .500 wasn't easy for the Angels, either. 

The Angels actually began their life with three winning seasons (and another year with 80 wins) in their first seven. But from 1968 until 2002, there wasn't a lot happening – just a couple decent clubs in the late 1970s and three good clubs in the late 1980s. 

The Angels were working from way behind going to 2002 – 234 games below .500 historically. So, they have moved fast, rolling up seven seasons with 90 or more wins in the last 14 complete seasons. Unquestionably, the 21st century has been a new era for the Angels, and it has been a good one.

The Angels entered the 2014 season 16 games below .500 historically, and their start, combined with their losing effort in 2013, gave little indication that much was to come. As of May 7, they were 16-17. They began then to win a little more than they lost, but they still were just 37-32 as of June 16. 

But the Angels then went on a huge roll, winning 21 of their next 26 games through July 18. They first reached .500 with a 5-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays on July 7, bringing themselves up to 4,272-4,272-3 all-time. But they lost, 4-0, to the Jays the next night, dropping back below .500.

No problem, though, because the Angels were getting hot. An 8-7 win against the Jays on July 9 brought them back even, then the Angels went to Arlington and went over for good with their 15-6 win on July 10. 

The Angels still were 3½ games behind the Oakland Athletics in the American League West at that point and they wouldn't move into first place until Aug. 16. But they held first place once they took it and finished the regular season 98-64 before losing their only playoff series to the Kansas City Royals in a three-game sweep.