With favorable slate, Dodgers lead Super League at All-Star break

It was hard for the Dodgers to get into the Super League, but now that they're in, they've taken a pretty easy draw to the league lead at the 2021 All-Star break.

By couple of whiskers, the Dodgers missed out of the first season, 2019, of what we then were calling the Elite Division, but now are calling the Super League.

The Dodgers finished fifth in the 2018 First Division and barely lost out on the National League traveling championship. In each case, their downfall was the Arizona Diamondbacks, who finished barely ahead of the Dodgers in the First Division and the traveler. The main culprit was Arizona's 9-4 record against the Dodgers in games for the lineal title.

The Dodgers crept into the Super League for 2020 with their fourth-place finish in the 2019 First Division. Of course, we didn't actually play the Super League in 2020 (coronavirus, and all of that), so the 2021 Super League really is the 2020 Super League, a year late.

Here, the Dodgers received a quite favorable draw. They came to the All-Star break 20-9 in the Super League, first place. This occurred largely because about half of their games, 14 of them, came against the bottom two teams in these Super League standings, the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals. The Dodgers were 13-1 in those games, so 7-8 against the rest of the Super League.

Hard to argue against the Nationals being in this Super League. They did, after all, win the World Series in 2019, the year from which they qualified. But we're picking it up two years later, rather than the usual one, and the Natties aren't the same team. 

The Rockies aren't one of the illustrious teams in the game, but they have been in both Super Leagues, 2019 and 2021, qualifying the first time in the pyramid and this time with a lineal championship. They barely finished last in the 2019 Super League (then called the Elite Division) by our adjusted winning percentage, but ended up one-half game out of the basement in that column, buttressed by the Boston Red Sox. This time, they are buttressed by the Nationals.

There's still a race here, but barely. The Dodgers had 23 games remaining in the Super League, 12 of them against Colorado. They also were slated for two games with the Houston Astros, three with the Philadelphia Phillies, three with the Atlanta Braves and, at the very end of the season, three at home against the Milwaukee Brewers. Those last four named are the next four teams in the standings, all coming to the break between  3½ and 4½ games behind the Dodgers.

2021 National League lineal turns East

The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the early leaders in the 2021 race for the National League lineal championship, but the prize rested in the East as the All-Star break arrived.

The National League traveling championship spent the first two months of the season on the West Coast, so the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the contenders at the All-Star break.

But the break came with the championship crawling along the East Coast, passing successively to the Washington Nationals, the Miami Marlins, the Atlanta Braves and, later, the New York Mets. The Mets are the title holder at the pause, and they will put it on the line at home against the Atlanta Braves July 26-29.

It seems, though, that no team east of the San Joaquin Valley has the goods to sustain a championship streak. Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers can do it, but they, and the St. Louis Cardinals, are the two clubs in the NL yet to play for this championship.

The Giants controlled the championship for most of a month, from May 9 to June 6, playing for it consistently during that period. In that time, the Giants won the title twice and defended it three times, losing only to a challenge to the Dodgers, but immediately winning it back in a counter-challenge.

Then the Giants ventured to Washington and lost two of three June 11-13. The title has been in the east ever since.

Rockies rise to 2019 NL traveling title

The Colorado Rockies secured a berth in the 2021 Super League by winning the 2019 National League traveling championship on criteria.

Trying to work out the best way of determining the best lineal championship performance at the end of a sports season has proved, not surprisingly, to be a continuous process. Difficulties lie in many folds, for there are many ways to value these performances.

So, we'll keep tweaking until we think we have it right, or close enough to it. For the league-wide lineal baseball championships in 2019, we decided to make a slight adjustment, not in the criteria for determining the year's champion, but in the criteria for deciding which teams get to be considered.

For 2018, the first year, the requirement was at least two championships and at least three defenses, or one championship with six defenses. Second thoughts have ensued, complaining that the criteria under-valued championship defenses, which amounted to over-valuing championships (relative to defenses). Ideally, we want criteria that equally values challenging for the championship successfully, defending the championship successfully and competing successfully against the top contenders.

Anyway, the decision was made now to reduce the number of necessary defenses for a team with one championship down from six to four. So, two championships and three defenses comes to the same as one championship and four defenses. Either way, it's five series wins for the championship.

Along the same lines, then, we'll put the other qualifying levels at three championships with two defenses, four championships and one defense, and five championships with no defenses. In addition, however, any team that has won at least one championship will have its number of required defenses reduced by one if it has never failed a championship challenge. In other words, a team that only had one chance to challenge for the championship and succeeded needs only three defenses to qualify. A team with one title in two challenges still would need four defenses.

Tedious, we know, but it needs to be on the record. Going forward, that's how we'll run the lineal championships in baseball. We already have, however, published the inter-league championship for 2019, so we did that one the old way, but it would not have changed the outcome. In the National League, though, it amounted to two teams qualifying for the 2019 stat-off that would not have made it otherwise, and it made a difference.

Take a look again, if you'd like, at the standings and results from the National League in 2019, or any league in any year, and ask yourself which team should be named the champion. It's usually not obvious. We used to just eyeball it, but now we need a defensible decision method so we can have a more defensible decision, as the result of that decision determines a Super League berth for the next year.

First, as we've explained before, we have to decide which teams go into the criteria mix, in effect, becoming the finalists for the annual lineal championship. By the criteria we have just laid out, we get four clubs -- the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals.

Now, we set out the criteria. All four teams are considered by each criterion. The best team gets the full point for the criterion. If two or more teams finish tied at the top in some category, they split the point evenly. We have seven criteria. The team with the most criteria points wins. If it's tied, then we go to head-to-team among the teams that are tied. If it's still tied after that, we declare co-champions and the Elite Division berth goes to the team that has gone longest since being in the Elite Division. If it's still tied after that, then we declare a co-champion and no team goes to the Elite Division.

Next, we lay out the criteria and list the team that won, with the winning total, or average, if that's what it is:

1. Most championships. (Colorado, 4).

2. Most title defenses per championship. (Washington, Milwaukee, four each).

3. Best winning percentage in traveling championship games. (Atlanta, .641).

4. Most victories per time playing for the championship. (Milwaukee, 2.375).

5. Most games as champion per time playing for the championship. (Washington, 2.43).

6. Fewest failed challenges. (Colorado, 0).

7. Head-to-head record in traveling championship games (Colorado, 10-4. Others were Atlanta 7-8, Washington 4-5 and Milwaukee 3-7).

Add it all up and the Rockies won three categories of the seven, Milwaukee and Washington each won 1.5 and Atlanta won one. 

Thus, the Rockies win the championship for the season, and the Elite Division berth, which they needed, as they didn't qualify in the pyramid.

We like the criteria system because if you ask the criteria why the Rockies won the championship, the criteria gives you a straight answer: Because the Rockies won the most titles, they won the title every time they challenged for it, they demolished the other contenders head-to-head for the title and no other team can make an equivalent case. All of that is right there in the information provided by the standings and results, but we need criteria to put that information through relevant questioning.

The Rockies did most of their work in April, taking the prize from the San Diego Padres on the road, then defending the championship four times. It would be the only four title defenses the Rockies would register all season, but three of them were against Atlanta, Milwaukee and Washington, saddling each with a failed challenge. That would loom huge on Criterion No. 6, which Colorado won almost entirely through that run of games.

The Rockies held on for 17 games of defense before losing it to the Arizona Diamondbacks in May. The Braves immediately snatched the prize from Arizona and tore out four defenses amounting to 15 games of title defense, pulling nearly even with the Rockies.

However, the Washington Nationals who took the championship with a two-game sweep from Atlanta May 28-29, then mounted a 17-game defense before the Braves took it back by winning two of three in Washington June 21-23. With the victory, the Braves not only stopped Washington at 17, but they also picked up the four games of defense, bringing themselves to the  lead at 19, when they immediately split four with the Chicago Cubs, who took the tiebreaker.

Colorado returned to the fray in July rather fortunately. After winning the prize from the Reds, the Rockies immediately lost four straight to the San Francisco Giants. So, they get dinged for failing to defend, but they still claimed four games of defense, launching ahead of the Braves with 21.

Another victory in late August added seven games for the Braves, bringing their total to 26 before they visited Colorado on Aug. 26 to make up a game postponed by weather in April. By simply winning that game, 3-1, on a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, the Rockies also added four games of defense despite being immediately swept four games by the Pittsburgh Pirates, so now they were up to 25, needing one more to tie the Braves. In addition, the Rockies stopped the Braves from accumulating more numbers.

Within a week, the Milwaukee Brewers won the title with a four-game sweep of the Florida Marlins, starting a torrid 15-2 title run with four title defenses that took them all the way from nowhere to the criteria leader before they visited Colorado for the final series of the regular season, Sept. 27-29.

The stakes were clear. The winner of the series would win the lineal title for the year. After the Rockies claimed an 11-7 win in the opener, they clinched the next day with a 3-2 win on Trevor Story's tenth-inning homer against Matt Albers.

Natties establish Southeast lineal championship

The Washington Nationals consolidated all the shares of the Southeast Conference lineal championship in late August 2019. At the end of 2019, and entering 2021, that championship belongs to the Atlanta Braves.

The Atlanta Braves ended the 2019 season with the Southeastern lineal championship, which had been consolidated at the end of August. The Braves will take the title into the 2021 season.

A mass of the play-down title shares, five of the seven, congealed in Cincinnati May 27-29, when the Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates split a four-game series. The Reds, who entered the series with three shares, prevailed in the total runs tiebreaker (26-22), thus claiming the two shares entered by the Pirates.

By then, Tampa Bay had the other two shares, which they guarded until losing by runs in a four-game split on the road against Baltimore August 22-25. In the meanwhile, the five shares belonging to the Reds were transferred to the Washington Nationals, then to the Braves, then back to the Nationals, then Atlanta again, once more to the Reds and Washington in mid-August.

When the Nationals with five shares met the Orioles with the other two (in Washington, Aug. 27-28), a two-game split ensued. The Natties won the total runs tiebreaker, 8-6, and consolidated the championship.

Offense dies as Dodgers drop NL traveling title

The Dodgers lost the National League traveling championship by losing two of three at home against the Washington Nationals this week, continuing an offensive slump that now has lasted for longer than a week.

Max Scherzer struck out 14 for the Washington Nationals in a 2-1 win against the Dodgers on June 6 (Keith Allison/Creative Commons 2.0 Generic license).

An offensive surge took the Dodgers to the National League traveling championship last week, and now an offensive slump has taken it away.

Losing two of three games this week against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers lost the traveling championship to the visiting club. The Dodgers scored four runs in the three games.

The Dodgers remain on top of the traveling standings with two titles and 13 games of defense. But the Nationals have the league traveler for the first time this season and become the eighth club this year to claim the title.

The downfall for the Dodgers is a batting order that is prone to strikeouts and double plays, but is not as likely as most other clubs to hit the ball out of the park. Strikeouts are everywhere throughout the game now, but so are home runs. Except that's not how it works with the Dodgers, who entered games of June 9 with the fifth most strikeouts (541), but tied for 21st in home runs (66).

In their eight games from May 31 through June 7, the Dodgers scored only 18 runs – 10 of them in a 10-8 win on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 3. In those eight games, the Dodgers hit four homers and struck out 91 times – 11.38 strikeouts per game. In those games, the Dodgers batted .166.

Somehow, the Dodgers won three of those games. The outburst against Milwaukee was one, Clayton Kershaw's 2-1 win against Washington's Stephen Strasburg on June 7 was another, and a 2-1 win against the Brewers on June 2, when Kershaw out-dueled Jimmy Nelson.

If it seems that the Dodgers can't win a game unless Kershaw pitches or the other team can't pitch, that's right. At least for the last eight games.

Nationals start strong in First Division

The Washington Nationals play only 15 games this season in the First Division, so they need to make all of them count. Last week, they opened with a three-game sweep on the road against the San Francisco Giants. Next week, they're in Los Angeles to face the Dodgers, who are in the relegation zone.

Ryan Zimmerman led the way offensively for the Washington Nationals this week against the San Francisco Giants (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

In eight years of playing out the promotion/relegation scheme across baseball, it's never been the case that any team played every other team in its division. By contrast, every team plays every other team every year in basketball, hockey and soccer.

Unlike the other sports in which we operate ordinal divisions with promotion and relegation (soccer style, one might say) baseball draws up huge scheduling imbalances that require us to draw up special rules.

The results lead to questions in baseball about what kind of performance should count as good enough to win a division or be promoted, and what should count as a poor enough performance to guarantee relegation.

From the start, it has been stipulated that any team that wins a division or is promoted in the three eight-team divisions (First, Second and Third) must have played against at least three other teams in the division and must have won at least 10 games. For a team to be demoted from these divisions, a team must have played at least three of the other teams and lost at least 10 games. It also was established that two teams will be promoted from each of these divisions (except the First) and two will be demoted from these divisions every year.

The rules were introduced to keep light schedules from unduly influencing promotion and relegation. They have worked well. There are a couple of other rules, which don't need to be addressed here. And the Fourth Division, which has only six teams, involves other rules still.

This comes up because the Washington Nationals are on the docket for only 15 games in the First Division this year. It is the lightest schedule any team has ever had in the First, Second or Third Divisions.

The schedule is light for the Nationals because there are only three National League teams in the First Division (the others are the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants). Further, the Nationals have only one interleague opponent in the First Division, which is the Texas Rangers.

It all means that the Nationals must win 10 of their 15 games to even be eligible for the First Division championship, if they don't make the playoffs. The trade-off is that the Nats can't be demoted without losing at least 10 games. Keep in mind, though, that the playoffs also count in the baseball ordinals. That's one of the special rules. Last season, they were decisive.

One can see now why the moment is of some importance, for the Nationals finally played in the First Division this week, sweeping three in San Francisco against the Giants. In the next 10 days, the Nats will play six more First Division games. They will play three in Los Angeles against the Dodgers June 5-7 and three at home against the Rangers June 9-11.

By sweeping the Giants in a series made infamous by the Memorial Day brawl centered on Bryce Harper and Hunter Strickland, the Nationals have made all of those games crucial to the First Division race. 

Harper drew the headlines after retaliating against Strickland, who threw at the National star's hip in their first meeting since Harper hit two home runs off him in the 2014 playoffs. But the star for the Nationals was Ryan Zimmerman, who went five-for-12 (.417) with two homers and five RBI in the three games.

Looking here at the standings, one sees the Nationals listed on top at 3-0 with a 1.000 winning percentage, ahead of the Red Sox at 9-4 and .692, even though the Red Sox are a game ahead of the Nationals. Again, we note the imbalance. Most often, the percentage column and the games behind column will match, but not always. If one team wins the percentage column and a different team wins the games column, we declare a split championship. Fair enough.

There is more to note in the First Division standings. Down there on the very bottom are the Texas Rangers, already 2-10. The Rangers appear doomed for demotion. But they have 17 games left in the First Division, so there's still time for them to dig their way out of relegation.

For that to happen, though, the Rangers will need two other teams to collapse. Joining the Rangers in the relegation zone at the moment are the Dodgers at 4-6, all against the Giants. Next week's series with Washington visiting Dodger Stadium looms large at the top and the bottom of the First Division standings.

The Second Division is mostly the way we last found it, with the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks holding the promotional positions. The relegation zone is crowded, with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals all within one-half game of each other. The Pirates and Mets meet this weekend in a key series.

Likewise, the Third Division looks about the same. The Houston Astros have all but written their ticket for promotion. The Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox are scheduled lightly in this division, 23 games for each club, so making the 10-win threshold with a good enough percentage for promotion will challenge each club.

The interesting club here is the Angels, who still are a .500 team across their big league schedule despite numerous injuries. Mike Trout went on the disabled list on May 31 for a thumb surgery.

The good news for the Angels is that they have only six Third Division games in June and July, but 26 such games from Aug. 1 through the end of the season. Trout should be back by Aug. 1. The Angels also hope for the returns of pitchers Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs by then. 

If the Angels can get a healthy club working for the last two months of the season, they're looking at an excellent chance for promotion back to the Second Division. 

The Minnesota Twins took over first place in the Fourth Division last week by going into Baltimore and sweeping three games from the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins beat Baltimore every which way. First, on May 22, the Twins thumped Baltimore, 14-7, with homers by Miguel Sano and Max Kepler. The next day, Ervin Santana pitched a complete-game shutout for a 2-0 win. On the third day, the Twins took a 4-0 lead early and held on for a 4-3 victory.

The sweep doesn't finish Baltimore off, by any means, but it's merely another episode in their snake-bitten stay in the Fourth Division, to which they were banished for their fold in the 2014 American League championship series.

The Orioles began this history in the Fourth Division in 2010 and, despite their success under the field management of Buck Showalter, they have never been promoted past the Third Division.

Two strong clubs, but no race, in Happy Chandler East

The Washington Nationals easily won the Happy Chandler East as the Toronto Blue Jays put up little of a fight.

A division with two 2016 playoff clubs in the Toronto Blue Jays and the Washington Nationals might have produced a tight race for the Happy Chandler East.

Instead, the Nationals won easily, going 49-25 and .662. The Blue Jays, at 44-33 and .571, finished four games back, and they weren't even the second-place team by the percentages.

That was the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were 30-21 and .588.

No challenge for Nats in Warren Giles League

The first year of the Warren Giles League certainly produced a champion, but not a pennant race. The Washington Nationals had it all the way.

The Washington Nationals had no challenge in the first running of the Warren Giles League, romping to the championship by a eight-game cushion over the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016.

The Nationals blew through this group with a robust 44-20 output.

Mets cruise to 2015 East League title

The New York Mets were 13-3 before April 24 and 27-19 after July 30 to claim the East League in 2015 by two games over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Washington Nationals made a mid-summer bid, but fell off and settled for the South Division title.

Jacob deGrom fronted a New York Mets pitching staff that won the East League (Arturo Pardavila III/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

The New York Mets went off to a roaring start in the East League, but had to recapture the lead at the start of August before claiming the league's 2015 title.

The Mets had built a five-game lead in the league through the first two months, but the Washington Nationals caught them before a three-game series between the two that began on July 31 in New York.

There, the Mets took back the lead with a three-game sweep, begun when Wilmer Flores, all but traded earlier in the week, made a highlight-reel catch and hit a homer that gave them a 2-1 win in the opener.

The Mets and Toronto both were 27-19 going down that backstretch. Both benefitted from late acquisitions, as the Mets brought in Yeonis Cespedes and the Jays added David Price and Troy Tulowitski.

The Nationals fell off to finish four games behind the Mets, who also claimed the East League's North Division title. The Nationals finished well enough to claim the South Division by a game over the Baltimore Orioles and two games over the Tampa Bay Rays.

East League: The Nationals are coming

The New York Mets still lead the East League. But the Washington Nationals, the club that was supposed to dominate a weak National League East, finally are being that club. A 10-2 run in the last two weeks has shot the Nationals up the East League standings.

Bryce Harper was the big star for the Washington Nationals the last couple of weeks, hitting six homers during a 12-game stretch. (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Despite cooling off quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, the New York Mets remain the leaders in the East League.

But the New York Yankees are right with them now, and the Washington Nationals are gaining with a 10-2 run from April 28 through May 10. With that streak, the Nationals picked up 3½ games on first place, and now trail the Mets by three games. The Yankees are 1½  game behind the Mets.

The Nationals helped themselves quite a lot by winning three of four from the Mets at CitiField April 20-May 3, including back-to-back 1-0 victories by pitchers Gio Gonzalez and Doug Fister.

But the real trigger to this has been Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper, who hit six homers with five doubles and 17 RBI in those 12 games to go with a .356 batting average and a 1.319 OPS. As a team, the Nats batted .306 with 17 homers and an 852 OPS in those games, averaging 6.0 runs per game.

The Yankees have won 10 of their last 15 in the East League, reducing their deficit to the Mets from three games to 1½ games.

This week will be pretty light in the East League. During the early part of the week, the only league action involves the Yankees at the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays at the Baltimore Orioles. At the end of the week, the only two Eastern teams playing each other will be the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.

Games of April 27
at Boston 6, Toronto 5.
at New York (AL) 4, Tampa Bay 1.
at Atlanta 8, Washington 4.
New York (NL) 3, at Miami 1.

Games of April 28
Toronto 11, at Boston 8.
at New York (AL) 4, Tampa Bay 2.
Washington 13, at Atlanta 12.
at Miami 4, New York (NL) 3.

Games of April 29
at Boston 5, Toronto 2.
Tampa Bay 3, at New York (AL) 2.
Washington 13, at Atlanta 4.
at Miami 7, New York (NL) 3.

Games of April 30
Washington 8, at New York (NL) 2.

Games of May 1
New York (AL) 3, Boston 2.
at Tampa Bay 2, Baltimore 0.
at Miami 4, Philadelphia 3.
at New York (NL) 4, Washington 0.

Games of May 2
New York (AL) 4, at Boston 2.
Baltimore 4, at Tampa Bay 0.
at Miami 7, Philadelphia 0.
Washington 1, at New York (NL) 0.

Games of May 3
New York (AL) 8, Boston 5.
Baltimore 4, at Tampa Bay 2.
Philadelphia 6, at Miami 2.
Washington 1, at New York (NL) 0.

Games of May 4
Tampa Bay 5, at Boston 1.
at Toronto 3, New York (AL) 1.
Philadelphia 5, at Atlanta 2.
at Washington 6, Miami 4.

Games of May 5
at Boston 2, Tampa Bay 0.
New York (AL) 6, Toronto 3.
at Atlanta 9, Philadelphia 0.
Miami 2, at Washington 1.
at New York (NL) 3, Baltimore 2.

Games of May 6
Tampa Bay 5, at Boston 3.
at Toronto 5, New York (AL) 1.
at Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 5.
at Washington 7, Miami 5.
at New York (NL) 5, Baltimore 1.

Games of May 7
at New York (AL) 4, Baltimore 3.

Games of May 8
at New York (AL) 5, Baltimore 4.
at Toronto 7, Boston 0.
at Philadelphia 3, New York (NL) 1.
at Washington 9, Atlanta 2.

Games of May 9
Baltimore 6, at New York (AL) 2.
at Toronto 7, Boston 1.
New York (NL) 3, at Philadelphia 2.
at Washington 8, Atlanta 6.

Games of May 10
at New York (AL) 6, Baltimore 2.
Boston 6, at Toronto 3.
New York (NL) 7, Philadelphia 4.
at Washington 5, Atlanta 4.

Games of May 11
at Baltimore 5, Toronto 2.
New York (AL) 11, at Tampa Bay 5.

Games of May 12
at Tampa Bay 4, New York (AL) 2.
Toronto 10, at Baltimore 2.

2013 Second Division standings and summary

The Angels shook off the disappointment of 2012, as well as a bad 2013 Major League season, to win promotion back to the First Division in 2014. Joining them will be the Washington Nationals. The Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies, who each resisted demotion for years, now are headed to the Third Division in 2014.

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Angels barely missed promotion to the First Division for the 2013 season. But they earned that promotion with an excellent 2013 season in the Second Division, even though their Major League season went badly.

In the Second Division, the Angels played only 19 games, but they were 6-0 against the Detroit Tigers and 3-0 against the Milwaukee Brewers. They only broke even against the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, but 14-5 is a .737 winning percengage, and they also finished a game ahead of the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals are being promoted for the second straight year, going to the First Division in 2014 after starting all of this in the Fourth Division in 2010.

During the regular Major League season, the Angels struggled to a 78-84 finish. It also wasn't such a great season for the Nationals, who were heavily favored to repeat as National League East champions and wound up finishing 10 games out of first place.

The Chicago Cubs began these standings back in 2010 with Second Division status and somehow floated there for four years, despite consistent losing records. This time, though, they couldn't escape. They came up last in the Second Division and are going to the Third Division in 2014.

And the Philadelphia Phillies, a First Division team from 2010 through 2012, now will be demoted for the second straight time, going to the Third Division in 2014.

2012 Third Division standings and summary

The Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers won the promotion sweepstakes from the Third Division in 2012 to the Second Division in 2013. The Nationals stomped through this group with a .654 winning percentage, while the Brewers have earned their second consecutive promotion.

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The New York Mets and Cleveland Indians have been to the Fourth Division before. The Mets are going back. The Indians are saved by a technicality.

The Mets were a clear choice for relegation, finishing the furthest out of first place and with the second worst winning percentage in this group. The Indians (7-10) had the worst winning percentage, tying with the San Diego Padres at 9 1/2 games back. However, the Indians played only the Toronto Blue Jays and the Miami Marlins within the Third Division, short of the three opponents needed for promotion or relegation. So, the Padres are going down the the Fourth Division in 2013.

The winners in this group were the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers. The Nationals finished 34-18 to win this race by 7 1/2 games over the Brewers. But the Brewers were the only other club with a winning record in the Third Division, clinching their rise from the Fourth Division to the Second Division in two years.

East League: Mets extend lead

The New York Mets lost two of three to the New York Yankees during the weekend, but they still doubled their lead in the East League during the week. They can thank their three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, who lost five of six during the week. The Tampa Bay Rays had the best week in the league, moving up to second place.

Mark Teixeira had the most powerful week in the East League, crushing five homers and running a 1.429 OPS in six games (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

So, the New York Mets struggled against the New York Yankees during the weekend, losing two of three at Yankee Stadium.

But the Mets aren't struggling otherwise. They beat the Atlanta Braves three straight to start the week ending on April 26 and increased their lead in the East League from 1 1/2 games over the Braves to three games over the Tampa Bay Rays. Though the Yankees won their series against the Mets, they still lost one-half game because they were playing in Detroit while the Mets were sweeping the Braves.

And the Mets did rather beat themselves in the April 26 rubber game with the Yankees, making four errors that led to two unearned runs, the difference in a 6-4 Yankees victory. Two of the errors came after balls hit by Alex Rodriguez, both after Rodriguez had homered earlier in the game.

No team in the East had a better week than the Rays, who moved up from fifth place to second place after winning five straight through April 26. The Rays picked up a game on first place and now are three games down.

More dramatically, the Rays picked up huge in the South Division, coming from 2 1/2 games down to take the lead by one-half game. They can thank the Braves, who held the division lead a week ago, then lost three straight against the Mets and two of three against the Philadelphia Phillies, all on the road.

The Mets will go on the road at the start of this week against the Miami Marlins, who ended the week just completed with five straight wins against the Phillies and Washington Nationals. The Mets swept the Marlins in four at home earlier in April. After that, the Mets go home against the Nats, who have, so some surprise, distinguished themselves with their last-place occupancy in the East at this early date.

A series of some import at the start of the week will put the Yankees against the Rays at Yankee Stadium.

Games of April 20

at Boston 7, Baltimore 1.

Games of April 21

at Toronto 13, Baltimore 6.

at New York (NL) 7, Atlanta 1.

at Philadelphia 7, Miami 3.

at Boston 1, Tampa Bay 0.

Games of April 22

Miami 6, at Philadelphia 1.

at Toronto 4, Baltimore 2.

at New York (NL) 3, Atlanta 2.

at Tampa Bay 7, Boston 5.

Games of April 23

at Tampa Bay 2, Boston 1.

at Toronto 7, Boston 6.

at New York (NL) 6, Atlanta 3.

Miami 9, at Philadelphia 1.

Games of April 24

at Baltimore 7, Boston 5.

at New York (AL) 6, New York (NL) 1.

at Tampa Bay 12, Toronto 3.

at Miami 3, Washington 2.

at Philadelphia 1, Atlanta 0.

Games of April 25

Baltimore 5, Boston 4, 10 innings.

at New York (NL) 8, New York (AL) 2.

at Tampa Bay 4, Toronto 2.

at Miami 8, Washington 0.

Atlanta 5, Philadelphia 2.

Games of April 26

at Baltimore 18, Boston 7.

at Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 1.

at Miami 6, Washington 2.

at Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 4.

at New York (AL) 6, New York (NL) 4.

2010 Fourth Division standings and summary

The New York Mets were clearly the best team of this bad lot, winning more than two-thirds of their Fourth Division games to win easy advancement to the Third Division for 2011. The Washington Nationals won the second promotion, beating out the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals by less than two games.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Fourth Division in this competition began with the three teams in each Major League with the worst records from 2009 — the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals in the American League and the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals in the National League.

(The Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks actually tied for the third-worst record in the NL at 70-92, but the Diamondbacks were placed in the Third Division for their 5-2 record against the Mets in 2009).

The Mets quickly and easily outclassed this tawdry field, blitzing to a 21-10 campaign to win easy promotion to the Third Division for 2011. No one else was especially good, but the Nationals at least finished with a winning record (19-17) to win the second promotion.

This was a bad lot in 2009 and remained that in 2010, except the Mets, who made a bid for .500 at 79-83 during the regular season. Every other team in this group won fewer than 70 games during the Major League season.

2012 East League standings and summary

A thrilling season in the East League ended with four clubs finishing within 2 1/2 games of the top. In the end, the New York Yankees won the first East League title, thanks much to a huge day for second baseman Robinson Cano.

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The East League began, in one man's imagination, in 2012, when interleague play put the teams of the American League East against those in the National League East. 

As Major League Baseball rotates the divisions for interleague play, the East League, like the Center and West Leagues, only convene only every third year. It's like the World Baseball Classic that way. We'd like to see it permanent, and have proposed a way to conduct the East, Center and West Leagues alongside the traditional American and National Leagues.

A couple of interesting results cropped up in the East League relative to the AL East and NL West divisions.

For example, the Washington Nationals won the NL East by four games over the Atlanta Braves. However, the Braves won the East League South Division by 2 1/2 games, with the Baltimore Orioles finishing second and the Nationals third.

The power in the East League clearly was in the South Division, with four of the five teams finishing 10 games above .500 or better. By contrast, the New York Yankees were the only North Division team to finish with a winning record, coming in 13 games ahead of the New York Mets.

Overall in the East League, the Yankees squeezed past the Braves by one-half game. The Yankees beat the Braves in four of their six meetings, all between June 11-20.

The Yankees, Braves and Nationals all had a chance entering the final weekend. The Braves were idle within the East League that weekend, but they held leads of one game against the Yankees and 1 1/2 against the Nationals. 

However, the Nats fell out of contention with a 2-0 loss at home against the Philadelphia Phillies on Oct. 1 Meanwhile, the Yankees won on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 at home against the Boston Red Sox, bringing themselves to a tie with Atlanta entering the final game of the regular season.

Needing only a win, the Yankees left no doubt about it in a 14-2 stomp, led by Robinson Cano's four-for-four day with two homers and six RBI. Thus, the Yankees, by one-half game, were the first champions of the East League.

In the real AL East competition, by the way, the Yankees led the Orioles by one game entering the final day. Their victory, along with Baltimore's 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay, gave them a two-game edge for the division title.

Cinderella is dead

We're itching to introduce some new ways to follow the baseball season, but first we want to complain about why the real way has lost so much allure: the lost connection between the regular season and the World Series.

 A rooftop view if the 1903 World Series in Boston (public domain image).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The connection between the 162-game baseball season and the World Championship is broken, and barely hanging together.

No one else seems much bothered by this, but we were just last October treated to a World Series between a fourth-place team and a fifth-place team – and the fifth-place team won. The San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals entered the 2014 postseason as wild cards in their leagues. The Royals were the American League's first wildcard (the fourth-place team) and the Giants were the National League's second wildcard (the fifth-place team). We had seen fourth-place teams win the World Series already. That was bad enough. Now, with the Giants taking the 2014 World Championship, we've seen a fifth-place team win the World Series. The World Series. 

Complaints about fifth-place teams in the World Series will strike folks as crotchety. Anybody younger than about 40 by now is likely to think inclusive playoffs are the way of the world, the way God planned it. It's not. It's a creation of the suits and the television executives, which doesn't make playoffs bad. But expanded playoffs do not reward excellence over 162 games, so much as they reward pretty goodness.

Some of us who are a long way past the sunny side of 40 remember when you didn't go to the baseball playoffs without some kind of a meaningful championship, at least a division. There was even a time, for those of us well on the dark side of 50, when they didn't even have playoffs in baseball. They played 162 games, undivided, with the best record in each league entering the World Series. You always knew the two teams in the World Series legitimately were the best in their leagues by the measure of 162 games. The World Series in those days, and for more reasons than that, was a huge event across the national popular culture such as it no longer is.

Everybody loves playoffs, all-or-nothing playoffs in which anything not pertinent to the moment no longer matters. And playoff baseball is exciting. Understood. The task here isn't to complain about that (though we are happy to do it, robustly, and at length) so much as to note the dissolution of 162 games as a measure of a baseball team and, maybe, to do a little tiny something about it.

All of the other big spectator sports have big playoffs. Good for them. The National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) each has 30 teams, each plays an 82-game regular season, and neither bothers to eliminate even half of its teams before the playoffs. In neither case is there a compelling reason to even follow the regular season, unless you absolutely love those sports – and no one is saying you shouldn't. But the regular season competition simply doesn't matter.

In the NBA right now, they're fighting out the last three weeks of the regular season to work out which two teams that can't even break even are ticketed for a crack at the big prize. Hardly a tournament of champions. In the NBA and the NHL, it is not unprecedented for an eighth-place team – a mediocre team – to heat up during the playoffs, catch a bounce and go to the finals or even win the league championship. Congratulations to those teams. But, then, what's the point of that long regular season? Why invest in it? And what does that championship actually say about itself? If a mediocre team can win the championship, then the championship no longer demands excellence. It demands merely that some team find its way through a good month, the way any team can find its way through a good month in a season.

In the major leagues right now, a team that puts up six excellent months is out of the running after losing three straight games to a fairly good opponent in the playoffs. And we now, much too often, don't see the best teams in the World Series. We too often see teams with little to say about 162 games, except that they weren't terrible.

Expanded playoffs are here to stay. It's where the money is. Playoffs make great seasonal television programming. That's why television networks pay what they pay for the rights. But they don't make great champions. They make "unlikely" champions, which now have become so likely that they have lost their novelty power and no longer are even good stories. When Cinderella gets out more than Paris Hilton, then she's no longer Cinderella. Now, she's Kim Kardashian. Cinderella is dead.

We never like playoff expansion, per se, but we thought, foolishly, that the fifth team in each league would dilute the wild cards. If the wild cards were to play each other in a one-and-done game, needing to probably cook their best starting pitchers before the winner went on the road against the club with its league's best record in the next round ... maybe that would be enough hoops to keep them from darkening the World Series. Good enough, said this corner. Gone, we thought, were the days when some team that didn't win anything all year could whisk through the playoffs on a lark and claim the World Championship.

But it took all of three seasons before that wonderful reverie was smashed. So, the Giants and Royals nudged into the playoffs last fall and we saw what happened. Clubs that made it tick all year, like the Angels and Dodgers, like the St. Louis Cardinals, the Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles – clubs that attracted our attention for 162 games – were nowhere to be found near the big stage.

Call an old guy old-fashioned for wanting to see the best teams play for the World Championship. Call him all the bad names you want. He doesn't care, because he remembers when having the best teams play for the championship was the point, and that still makes a damned lot of sense to him.

And now we hear that the central office is concerned that World Series viewership is down because the game isn't national enough. We believe, actually, that baseball's problem is that isn't regional enough, but that's another topic for another day. More to the point, though, how can you expect the World Series to have a national following when the teams that are playing in it didn't develop a national following during the six-month grind of the regular season?

Of course, the Giants have established themselves in the last few years as a great tournament team, but they were just another team grubbing for a desperate playoff spot last September, which is to say they didn't take the imagination captive. And who, except for Royals fans and hard-core baseball fans, really cared about the Royals before the two final weeks of last September? If capturing the largest possible audience for the World Series requires capturing the non-fan who might just hear about baseball on the side, then putting teams in the World Series that haven't even been mentioned to the non-fan long before then won't get it done, because Cinderella is dead.

Televison viewership for World Series now is just a little better than one-third of what it was 30 years ago. Starting from 1985, the five highest years for average World Series viewership all took place between 1985 and 1991 (1985-8, 1991), with a range of 34.5 million to 36.4 million average viewers. The five lowest years for average World Series viewership all have taken place starting in 2008, and four of those are in the last five years (2008, 2010, 2012-4), with a range of 12.7 million to 14.9 viewers. From 1985-8, the average World Series rating ranged from 23.9 to 28.6, and the average share ranged from 39 to 46. In the last four years, the average World Series rating has ranged from 7.6 to 10.0, and the average share has ranged from 12 to 16, setting records for disinterest in the championship of Major League Baseball.

Through 1980, by the way, the World Series routinely drew shares of 50 or better. By contrast, the 2014 World Series of fourth- and fifth-place teams was on track to be the worst rated World Series ever (averaging 7.4 through six games), but that Game 7 was quite something, and it pulled a 13.7 rating to bring the whole enterprise up to 8.3 with a 14 share.

Now, 30 years was a while ago, but it wasn't the Stone Age. We didn't have portable telephones and we didn't have the Internet, but we had cable television and VCRs, we had all the same football, basketball and hockey. People read books more, took in more live music and went to more movies. We had plenty else to do. And we still watched the World Series, going on three times as much as we do today.

So, this idea that people don't watch the World Series now because we have so many more options is unavailing at best, vapid at worst. There are at least four or five better explanations, and one of them is right here. Too often, the World Series doesn't resemble the baseball season into which we have invested every day of the last six months. It feels a bit like a cheat. A guy not far from here is as likely as not to throw his hands into the air during the World Series and say, "Another Cinderella story! How unlikely!"

And he will pay his perfunctory, perhaps dutiful, attention to the World Series, but it all feels rather flat. The Cinderalla story is old and tired now, dead even. And the price we pay to perpetuate it is fifth-place teams in the World Series. It's barely worthwhile for anyone except for the central office, when it cashes those national TV checks – $500 million per year from FOX and $300 million per year from TBS. For ratings of about 7.5 on a good night. (ESPN also pays MLB about $700 million per year, though its postseason is limited to one wild-card game per year.)

It was mentioned here some time ago that we would try to offer something constructive and not spend the whole time complaining about expanded playoffs. Consider that another broken promise. Couldn't help it. But we can still redeem 162 games. Here are a few ideas.

Kershaw no Koufax ... and thank heaven!

Comparisons between Clayton Kershaw and Sandy Koufax are inevitable and, fortunately, misguided. Kershaw will never be used as Koufax was used, which means we don't have to worry that Kershaw will retire at age 30 with a traumatically arthritic left arm. That aside, Kershaw not only is the best pitcher, but the best complete baseball player going today.

Clayton Kershaw, left, and Sandy Koufax, right, aren't exactly mirror images (Original crop and collage. Kershaw photo by kla4067/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Koufax photo by unknown. It is believed that this cropped, low-resolution image constitutes fair use in the absence of a public domain image).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Appropriate witness to the greatness of Clayton Kershaw is easily to be found, except in these pages, and we shall attempt to rectify that error forthwith.

Our version shall contain a slightly different wrinkle, however, for the usual account contains the details of Kershaw's standing merely as a pitcher, of which he is the best in the world at this moment, and for at least the last three or four years of moments, and, perhaps for three or four years of moments hence, if not for longer. 

If all one knows about Kershaw is the man on the mound and the pitches coming from his hand, that, alone, imparts the knowledge that the Dodgers left-hander is the best. The fastball isn't 100 miles per hour, but he has gotten it to 98, and he works it 92-95 with puzzling late movement that sometimes tails in on a right-handed hitter, highly unusual for a left-handed pitcher. But that slider, which touches 88, probably is his best pitch, and his looping 12-to-6 curveball is his most beautiful. They all work. Sometimes, rarely, he throws a changeup. It works, too. 

If all one knows about Kershaw is what appears on the spreadsheet, the black ink imparts the knowledge that the Dodgers left-hander is the best. Kershaw won his 19th game of 2014 on Sept. 14 in San Francisco, a 4-2 win against the San Francisco Giants. With 19 wins, Kershaw leads the National League, despite missing the entire month of April with injury. He missed four or five starts that way, enough for four or five wins. He's 19-3. He also leads the NL in complete games (six), ERA (1.70), winning percentage (.864), ERA-plus (210), fielding independent pitching (1.86), WHIP (0.826), fewest hits per nine innings pitched (6.1), strikeouts per nine innings pitched (10.6) and strikeouts per walk (7.82). He already won the Cy Young Award in 2011 and 2013, finished second in 2012, and has to win it again this year.

Kershaw now is working on his fourth straight NL ERA title, his third straight league leadership in ERA-plus, his fourth straight league leadership in WHIP, and his third league leadership in four years in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (which also is his fourth in six years). 

Comparisons with the all-time great Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax are inevitable, and they are rather forced. Each is the best left-hander of his time. That's where it ends, and where it should end. These are different times, and they are different men. Additionally, the great Koufax we remember and the great Kershaw of today are in different stages of their careers.

Behold, to begin, this composite of Koufax's last four seasons, 1963 through the present point in 1966. We'll never see anything like it again.

The closest to it that we will see today is this composite of Kershaw's last four years, 2011 through this point in 2014. It dazzles, but it does not compare.

We should remember, however, that Kershaw was much younger for the last four years than Koufax during 1963-1966. Kershaw is 26 today. Koufax was 30 when he retired at the end of the 1966 season. When we compare Koufax in the four years through his age 26 season to Kershaw's four years to this point, Kershaw is ahead, hands down. Here is the composite for Koufax for the four years ending with his age 26 season in 1962.

The Koufax we came to know began in 1963, his age 27 season, when he won the first of his three Cy Young Awards in four years. Kershaw will never be that guy, which is for the best. Teams invest too much in their premium pitchers today to load them up with 330 innings per year and force their retirements just so they may have functioning arms for the rest of their lives. Koufax did just that, and for just that reason, after the 1966 season.

At his retirement press conference, Koufax was asked, famously, how he could walk away from all the money he could make as a baseball player. Koufax replied that if a man lost the use of one of his arms, he would pay any amount of money to get it back and that, in a sense, is what he was doing. Koufax made $125,000 in 1966, claiming the highest salary in the game due largely to his dual holdout with Don Drysdale. 

Koufax already knew he was in trouble when he missed the last six weeks of the 1964 season with traumatic arthritis in his left arm. At the end of spring training in 1965, his arm was black and blue from hemorrhaging. He papered over it with cocktails of pain-killing drugs, ointments and ice, then pitched 335 2/3 innings that year. His feats of sacrificial endurance continued through Game 7 of the World Series, when he entered on two days of rest before all but ditching his curveball by the third inning. Throwing almost all fastballs, Koufax beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0, in a complete-game three-hitter. 

Then came 1966, with its 27-9 record, its 1.73 ERA, its 41 starts, its 27 complete games, its five shutouts, its 323 innings and its 317 strikeouts, all league-leading totals. Then came his retirement.

Kershaw will never go through anything like that, and we should be grateful. No club would be dumb enough to abuse a great pitcher to that extent. The reason no club would be that dumb isn't so much that clubs are enlightened, as that they are invested. The Dodgers have Kershaw signed to a seven-year contract worth $215 millions. Or, we should say, Kershaw has the Dodgers signed to that contract. Koufax had the Dodgers signed to nothing, so tearing him up cost the Dodgers nothing. Those were the days before the union mattered, though Koufax also deserves credit for helping to make the union matter. His dual holdout with Drysdale showed players what they might accomplish by bargaining collectively. His early retirement showed players what they might lose by not bargaining collectively, though they were beginning to realize that already.

Kershaw is signed for six more seasons, at annual salaries from 2015 through 2020 ranging from $30 million to $33 million. At the end of that contract, Kershaw will be 32. Those salaries are guaranteed. The Dodgers are paying them even if Kershaw's arms fall off. The Dodgers will bear most any burden to keep those arms from falling off. The bore no such burden for Koufax.

So, Kershaw isn't Koufax, and we don't want him to be Koufax. Kershaw is something else, entirely, and, for this, he doesn't receive nearly his deserved credit.

Kershaw isn't merely a great pitcher, the greatest of our time. He is much more than that, an outstanding baseball player at all facets of the game. Pitchers aren't supposed to be great baseball players, and few are. They are supposed to be great pitchers, and few are even that. Kershaw is a great performer in every aspect of the game. He might not be Babe Ruth if he had the chance, but comparisons with Babe Ruth make about as much sense as comparisons with Koufax – if comparisons between Ruth and anyone make any sense, or, for that matter, if comparisons between Koufax and anybody make any sense. Ruth, of course, was a dominant left-handed pitcher with the Boston Red Sox before he became a dominant power hitter with the New York Yankees.

Kershaw has one home run in his whole life, a memorable blast on Opening Day 2013 to beat the Giants, 1-0. In his last four seasons, he is a .196 hitter, remarkable for any pitcher, considering that they place no emphasis on hitting. As a batter, Kershaw has positive WAR in his career (1.2). It is absolutely no rarity for Kershaw to throw a complete game and go one-for-three at the plate. Excepting the concern about possible injury, a manager in a bind wouldn't hesitate to run him up there as a left-handed pinch hitter.

Nor would such a manager hesitate to use Kershaw as a pinch runner, because he has more presence of mind and competitive drive on the bases than many everyday players. We saw a great example on Sept. 2, when the Washington Nationals visited Dodger Stadium. Batting with one out in the bottom of the fifth in a scoreless game, Kershaw singled. When Dee Gordon followed with a ground single to center field, Kershaw challenged Nationals center fielder Bryce Harper with a sprint to third base. Kershaw won the challenge, easily beating Harper's throw and enabling Gordon to take second. Kershaw, the pitcher, set a tone that day. Kershaw, the batter and base runner, finished it. With two out that inning, Adrian Gonzalez hit a ground ball to short and the Washington shortstop, Ian Desmond, lost so much nerve thinking about an aggressive Kershaw and a speedy Gordon that he threw wildly to home and both runners scored. The Dodgers won that game, 4-1.

As a defender, Kershaw's perfectionism continues. He won a Gold Glove in 2011, and certainly could argue for more. Kershaw has made only four errors in his entire career, which comes to 209 appearances (207 starts) his fielding percentages have been higher than the league averages for pitchers ever year starting with 2009 and, by the defensive runs saved metric, he saves five runs per game as a defender compared with other pitchers over the last four years.

Koufax, great of a pitcher as he was, never was any match for Kershaw as a hitter, base runner or fielder, by the metrics or by eye witness testimony.

It isn't simply that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of our time. There isn't a better complete player, period.

Editor's note: All advanced statistics in this piece are from Baseball-Reference.com, unless otherwise indicated.