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AL East versus AL Central - Discuss!

Obviously, the Sox (both of them), the Tigers, and the Twins are all on ridiculous hot streaks at the moment, but, it's come up in debate here which division is stronger, the AL East or AL Central.

I would outline this debate as being between the strong teams, not a question of whether it's worse to have the Royals in your division or the D-Rays and Os.  And not a question of who will be stronger in the future (sorry, Rays fans), but who's stronger this season.

The AL Central's four good teams are so far kicking the East's three good teams' collective arse in winning percentage, but:

Using BP's 3rd order winning percentage, which is a little complicated but basically derives a would-be/should-be winning percentage from a team's raw offensive and defensive numbers, the East is winning (or, at least, the top 3 are):

NYY .601
BOS .586
TOR .582

DET .592
CHA .563
CLE .547
MIN .508

Now, I don't believe that 3rd order WP takes into account non-SB baserunning, i.e. taking extra bases on hits, something that, as a fan, I know the Sox are below average on.  But I believe it takes SBs into account.  Also, by definition, it doesn't involve how good a team is at winning close games, which is pretty much exactly how regular winning percentage differs from third order.  So, for instance, Boston may be overplaying thier 3rd order WP because of the ability to put Papelbon in in a close game and shut the door.  And, of course, the immortal question of "clutch" is not taken into account here.

Also, you have to ask whether the current play that the four streaking teams are showing is more indicative of their overall ability or whether the earlier part of the season (terrible for the Twins) is closer to the Real Thing.

Something else to consider, of course (though I don't put much stock in this) is head-to-head matchups.  Being a Red Sox fan, I know we beat the Tigers 2 out of 3 (as did the Yankees, 3 out of 4), but Boston was also swept by the Twins near or at the start of MIN's current streak (after which Boston hasn't lost).  How much stock do you put into this?

Hopefully that's enough to get the juices flowing.

Okay.

Ready.

Set.

GO!

P.S. Don't just vote, tell me why! I knew it was a mistake to include a poll question...

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