MLB's Best and Worst Against Their Division
By DAVE CAREY
Forget all the Wild-Card nonsense. The top teams in baseball do things the old fashioned way: reading newspapers for box scores, changing their own oil, eating a family dinner at 5:30 p.m. and winning their division to make the postseason.
Some teams take this to heart and put extra emphasis on winning games against their rivals. Others, meantime, keep faltering against their division foes and can only look in the mirror when they miss out on the playoffs. Think the Braves won the NL East 14 straight times because they lost to the Phillies and Expos all the time?
Let’s look at teams who have cashed in, or out, against their divisional opponents this season.
TOP DIVISION WINNERS
Tampa Bay Rays (29-18 against the AL East, 28 divisional games remaining)
The most competitive division in the sport comes back to the most basic fundamental - beating the teams in your division. And, shock, the Rays have more AL East wins than anyone else in their division and, as a result, are in first place.
Tampa Bay has padded its win total by going 9-3 against the Orioles and 8-4 against the Red Sox, battling to a 6-5 series lead against the Yankees and holding serve against Toronto, 6-6.
But the Rays need to be cautious as the stretch run approaches: the team is just 7-7 against their division foes since July 16, including a sweep at the hands of Toronto.
Minnesota Twins (31-17 against the AL Central, 28 divisional games remaining)
No team has been as successful against its division this year as the Twins.
Minnesota has a slim lead over the White Sox because it has won five of its past seven against the Pale Hose and has claimed eight of its past 10 against opponents from the Central.
The teams has one of the unappreciated lineups in baseball and has relied on the bats of Jim Thome, Denard Span and Jason Kubel to power the club. Since the All-Star break, the team is averaging 6.9 runs per game against its divisional opponents.
Cincinnati Reds (34-21 against the NL Central, 24 divisional games remaining)
Giving beat-downs to the Pirates, Brewers, Astros and Cubs is enough to power any team to the top of the division.
Cincinnati has more wins against the Central than any team does against its division. The Reds are just 5-10 against the Cardinals this year, but have made up for it by going 10-3 against the Cubs, 8-5 against the Pirates, 4-1 against the Brewers and 7-2 against the Astros.
And don’t expect the team to slow down anytime soon. The Reds may be 0-3 against the Cardinals since the break, but they sure can beat everyone else. They are a remarkable 9-3 against the rest of the central since the Mid-Season Classic.
WORST DIVISION TEAMS
Baltimore Orioles (11-37 against the AL East, 24 divisional games remaining)
When four other teams in your division are each above .500, someone has to be the whipping boy.
Baltimore has been hot recently under manager Buck Showalter and lost only one series since he took over on August 3, going 10-4 in their past 14. But that one series lost? Dropping two of three last weekend in Tampa Bay.
The O’s have dropped their past six against Toronto, five of six against the Yankees and four of six against Boston and Tampa Bay.
Arizona Diamondbacks (12-30 against the NL West, 30 divisional games remaining)
Think of it like this: the Diamondbacks may have some bite, but they have such an erratic strike, they don’t put fear into many opposing teams.
Arizona has scored a respectable 540 runs this season, the 11th most in baseball. Unfortunately, just eight teams have a worse average than the team’s mark of .253. The D-backs also have struck out a Major-league leading 1,094 times, easily over 100 punch-outs more than the next closest team.
The team also has ground into a staggering 91 double-plays this year, among the most in the Majors.
With pitching-heavy teams like the Padres, Giants and Dodgers in the division, a team with as much plate discipline as Kristie Alley isn’t going to get the job done.
Seattle Mariners (11-27 against the AL West, 19 divisional games remaining)
These guys are so bad, that even the Orioles are beating them.
Seattle can’t seem to take advantage of the lone four-team division in baseball, continually getting the beat down from Los Angeles, Texas and small-market Oakland.
The team has scored an MLB-low 387 runs and is batting an MLB-worst .236 -- 25 points below the league average. In 38 games against divisional opponents this year, the Mariners are averaging less than 2.7 runs per game.