I don’t get it.
You know what I don’t get? Why is it that when a National League player gets traded to an American League team, or visa versa, he starts from scratch (statistically speaking)?
For example, Julio Lugo was traded at last year’s deadline from the Devil Rays to the Dodgers, and his stats on ESPN.com read like this:
TBD AL 73 289 17 1 12 27 18 4 27 47 .308 .373 .498
LAD NL 49 146 5 1 0 10 6 5 12 29 .219 .278 .267
I understand why, prior to interleague play, we kept a player’s National League and American League stats separate. The two leagues were very different beasts. But why have we kept doing it?
Some of the hits Lugo got as a Devil Ray last year came against National League teams. And some of the (very few) hits he got as a Dodger came against American League teams. So why not just combine his 2006 stats? Does that make too much sense?
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
Maybe cause they play by different rules?
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June 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 am
I’m not saying it’s a valid argument to claim this, but I do think that year-end awards have something to do with it. Can you call someone an AL homerun king if they hit half their home runs in the NL prior to a deadline trade?
Primarily, I do agree that it’s outdated. It goes back to a time when the NL and AL were still thought of as different entities and not just under the main umbrella of MLB.
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June 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 am
No! That can’t be it. B/c now, thanks to interleague play, NL players play in games where the DH is used. And AL players play in games where pitchers hit.
And as far as I’m aware, that’s the only rule that is different between the NL and AL. Right?
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June 25th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Actually, ESPN splits up all of a player’s stats when he gets traded mid-season, whether he changes leagues or not. This is to see how many games he had with each team and how he performed on each team, which is actually a very useful metric. Coley, you know I love you, but I think this rant is all a lot of strutting and fretting, signifying nothing. Sorry.
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