THE folks at Forman et soeur have extended the life of their "Situational Data" module, at least for a little while longer. We hope that this is because they are trying to ensure that all the functionality it contains will still be easily available elsewhere when they finally stick the thing into the oven. (Of course, we really wish they'd leave it alone, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards...and for the sake of Brock Hanke and our other stalwart friends in St. Louis, let's not talk about the Cards!)
We glean our "interleague data" from this module, and it's quick, easy--and it's data that just doesn't seem to be readily available anywhere else. (Small miracles are the ones we most want make sure keep happening--enough small miracles can often compensate for the stubborn lack of larger ones.) And so we again bring you that data, while attempting not to choke on the lump in our throat as we do so...
THIS time we've left out the breakout that reveals quality of play, and are sticking to the basics. We've organized it, as is usually the case, by divisions...what we've added, though is a look at a summary of each division as it's fared in interleague play.
That includes the percentage differential between the team (and, in the darker yellow summary rows, the division itself) as it's actually played in interleague play (W-L%) and how the Pythagorean Winning Percentage (PWP%) suggests they should have played,
AS you look at those summaries, we remind you that we hinted at a "sea change" in interleague play the last time we provided an update. That change is still in play: after years of taking it on the chin, the NL is out front, leading the AL 206-189. It's not a big lead (.522 WPCT), but the divisional breakout takes us directly to the cause of the turnaround: the teams in the NL East are (for the most part, anyway) ripping up against their interleague opponents (78-56, a .582 WPCT).
That's noticeably better than the performance of the teams in the vaunted AL East. Of course, two of the teams are doing really well in these games (Jays and and Yankees), with the Rays' pace in these games still solid despite some slowdown. (We wish we could easily break this data out by month, but those resources are just not in place at this point in time--and yes, that's a hint to you, Forman et soeur!)
In the NL East, the Phillies have risen up to challenge the Marlins for top spot in overall interleague WPCT--even though their PWP shows that they're getting a lot of luck in order to do so (18.9% "over their heads"). Their good fortune pales against that of the Reds, however, who have a 39.4% "credit" that has garned them five extra wins over the first half of 2023.
On the opposite side of the coin, those snakebit Padres and star-crossed Angels are underperforming in actual Ws and Ls despite their RS/RA differential in interleague games.
And according to PWP, the worst team performance in this subset is neither the A's nor the Royals, but the Rockies (.311 PWP)--though their actual won-loss record is merely mediocre. We forgot to color-code the Pirates, who've dropped precipitously in this data subset after a brief early-season surge.
Finally...remember when the Dodgers and Padres hadn't played any interleague games? They've more than made up for that since then; the team with the fewest interleague games played thus far in '23 is now...the White Sox.
WE'll be back in a couple of weeks with another installment--and hoping that it will still remain easy to provide this data to you...stay tuned!
