Red Sox are World Series Champions

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox, the 2007 World Series Champions. Seems like the curse has been reversed onto the Yankees after 2004...

As much as I wish that I could say the Rockies’ play in the series proves they only won the pennant by riding a streak, it’s not really true. When you look at the play of all the teams in the National League, the Rockies were clearly the best team.

What this series does demonstrate the dominance of the American League’s powerhouse teams versus the best teams in the National League. The American League tends to have a much larger margin of winning percentages between their playoff contenders and non-playoff contenders than the National League does. This, and the fact that the American League is a bit better than the National League as a whole, resulted in the American League’s playoff teams generally being much better than those of the National League. The 7-9 playoff contenders (depending on how you define a contender) in the National League had win totals in the mid-to-high 80s (the Rockies and Diamondbacks had 90), with 7 teams ending more than 5 games out of a playoff spot. In the American League, there were four teams with 94 or more wins, two teams with 88 wins, one with 84, and 8 teams 11 or more games out of the wild card hunt. In mid-September, the American League playoff spots were all but filled, while 10 NL teams had legitimate playoff hopes. You would have been hard-pressed to find any matchups in which Vegas would have favored any of the NL contenders over any of the AL contenders.

The National League provided an incredible September, with incredible drives by the Rockies and Phillies to make the playoffs, and many teams hung on until the last day. The American League’s September was pretty boring, as there wasn’t any sort of a down-to-the-wire finish in any of the races.

The playoffs ended up being pretty one-sided in both leagues. Only two series, both in the American League, were not sweeps: The Indians winning the ALDS 3-1, and the Red Sox winning the ALCS 4-3 after an impressive climb back from a 3-1 deficit. The one-sided matchups and elimination of most of the popular teams (i.e. the Yankees) ended up making the 2007 playoffs less watched and less interesting than previous years. The Rockies made a huge run that stemmed from the regular season, and the Red Sox overcame a 3-1 deficit, and swept the Rockies- not a lot of excitement here. This year, the regular season proved much more interesting, as it did in days of old.

On the subject of Mike Lowell, after winning World Series MVP, his market value has certainly gone up, lowering the chances the Phillies will end up acquiring him as a free agent.