American League 2008: Is This the Year for the Central?

It is pretty much common knowledge now among baseball fans that the American League is no longer the “junior circuit” to the National League.

The American League has won seven of the last 10 World Series and has not lost an All-Star game in 11 years.

In a word, that is called dominance.

The leader in this charge has been the AL East with the Yankees and Red Sox diving deeper and deeper into their pockets to constantly one-up each other, but over the last few seasons, a change has been occurring.

Many are saying the the AL Central has found a way to catch and possibly have passed the East as the “best overall division, in the best league” in baseball.  Let’s take a look.

AWARDS

For starters, as for awards won over the past four years, the Central has collected the majority of them. The following AL awards have come from the Central: 

-         3 Cy Young ’07, ’06, ‘04

-         3 Manager of the Year ’07, ’06, ‘05

-         MVP ‘06

-         Rookie of the Year ‘06

-         5 out of the 9 Gold Gloves in ‘07; 4/9 ’06; 1/9 ’05; 2/9 ‘04

-         2/9 Silver Slugger Awards in ‘07; 4/9 ’06; 0/9 ’05; 2/10 ‘04

East winnings:

-         2 MVPs ’07, ‘05

-         Rookie of the Year ‘07

-         1/9 Gold Gloves ’07; 2/9 ’06; 4/9 ’05; 2/9 ‘04

-         5/9 Silver Slugger ’07; 4/9 ’06; 6/9 ’05; 5/10 ‘04

The majority of this success has come over the past two seasons, especially with sweep of the four major awards in ’06. 

RECORDS

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