Easy answer for all of you, right? Yanks?
This is a new debate, and quite frankly an impossible one to answer until the season is over. I hope to however stray you away from without even being open to the opportunity.
There are 2 huge factors that are nearly impossible to decode. One is the impact of Hunter Pence. Do you just count his 6 games in a Phillies uniform or do you count his work in Houston too. After the signing of Pence, the discussion on who's better got very interesting.
It's fact that the Yankees offense was better, and the Phillies pitching is better. Factual.
But I will look at some random facts to hopefully sway some opinions. FOR ALL STATS, I WILL ONLY INCLUDE HUNTER PENCE AND HIS GAMES IN A PHILLIES UNIFORM. You must account for how much better of a player he is than Dom Brown / Ben Francisco, but the stats will not show that.
ALL PHILLIES STATS AS OF 8/3/2011
Sources are linked, any not came from the ever so reliable Baseball Refrence
Batting Average:
1998 Yankees TEAM batting average : .288
1998 American League AVG batting average : .271 (sc)
2011 Phillies TEAM batting average : .251
2011 National League AVG batting average : .260 (sc)
Again, the Yanks are clearly better. There is one highly ignored fact in baseball, and that is that batting average is almost always 10-15 points higher in the American League. That's due to the AL having a DH. So the averages as a team are much better in the AL.
Home Runs:
1998 Yankees TEAM HR's : 207
1998 Homeruns in MLB : 5,064
% of League : 4.088%
2011 Phillies TEAM HR's : 101
2011 Homeruns in MLB : 2,948
% of League : 3.426%
Again, I wanted to disperse the Steroid Era from the Current "pitchers" Era. Comparing how many homeruns the team hit compared to the league, the Yankees as a team had better home run hitters. However, No one on the Yanks hit 30 home runs, and Ryan Howard is on pace for 35.
Runs Per Game
1998 Yankees Runs / Game : 5.96
2011 Phillies Runs / Game : 4.36
Huge disbursement. Again, the AL always averages more runs per game due to having a DH, and the NL has the pitcher hit 9th. Still a vast difference.
Yankees had a better offense, clearly. But just a few pitching stats can change the tone.
3 of the current starters, Worely, Hallday, and Hamels; have a lower ERA than ANY STARTER on the Yankees roster. If Cliff Lee brings his ERA down .01, than he is lower than any Yankees starter in 1998. In 1998 too, Mariano Rivera had a 1.91 ERA. Just so you are also aware, both Bastardo (1.31) and Madson (1.86) have a lower ERA than Rivera.
Here was the 98 Yankees staff,
Pettitte - 4.24 ERA
Wells - 3.49 ERA
Cone - 3.55 ERA
Irabu - 4.06 ERA
Hernandez - 3.13 ERA
Mendoza - 3.25 ERA
And your 2011 Phillies Staff,
Halladay - 2.44 ERA
Hamels - 2.62 ERA
Lee - 3.14 ERA
Worley - 2.33 ERA
Oswalt - 3.79 ERA
Kendrick - 3.19 ERA
Again tho, you must remember that more runs are scored in the AL than the NL. But how big is the difference.
For me, these stats are fairly white and black. Yankees had a better offense, Phillies have a better set of arms. But when you go from there, you hear the Yanks won more games.
The quick argument is that "Oh the Yankees won 114 Games" Before you go crazy with that, the AL East outside of the Yankees went 322-326, NL East outside of the Phillies are currently 227-215. The Phillies have a tougher division today than the Yankees did then, and the Phils are still on pace for 105 Wins. They are 6-0 since getting Pence in the lineup, and who knows how long that will last
Which is better?
Quite honestly... My answer is that you CAN NOT compare AL and NL teams. The two leagues play a lot different, and they are so hard to compare.
Your thoughts?
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