Who's playing the best baseball? Let's turn to STAT-MAN for the answer.

http://www.urban75.org/comics/fan3.html

STAT-MAN IS COOL!!! AS ARE THE OTHER FAN PROTOTYPES FROM THIS SITE.

http://www.urban75.org/comics/fans.html

I've probably been all of them at one time or another. God, I need help.

So anyway, back to the original topic, Who is playing the best baseball so far this season?

It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. Still a bit early to go entirely by win/loss record.

Teams have not played each other enough to sort it out. The Giants early season record may be inflated by a a plethora of early season games versus the Astros for example, who knows? But thank goodness for the Astros, right?

I like to look at run-differential and road record to start. Scoring more runs than the other team is the object of the game. So run-differential is important and correlates to total wins rather nicely. And if you can combine that with an ability to win games in the other guys yard, that just shows a mature, professional approach that wins games come playoff time, in my mind.

So who are the early leaders? (as of 5/19/2010)

In the AL:

Rays 29-11 overall, 16-4 road, + 95 run diff.
Yankees 25-15 overall, 12-10 road, +70 run diff.
Twins 24-16 overall, 12-10 road, +34 run diff.
Blue Jays 24-17 overall, 13-6 road, +32 run diff.

Three teams in the AL East and bad news for the Red Sox.

In the NL:

Phillies 24-15 overall, 13-7 road, +64 run diff.
Cardinals 23-18 overall, 11-11 road, +27 run diff.
Padres 23-16 overall, 11-7 road, +41 run diff.
Giants 22-16 overall, 9-8 road, +45 run diff.


Maybe you prefer the best pitching staff approach? If that is the case:

In the NL, you would like:

Padres 118 runs allowed
Giants 121 runs allowed
Cardinals 143 runs allowed
Phillies 150 runs allowed
Braves 166 runs allowed

In the AL, you would like:

Rays 122 runs allowed
Mariners 158 runs allowed
Twins 158 runs allowed
Yankees 161 runs allowed
A's 175 runs allowed

The top run scoring teams are as follows:

In the AL:

Yankess 231
Rays 217
Red Sox 213
Blue Jays 212
Rangers 194
Twins 192

Top four teams are in the AL East. Bad news for AL pitchers.

In the NL:

Phillies 214
Brewers 210
Dodgers 203
Diamondbacks 199
Marlins 194

The top teams in run differential are the Rays +95 and the Yankees +70. The Phillies lead the NL at +64 with the Gigantes next at +45.

The bottom run differential teams are, not surprisingly the Pirates -100 and the Astros -64.

The weakest offenses are the Astros 122 R's in 40 G's, the Mariners 139 R's in 39 G's and the Orioles 140 R's in 41 G's.

The weakest pitching belongs to the Red Sox -220, Royals -210 and the Angels -209 in the AL and the Brewers -228, Pirates -241 and the Diamondbacks -245 in the NL.

Very surprising results so far for the Red Sox and the Angels. No mention of the two Chicago teams or the Mets, which perhaps means that those teams are simply mired in mediocrity.

Not a good place to be mired in if you asked me. But who asked?