Is National League hitting really that bad?

[yall hate]

Let's not forget about the success of JC Romero (who sucked here), Joel Pineiro (who sucked here), etc...

Watching these pitchers who generally are terrible here be successful over in the NL, it makes me wonder about the 'better hitters' over there.  maybe the bad pitching there is just so horrible (since the bad pitching in the AL is good pitching there..)

[Rondo2287]

Lets also not forget how hesitant Jake Peavy who is one of the premiere NL Pitchers was so reluctant to come to the AL even the AL Central which is horrible

[Tr1boy]

yup it is. Inferior league compared to the AL. We all saw smoltz and penny get rocked

Wouldn't be suprised if we kept hanley ramirez and he was mere average in the al league

with all that said it is a mystery how alex gonzalez has hit better with us in the al league

[yall hate]

Even Cliff Lee has drastically changed since switching leagues.

ERA in Cleveland 3.14, Whip 1.3, H/9 9.8
ERA in Philly 1.80, Whip .89, H/9 6.8

Or we can look at the disaster known as Julio Lugo

BA from .284 to .302, slugging from .367 to .488, OPS+ from 84 to 124.


There are simply to many examples of players getting better when they go to the NL and worse when they come to the AL

[JSD]

NL = at least 1 free out per three innings. 

[Steve Weinman]

I think smallness of sample size makes makes the difference appear a bit more stark than it is with those two pitchers.

I'd also agree that putting Smoltz and Penny in the same comparison won't be viable much longer as their national league samples grow down the stretch this year.  The Dodgers are excited that Penny appears to be lined up to pitch against them twice down the stretch.

That said, a look at the comparative figures between the two leagues will support Roy and others' assessments that yes, there is a significant difference between the two leagues, hitting-wise.  AL teams average a .765 OPS against .742 in the NL, and MLB's top four run-producing teams as well as seven of the top 10 are from the American League.

As several have pointed out here already, given the differing rules in the two leagues, that shouldn't be a shock.

On the flip side, of course, NL pitching averages are a bit better - but just like with hitting, they aren't exactly fair "better-worse" comparisons, because both sides are playing with different rules.

-sw