Some scary numbers here for the NL....]The senior circus National League full of clowns Despair not, Metsophiles, over the loss of Duaner Sanchez, the great unknown of Roberto Hernandez/Aaron Heilman/Royce Ring or even the all-too-frequent high-wire acts of Billy Wagner. Your postseason is assured and it is the ML (as in the Mediocre League) where you'll be playing the first two rounds.You think the Mets have problems? How would you like to be Tony La Russa, who's been told all season his St. Louis Cardinals are the chalk team of the ML. La Russa's Cardinals have staggered out of the second-half gate, losing eight in a row entering yesterday. One of the Cardinals' strengths was supposed to be their five-deep rotation, but lefty Mark Mulder has been out for three weeks with a shoulder injury and in a seven-game stretch last week, Cardinal starters yielded 56 hits and 30 earned runs over 35-2/3 innings for a combined ERA of 7.67. And the St. Louis offense hasn't exactly been overwhelming anybody. Leadoff hitter David Eckstein on Thursday drew his first walk since July 17 - and was promptly thrown out trying to steal second. Entering last night, Eckstein had gone 90 at-bats without an extra base hit.But for all the Cardinals' struggles, they've lost practically no ground to the second-place Cincinnati Reds, who lost five of seven. And yet for all the Reds' losing, they lead the wild-card race. The entire National League is a joke. As of yesterday, there were only two teams, the Mets and Cardinals, more than five games over .500, and only three other teams, the Padres, D-Backs and Reds, over .500 at all in what is still a nine-team wild card race. Indeed, the Philadelphia Phillies, whose own GM, Pat Gillick, declared his team non-contenders not only this year but next year as well after dumping Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle on the Yankees and reliever Rheal Cormier on the Reds, are just 3-1/2 games behind in the wild-card race.By contrast, the American League had seven teams that were more than five games over .500 and facing the very real possibility of having a team not making the playoffs with a better record than the best team in the NL. But the disparity between the AL and NL has been growing for years, threatening to make a mockery of some of Bud Selig's fondest goals and projects, including competitive balance and the All-Star Game deciding home field advantage for the World Series. The question is: What caused this to happen? An informal survey of executives from both leagues offers these four factors:1. The DH. For years after the AL adopted the DH, most of them were aging sluggers who could no longer play a position and comparable to other hitters on NL benches. Now, in a lot of cases, the DH is the team's best hitter - David Ortiz, Jim Thome, Travis Hafner, Jason Giambi, to name four. And, as one AL exec noted, the DH has had a profound effect on pitching in both leagues. "When National League pitchers are confronted with American league lineups, they're almost overwhelmed at the firepower 1-9 in the lineup with no soft spots. By contrast, American League pitchers have hardened themselves to this and are better pitchers than those in the NL. When they face NL lineups in interleague play and the World Series it's like a holiday for them. The DH's the NL teams use now are mostly extra outfielders or utility players that hardly scare you. There's no comparison to the AL DH's."2. The Yankee-Red Sox Rivalry. The Yankees' big spending, which has certainly fueled the rivalry with the Red Sox, has influenced other American League teams to boost payrolls (see: Angels, White Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers) to keep pace. "I think if you're an AL team," said the exec, "you've come to realize that, to make the playoffs, you've got to win at least 94 games. In the National League this year, you might see a team in the playoffs with a barely .500 record."3. Young AL Pitching. Making the disparity between the two leagues even greater is the influx of outstanding young pitching in the AL - such as Justin Verlander, Chien Ming-Wang, Johan Santana, Francisco Liriano, Felix Hernandez, Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester. By contrast, Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and even Greg Maddux are still among the NL's best, while the Cardinals' Jason Marquis, tied for the league lead in wins, has an ERA of 5.68. There is hope, however, in Florida where the Marlins' quintet of Dontrelle Willis, Josh Johnson, Scott Olsen, Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez makes them a team to bear watching next year; and in Philly, where young aces Cole Hamels and Brett Myers make Gillick's "wait til '08" proclamation seem silly.That all means the Mets' sudden bullpen crisis, though it will undoubtedly dominate talk radio from here to October, is small potatoes when put in context with the rest of the NL teams, all of which are far more flawed. The Mets have an American League-caliber lineup and a depth of decent (if not overwhelming) starting pitching. They're still the best team in the NL, even if that's not saying a whole lot. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/441044p-371557c.html
