Quote:
Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange
The AL East is a big part of the problem, as I said before.
Let's take a look at the number of times clubs from each division have qualified for the playoffs from 1995-2009.
Code:
Number of post-season appearances, 1995-2009
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East Central West
------------------------
NYA 14 CLE 7 ANA 6
BOS 9 MIN 4 OAK 5
BAL 2 CHA 3 SEA 4
TBA 1 DET 1 TEX 3
TOR 0 KCA 0
------------------------
26 15 18
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East Central West
----------------------------
ATL 11 SLN 8 LAN 6
NYN 3 HOU 6 ARI 4
PHI 3 CHN 4 SDN 4
FLO 2 CIN 1 SFN 4
MON/WAS 0 MIL 1 COL 3
PIT 0
----------------------------
19 20 21
There is one playoff spot yet to be determined in 2009, so either Minnesota's or Detroit's number will go up by one.
Other than the NL East, there is at least some decent variety in terms of clubs from a given division making the post-season. The West divsions in each league in particular show a fairly even distribution of qualifiers over the fifteen seasons.
It's interesting to note that the Yankees and Red Sox combined have more playoff appearances (23) than all the clubs in any of the other divisions put together (21 for the NL West as a whole). |
Then again, you could look at the same chart and see that Toronto is one of only four teams to have zero playoff appearances in the past 15 years. Yeah, being in the AL East adds to the difficulty, but Tampa Bay showed it can be done. Maybe with a new direction Toronto can finally start to make some progress.