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Welcome to The Show! On Monday, ESPN.com senior MLB writer Jayson Stark will drop by at 1 p.m. ET for another installment of “That’s Debatable,” a weekly feature in which we break down a hot topic you have suggested.
Monday’s topic, courtesy of Chris Raab from Phoenix: “This one is a no-brainer, after the first interleague weekend, you have to do this. Which league is better: the American League or the National League?”
A mere five months ago, after the fabled Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis trade, a certain baseball writer (aka. me) wrote two different pieces about how the gulf between the American League and the National League had grown wider than ever.
Oops. Make me rewrite.
All of a sudden, I’m not so sure of that. And I have lots of company. Is the American League really better than the National League right now? Let’s talk.
What do we make of these three overpowering developments?
1. The National League is out-offensing the American League:
Batting average: NL .260, AL .259
On-base percentage: NL .334, AL .329
Slugging percentage: NL .410, AL .396
OPS: NL .743, AL .724
2. I argued in December that the AL had all the superpowers in baseball. Not anymore. The only two teams with .600 winning percentages both play in the NL — the Cubs (.614) and Diamondbacks (.636). And three AL teams we thought were either superpowers or on the verge of being superpowers — the Yankees, Tigers and Mariners — are all in last place.
3. The NL is now the league with the brightest young stars. I looked at the OPS leaders this season among players younger than 30 who have gotten at least 100 plate appearances. The top eight were all National Leaguers. And of the top 25, just four were American Leaguers. Bet you can’t name those four, either. They were Carlos Quentin, Kevin Youkilis, Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli.

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