The Domination Gap
More messing around with the Domination Index
The Domination Gap
Ever wonder which teams had the biggest gap between their offensive and defensive performances? Let’s take a look.
The idea here is simple. I simply compared the offensive and defensive components of the Domination Index for each team in history. Teams with a big gap — or, in other words, teams that could prevent runs but couldn’t score them, or teams that could score runs but couldn’t prevent them — wind up getting a high “gap” score. We’re looking for the biggest gaps we can find.
Think of this as the 1950 Red Sox measurement. The Red Sox, famous for scoring over 1000 runs, have an offensive Domination Index rating of 1.88, which is quite good. However, their defense wasn’t quite so hot, coming in at a -0.244: clearly below average.
The 1950 Red Sox gap lands them in 105th place in the American League. Let’s see a few of the more extreme examples.
National League
You probably guessed before reading this that the National League would be dominated by old Colorado Rockies teams.
I’m not sure how much of this is actually due to the ballpark, to be honest. The Rockies seem to have a natural ability over the years to attract good hitters, but have apparently struggled to attract good pitching.
The Dodgers, of course, seem to have had the opposite problem.
I doubt that park factors are influencing things heavily here. Remember that the Domination Index includes both home and away statistics, and takes into account the strength of the rest of the league naturally. Besides, two of those Rockies seasons were after they introduced the famous humiditor.
American League
The American League is a little bit more interesting.
The 2008 Rangers had an excellent offense, yet were unable to finish above .500 — almost certainly because of an awful pitching staff.
The 1967 White Sox, meanwhile, are far more interesting. Chicago finished the season in 4th place, but only 3 games behind the Red Sox. I’ve seen numerous 1967 replays in which the hitless wonders managed to win the whole league. Kind of makes you wonder what could have happened had they been able to swing the bats.
And, of course, the 1972 Boston Red Sox are on the list. They finished a very close second to the Tigers, missing out on the division title by only half a game. Aside from Luis Tiant, can you name any of their other starting pitchers - without looking, of course?