As long as most of us have paid attention to baseball, the common statement has been, "The N.L. is for pitchers; the A.L is for hitters." Yet, in case you haven't noticed this year, the offensive numbers for the American League are noticeably down this year. In talking over this topic with a few others, reasons given were:

• Mitchell Report fallout
• Improved league defense
• Young talent maturing

Let's take a closer look at how these speculations play out along with the numbers. 

Mitchell Report Fallout?

It is tough to prove this, but offense is noticeably down. I got started on this topic after looking at the current standings in my local A.L.-only league. In looking over each of the scoring categories for offense, I noticed some oddities. For instance, the current league batting average is down 5% from the previous three seasons, the league's homerun total is down 13% from the previous three seasons, while both runs and RBI's are down 4%. The only thing that is up? Steals. Our league has 12% more steals to date. The actual American League numbers do show a similar decline as most statistics are in a three-year decline. The league batting average has declined from .275 in 2006, to .271 in 2007, to .259 this year. Slugging has also been in decline as the .437 rate in 2006 fell to .423 last season while batters are slugging at a .399 measure to date in 2008. 

Improved League Defense?

Everyone knows that I am a huge Rays fan so I know for a fact that the Rays defense is better this year, but the numbers also show the league overall has improved. Defensive Efficiency is a metric that measures the rate at which balls put into play are converted into outs by a team's defense. In 2006, the A.L's rating was 0.712, in 2007 it was 0.714, while this season it is 0.726. Defenses are definitely doing a better job in converting batted balls into outs. The batting averages on balls in play for the American League pitchers play that out as well as the league BABIP is currently 0.298 while it was at 0.309 just two seasons ago while the league WHIP has fallen from 1.41 to 1.36. 

During this past playoff season, Fausto Carmona's success highlighted what a lot of fantasy players already knew - high groundball rates combined with high strikeouts are a great combination. With the reduction in slugging numbers this year, one would assume that there are less fly balls but the numbers do not support this theory too strongly. The groundball rate for the previous seasons was 45%; in 2008 pitchers are generating groundballs at a 46% rate. The flyball rates have also remained virtually unchanged since 2005 so those two batted ball types are not affecting power numbers.

Younger Talent Maturing?

A current look at the American League ERA leader board shows the top twenty populated with names such as Joe Saunders, Zach Greinke, Shaun Marcum, Dana Eveland, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Greg Smith, Jon Lester, and Edwin Jackson. All of those pitchers currently have an ERA of 3.47 or less after nine or more starts. Any March survey of fans projecting this leaderboard would have lacked most if not all of the names in the previous sentence. This does not even include the resurgence of Cliff Lee and Jose Contreras this year. This group of relatively inexperienced pitchers has helped the American League produce a 4.14 league-wide ERA - 0.43 points lower than just two season ago. Not to mention, that 4.14 ERA is 0.06 points lower than the current National League ERA. 

While we cannot definitely point a finger at the Mitchell Report, team defense and maturing young talent in the American League are clearly making a difference in hitting. From a fantasy perspective,  this should change your mindset a bit when it comes to running scared from American League pitching but also should temper your expectations for the hitters. We are just about one-third the way through the season so there is a significant sample size out there to show that 2008's numbers are likely to fall short of the performance we have come to expect from the American League the past few seasons.