End of Moneyball | The Journal of Montreal

How do you identify major league baseball fans in Montreal? They continue to check the MLB rankings daily despite their failed plan to revive the Expos.

For these people, baseball is the best part of summer. They drive five or six hours or more to attend games in Toronto, Boston, New York or anywhere else on America’s East Coast.

On the competitive side, ball lovers have noticed that there are no championship races in five of the six divisions this season.

Only the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are still fighting for first place in the National League East with a week left in the regular schedule.

The Dodgers and Astros went down hands down

In the West, the die was cast on both American and National before the season began.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros have been on autopilot the entire campaign. The gap that separates the Dodgers from their closest rivals, the San Diego Padres, is more than 20 games.

The Astros, for their part, are favored by fifteen games over the Seattle Mariners.

The New York Yankees of the American East and the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League Central division are just days away.

Both teams never had to worry about their chasers.

The moneyball era of the Oakland Athletics, who relied on advanced statistics to recruit free agents, appears to be over.

The disparity between the richer and less fortunate teams continues to widen.

Many clubs appear to be participants only. The…