Home field advantage, or: A good thing the AL won?

Maybe this year more than ever securing World Series HFA for the AL
(hopefully, for the Twins) is really worth something.... for some reason,
home field advantage seems to be particularly strong this year. In all of
baseball, there are only *three* teams with winning records on the road: the
Angles, the Phillies, and Cardinals. That's it.

The Cubs, Red Sox, and Rays have all put together great records -- all on a
pace for at least 95 wins. They are also bad teams away from home, at 6, 8,
and 6 games under .500, respectively.

The Twins and White Sox have put together very good records, on pace for at
least 90 wins. They are 5 and 3 games under .500, respectively, away from
home.

The only team on pace for 90 or more wins with a winning record away from
home is the Angles... all things considered, their 13-games-above-.500 mark
is mind boggling.

All of this is quite different from most years; in 2007, seven teams
finished above .500 on the road. In 2006, 10 teams. In 2005, 9 teams. In
2004, 12 teams. In 2003, 9 teams. You get the picture.

Of all the changes we're seeing this year (including power down, shutouts
up, the Rays not sucking), this HFA is the most inexplicable. The end of
the steroid era would explain the power outage and the rise of shutouts.
The Rays had stockpiled enough #1 draft picks through years of being
doormats to stock the farm teams of a half-dozen franchises. But what to
make of the sudden inability for most good teams to win away from home?

brink