Ohio vs. Missouri

I swear I'm not going to make this a Baseball Prospectus summary blog, but it's a slow news day and Jim Baker had a fun article. Excerpt:

Ohio vs. Missouri

Of course, that's nothing like the vitriol between these two states. The things they say about one another are far too strong for this, America's most family-friendly Web site. In this proposition, the battle is between the baseball teams of these respective states: the Royals and Cardinals representing Missouri and the Indians and Reds stepping up for Ohio. While not quite reverse mirror images of one another, each state currently boasts one team that is up and one that is down. Combined, they meet somewhere near the middle. Last year, these were the results:

Ohio:       166-158, 1,610 RS  1,532 RA
Missouri:   156-168, 1,504 RS  1,569 RA

It would appear that Ohio has an excellent chance at repeating in that Missouri is dependent on the Royals getting out of the 100-loss ghetto because the Cardinals are bound to slip by a few games, even in the process of romping to another divisional title. Meanwhile, the bookmakers are setting Cincinnati's over/under right about where last year's record concluded: 73 wins. A slight step backwards is anticipated for Cleveland, which would still give Ohio the upper hand.

-j in az