American League is Tougher, Really?

Just kidding, that's pretty obvious news, but MLB.com had a little story on it. Of the 13 cases since 2000 where a pitcher made 30 starts in the NL and then 30 in the AL the next year, only one pitcher did better in the AL.

"As a group, the 13 pitchers averaged an ERA+ (a measure of ERA relative to the
league average) of 116 in their NL seasons, dropping to 99 in their AL seasons.
They went from quite a bit above average to a hair below. Their average
strikeout-to-walk ratio fell from 3.11 to 2.46, their WHIP climbed from 1.24 to
1.37, and their innings per start fell from 6.31 to 6.08.

Collectively,
it's like the transition from Josh Beckett (career ERA+ of 116, WHIP of 1.22) to
Vicente Padilla (100, 1.39). "

That's a pretty big difference. Above average allstars turn into Vincente Padillas. Now, I'm not sure but I'm expecting the difference between the leagues to mean more than it has in years past, but it's really bad right now, more so than just the DH factor. The Sox and Yanks require AL teams to cough up the money like Detroit, Angels, Orioles (even though they spend it terribly). Or it requires other teams to be really smart with their money like the Twins and A's.

Anyways, this comes back to my argument about Clemens and Maddux. The one thing I couldn't let go was the fact Clemens dominated the AL, Maddux the NL. This is going to be a terrible analogy and a little overdoing it with some disrespect to the NL, but it's like Clemens dominated the SEC in football, and Maddux went undefeated at a mid-major. Nothing against the mid-major but you don't have to play Florida, LSU, Alabama, and so on. Alex Smith put up some nice stats on Utah but accomplished nothing in the NFL. Matt Ryan played pretty well on an ok BC team playing against tough ACC opponents, he's having a pretty darn good start in his NFL career. Is Maddux Alex Smith? Heeeeeeellllll no, Maddux would be a great pitcher in the AL and the more I talk about this the stupider this dumb analogy becomes, but he wouldn't be as good a pitcher in the AL as he was in the NL, and you could say Clemens would be better if he had pitched a careers worth on innings in the NL.

Back to current baseball...now this 'study' is no shock to anyone especially Yankee fans going through the Carl Pavano and Jaret Wrong experiments. You gotta think everyone is aware of this and that GMs think about it during the offseason. Will an AL team sign Sheets? Probably not going to happen. Will Vazquez pitch better for the Braves than he did for the White Sox? He probably will. Is there a good reason Peavy said he would prefer the NL? Obvi, and this is why.