Hey everyone.  It's almost that time of year again.  The best time of year, almost better than Christmas.  Let's face it, everyone is bored and I, like everyone else, have been meaning to brush up on last season in prep for this season.  We all know that the writers on this awesome site provide amazing in depth analysis on baseball and the Braves, as do all the other SBN sites and other various blogs.  That being said, this little list is not a means to show off my analysis skills (they are lacking) but it is intended to see how the divisions really rank with each other.  

We know there are many possible issues with something like this and I lack the ability to fix any analytical errors that occurred (I did my best).  The AL West is shafted on something like this since they have 1 less team than the normal division size.  The NL Central has a larger player grouping to pull from since they have 1 more team than average.  This isn't to show how deep a team is or isn't.  It isn't to show how deep a division is but rather I believe it shows how many "elite" players a division has (even if the player was only fairly elite for 1 season).  

The unit of measure was Fangraphs WAR for 2010.  There are issues with the metric but as a whole it suited just fine for my purposes.  

I set the rosters up as a fairly similar normal roster set up.  I used the following:

5 Starting pitchers 

3 relievers - classified as a Closer, Setup, and reliever 

1B, 2B, SS, 3B, C, LF, CF, RF - with the corresponding player that played those positions.  There was no putting a player in a position that they didn't play a game in.  If I did it was a mistake.  The UT position I treated basically like a DH position to make the 2 leagues closer in value.  It was simply the highest rated WAR hitter/fielder that was left from the division but not good enough to earn a "starting" spot.  

A few quick observations:

Yep, the AL East is really freaking good.  The NL is super close and competitive.  I'm sorry if I have missed all the times it was mentioned but holy crap, Votto had .1 WAR more than Pujols last season.  As filthy as Halladay was in the NL, earning 6.6 WAR, Lee was filthier.  Lee earned 7 WAR with 2 separate teams.  2 separate teams!  That is consistent domination and in the AL.  Finally I was really surprised at the lack of talent (WAR wise) in the AL Central and props to Valencia being the most valuable 3B.  

Hope everyone enjoys this quick rundown and please, let spring training finally start.  If I made any mistakes, I'd appreciate the corrections!

MLB NL Roster by Division based on WAR

NL East                                                                 NL Central                                                 NL West

SP1- Halladay 6.6                                              Wainwright 6.1                                          Jimenez 6.3

SP2- Johnson 6.3                                              Gallardo 4.6                                               Lincecum 5.1

SP3- Hanson 4.3                                               Myers 4                                                       Kershaw 4.8

SP4- Sanchez 4.3                                              Carpenter 3.7                                            Billingsley 4.6

SP5- Hamels 3.8                                               Rodriguez 3.6                                            Kuroda 4.2

RP- Nunez 1.5                                                    Hanrahan 1.4                                             Kuo 2.2

SU-Venters 1.7                                                  Axford 2                                                        Bell 2.4

CL- Wagner 2.2                                                 Marmol 3.1                                                 Wilson 2.7

1B- Davis 3.4                                                     Votto 7.4                                                      Huff 5.7

2B- Uggla 5.4                                                    Weeks 6.1                                                  Johnson 6

SS- HanRam 4.4                                              Castro 2                                                     Tulowitzki 6.4

3B- Zimmerman 7.2                                         Rolen 5                                                       Headley 4.6

C- McCann 5.3                                                  Soto 3.5                                                       Posey 3.9

LF- Werth 5                                                        Holliday 6.9                                                CGonzalez 6

CF- Pagan 4.9                                                   Bourn 4.2                                                   Young 4.3

RF- Heyward 5                                                  Bruce 5.3                                                    Upton 3.1

UT- Utley 5.2                                                      Pujols 7.3                                                   AGonzalez 5.3

Total: 76.5                                                           76.2                                                            77.6

MLB AL Roster by Division based on WAR

AL East                                                                  AL Central                                              AL West

SP1- Lester 5.6                                                   Verlander 6.3                                          Lee 7 

SP2- Sabathia 5.1                                              Liriano 6                                                   Hernandez 6.2

SP3- Price 4.3                                                     Greinke 5.2                                              Weaver 5.9

SP4- Lackey 4                                                     Danks 4.3                                                 Wilson 4.4

SP5- Romero 4                                                   Floyd 4.3                                                   Lewis 4.4

RP- Bard 1.5                                                       Jenks 1.5                                                  Jepsen 1.1

SU- Soriano 1.6                                                 Soria 2.1                                                    Oliver 1.5

CL- Rivera 1.7                                                    Thornton 2.2                                              Feliz 1.7

1B- Youkilis 4.2                                                  Cabrera 6.2                                               Barton 4.9

2B- Cano 6.4                                                      Hudson 3.1                                                Kinsler 3.2

SS- Jeter 2.5                                                       Ramirez 3.8                                               Pennington 3.7

3B- Beltre 7.1                                                     Valencia 2.7                                               Kouzmanoff 2.9

C- VMartinez 4                                                    Mauer 5.1                                                   Napoli 2.7

LF- Crawford 6.9                                               Pierre 2.2                                                    Hamilton 8

CF- Gardner 5.4                                                Jackson 3.8                                                Hunter 3.5

RF- Bautista 6.9                                                Choo 5.6                                                     Cruz 5.1

UT- Longoria 6.9                                               Morneau 5.3                                               Suzuki 4.8

Total: 78.1                                                           69.7                                                              71