Every year the MLB schedules the interleague crosstown rivals to play against each other.  Some of them make sense, and some of them are a waste of time, like the Seattle Mariners vs. the San Diego Padres.  The real reason for these match ups is for the big money rivalries, like the subway series in New York, the freeway series in Los Angeles, the battle for Chicago and the battle of the bay.  These match ups drive the crosstown rivalry series for the MLB because these cities get behind the games.  It’s a big difference compared to the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the Texas Rangers now that the Houston Astros are in the American League.

The rivalry that hits closest to home for me is the Bay Bridge series.  Being an 80’s baby from the Bay Area, the first time I really started paying attention to the MLB was in 1989, when the Oakland Athletics played the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.  So this series always catches my attention, and brings to the forefront the question, who has the best team in the Bay Area?

To me, it is pretty obvious, the Giants just won the World Series, so they win.  As Ric Flair always said, “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man,” so until a team other than the Giants wins the World Series this season, they will be the best team when put up against anyone.  But that doesn’t make for a very fun discussion, so, a week removed from the four-game set where the A’s took three out of four from the Giants, let’s take a look at who has the best team right now.

Both teams are in tight divisions and have winning records, but from a fan’s point of view, the Giants would be the favorites.  The Giants are the defending champions, have the reigning MVP and have the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game as well as Pablo Sandoval leading at his position.  On top of that, the Giants have three other players who are second in voting for their positions in the All-Star vote, while the A’s only have three players in the top vote getters, and none of them are in the top three at their positions.

But, the fan vote doesn’t really tell you how good a team is, just how popular that team is, and that really shines through in this case.  The Athletics not only won the series against the Giants, but they have the better record, at 37-25, six more wins than the Giants.  They are also the only team of the two that would make the playoffs if the season ended today.  Even though the A’s are in second place in their division, they hold the lead in the wild card right now, and would have the top spot while the Giants are a surprising third in their division behind the Diamondbacks and Rockies.

It’s hard to say the A’s are better based off of four games when the Giants were playing their worst baseball or their records after just over a third of the season, but as of right now, the A’s are the superior team.  The A’s are pitching, hitting and fielding at a high level, while the Giants’ pitching has fallen way off, and their defense has not been up to par at all.  There is still a long way to go in the season, but as of right now, the A’s are the better team.  But, no matter who is the better team at the end of the year, it is easy to say the Bay Area fan base is fortunate to watch great baseball right now.