MLB 2009

Major League Baseball
season	2009
Period	April 5 - November 4, 2009
Regular season
Season MVP AL	Joe Mauer (MIN)
Season MVP NL	Albert Pujols (STL)
Postseason
AL Champion	New York Yankees
Second AL	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
NL champion	Philadelphia Phillies
Second NL	Los Angeles Dodgers
World Series
champion	New York Yankees
MVP	Hideki Matsui
Playing times
	◄ 2008 2010 ►

In the 2009 season of Major League Baseball (MLB) 30 teams played for the title of the club world championship, the so-called World Series . After 162 regular games for all teams, divided into the American League (AL) and National League (NL), four teams each qualified for the postseason. In the end, the New York Yankees won their 27th title in the 2009 World Series .

Regular season

Brief explanation of game operations and table structure

The AL and NL are each divided into three divisions for game operations. The allocation is based on regional criteria: East, Central and West Division. The game ran from April 6, 2009 to October 4, 2009 (exception: Central Division playoff, see below).

The table positions are responsible for reaching the postseason : The three respective division winners and the second best of the three divisions in terms of winning percentages carry out the championship in the American and National League respectively in two rounds. The respective champions then meet in the World Series (see below).

The ranking of the teams in the table results during the season from the current ratio of wins to games overall as the so-called winning percentage . The reason for this is the uneven distribution of the games over the calendar, so that some teams have played three or more games more than others. For example, the balance of team A with 15 wins and 15 defeats (.500 expressed as the corresponding percentage) is considered to be exactly equivalent to the balance of team B, which achieved 16 wins and 16 defeats at the same time. For the final tables listed here, however, this is irrelevant, since at the end of the season all teams had played the 162 season games that have been common since 1961. Therefore, it is sufficient to state wins and defeats (draws are uncommon these days).

With the indication GB ( Games Behind ) it is documented how big the gap between a chaser and the first in the table is. This expresses how many victories the pursuer would theoretically need with simultaneous defeat of the leader in order to achieve a tie. GB is expressed to 0.5 games: For example, if team A has 10 wins and 5 defeats, but team B 9 wins and 5 defeats, a win of its own (without defeat by A) would lead to a tie.

In order to at least indicate the development during the season, the table position of the teams at the time of the All-Star-Break , the break in play on the occasion of the All-Star Game , was recorded. Similar to the Fall Championship in football is so determined middle of the season, an intermediate state. The second interim information is rather arbitrarily related to the date of August 31st, in order to be able to assess about five weeks before the end of the season to what extent the respective division had already been decided at this point in time (such as the AL, East Division) or, if applicable, at this point in time Leading was displaced from first place (as happened in the AL Central Division).

American League

After the end of the regular season, the following placements resulted in the American League:

East Division

PS	franchise	W.	L.	GB	Place / GB Mid-season	Place / GB August 31
American League East Division
1	New York Yankees	103	59	-	2 (3.0)	1 (0.0)
WC	Boston Red Sox	95	67	8.0	1 (0.0)	2 (6.5)
	Tampa Bay Rays	84	78	19.0	3 (6.5)	3 (11.5)
	Toronto Blue Jays	75	87	28.0	4 (11.0)	4 (23.0)
	Baltimore Orioles	64	98	39.0	5 (14.0)	5 (29.0)

PS = postseason; Number = Rank on the seeding list or WC = Wild Card (best runner-up of all divisions)
W = Wins (victories), L = Losses (defeats), GB = Games Behind (behind leaders: number of necessary defeats for the leader while simultaneously winning )
Mid-season = All Star Break (July 13th to 15th, 2009)

The Blue Jays had the best start and led the division ahead of Boston at the beginning of the season until mid-May. After (27-14) they fell back steadily and were clearly behind the top of the table at the all-star break. The Rays as last year's surprise winners (of the division and the AL overall) started rather laboriously and only achieved a sustained positive overall balance in mid-June (more wins than defeats). The Orioles, which were not very successful in recent years, were last at .500 at the end of April and were henceforth cemented at the bottom of the table. When the Blue Jays fell behind, the way was clear for the fairly steady Red Sox . For a long time, however, it remained an open race between them and the league Croesus Yankees . This tipped after the Yankees recovered from the eight defeats in a row in a head-to-head comparison against the Red Sox and won the next five comparisons. What was at least a theoretical three-way battle became a duel when the Rays finally said goodbye to the title race with 11 consecutive defeats in early September (and also weakened their starting rotation by selling Scott Kazmir to the LA Angels). The Yankees finally brought their comfortable lead over the Red Sox to the finish in the last games of the season and were able to retaliate with over 100 wins for last year's third place and missing the postseason. For the Red Sox, however, the deficit against the Yankees was not a big deal, as the wild card rule seemed to secure reaching the postseason (which was then also true).