RESEARCH: Does crossing leagues affect pitchers?

Josh Johnson and Tommy Hanson will be pitching in the AL for the first time in their careers in 2013; Henderson Alvarez will be in the NL. Other pitchers will also switch leagues as free agents are signed and trades are made during the off-season.

The conventional wisdom is that the NL is the easier league for pitchers. But the conventional wisdom isn’t always right. So should fantasy owners make adjustments to their expectations when a pitcher changes leagues?

A few weeks ago we published an article showing that when hitters change leagues, whether from the AL to the NL or vice versa, their offensive statistics are virtually unaffected. Therefore fantasy owners should evaluate hitters during drafts based on their roles and skills,...

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