Olbermann is much smarter than McCarver

Keith Olbermann provides one possible answer for the AL's recent dominance over the NL:

Finally, the All-Teams-Represented anachronism -- a rule left over from the days when it was assumed television viewership in each city depended on a representative from the team in each city -- clearly hurts the National League. It might not show up in a given game, but over the course of the twelve years since the 16/14 split began, this must have an impact: the NL is stuck with two more Mandatory Choices, each year, than is the AL. Tonight, the question was, which of the four solo NL guys - Francisco Cordero, Ted Lilly, Brian McCann, or Ryan Zimmerman - was ultimately of less use to Charlie Manuel than, say, a Mark Reynolds pinch-hit appearance might have been?

Well, it's 2 of the four, actually, and Manuel certainly did have some flexibility to take a Mark Reynolds (??) or Matt Kemp (yes) over Ryan Howard, Ryan Franklin or Jason Marquis, each of whom were manager's picks. Still, a brighter analysis than McCarver's