If only…

Haviland:  W, 8 – 0.  .355, .394, .710;  15 ip, 2 er.   How is anyone supposed to keep up if the Dragons keep doing this? 1.104 OPS, 1.20 ERA on the day. And there’s Steve Pearce, a Wolverine fan favorite whose price tag got out of reach on draft day, going 1 for 1 with a walk.  We could have used that! Although… Pearce’s season line is .167, .259, .292 after his good day.  Hmmm. The other guy the Dragons stole from the W’s was Andy Oliver. Who is in the minors somewhere.

Old Detroit: W, 7 – 3.  .308, .372, .462;  0.3 ip, 0 er.  I was feeling pretty good about the W’s after I checked the box scores last night.  Until I checked the box scores again to see how the Dragons had done. The W’s improved on a .701 winning percentage and lost a half-game in the standings. So frustrating!

I don’t know who on the Wolverines other people think of with regret. I remember the Cheese muttering when Alex Guerrero (.474, .450, 1.211) and Paco Rodriguez (4.7 ip, 1.93 ERA) fell into the Wolverine lap — but in neither case did Cottage bid against us, so one wonders whether those were just polite mutterings. Someone bid us up over $10,000,000 on Madison Bumgarner — he of the 4.63 ERA.  No tears there, I’ll bet. I don’t remember anyone else even bidding on Anthony DeSclafani (0.86 ERA), and everyone positively sneered at my attempts to trade away Welington Castillo (.806 OPS).  No one else wanted Adeiny Hechavarria — heck, I didn’t even want him bad enough to give him any playing time. He’s batting .328 now, with a nice .790 OPS, after yesterday’s 2 for 3 with a double. He’s my third-string shortstop. So — any0ne kicking themselves over not getting a Wolverine?

Cottage: “W”, 2 – 3. .189, .250, .270; 15.3 ip, 6 er.  I’m no different than anyone else in the league:  as soon as Arismendy Alcantara went to the Cheese, I regretted it. Or, actually, even before AA went to the Cheese, I regretted it. The instant his name came up in the draft, I regretted it.  Alcantara got sent down to the minors this week. I wanted Ben Zobrist, although it was one of those things where you knew you never had a chance so my hopes never got very high. (0 for 4 yesterday, .704 OPS for the season).  I had Eddie Butler (6 ip, 4 er yesterday, 3.27 ERA overall) but traded him away so I could add a third layer to my shortstops (Jean Segura, who isn’t bad at .730 OPS and has nice defense, but isn’t as good as Jose Iglesias). I told Dave I would regret the Butler / Segura trade in a couple of years.  This is very likely to be true, and in fact, might come true almost two years early.

Portland:  W, 5 – 3.  .294, .351, .353;  10 ip, 2 er.  Several of us wanted Mookie Betts pretty badly, but the Rosebuds dashed those hopes without giving us a chance to bid on him.  Betts so far this season: .215, .307, .338.  But yesterday he went 2 for 3 with a walk and a HBP.

Peshastin: L, 1 – 3.   .147, .189, .382; 14.7 ip, 5 er.      The Pears have arrived at a nearly perfect balance: 52.5 runs scored, 52.3 runs surrendered.  They outbid the W’s on Burke Badenhop (1 ip, 4 er yesterday;  10.80 ERA overall  ).  They took Danny Salazar in a trade (7 ip, 1 er yesterday, 2.08 ERA overall — although I am consoled a little by Trevor Bauer’s  0.95 ERA so far). They snagged Devon Travis before I had even heard of him, but I’ve heard of him now, regretfully:  another homer yesterday, .375, .435, .732 overall.

Flint Hill:  L, 4 – 5. .333, .336, .472;  11.7 ip, 4 er. They stole Xander Bogaerts from Old Detroit! (0 for 0 yesterday, .302, .383, .358 overall).  They snatched Joc Pederson without letting anyone else bid (0 for 2 with a walk yesterday; .283, .433, .500 overall). They kyped Jesse Hahn by trading for him before the rookie draft (2.12 ERA so far).  I’d take any of the three. I’d take all three of the three.

Pittsburgh:  W 1, L (-1); 1 – 0.  .278, .350, .389;  0 ip, 0 er.  The Alleghenys are learning ominous lessons in how to do a lot with a little.  They held their opponents scoreless on a day off without any pitching.  Of course, it was a day off, so this makes sense. Now, who on the A’s do I regret not getting?  I could say Mike Trout (1 for 3 with a walk,  .317, .408, .517  overall) but I passed on him to get Matt Moore (on the DL). I could say Jose Altuve (2 for 4 with 2 walks yesterday;.747 OPS overall), but I gave him up freely in a trade.  I wanted Nick Ahmed when I only had two shortstops (0 for 3 yesterday, .375 OPS overall), but after I got my third shortstop I didn’t care about Ahmed so much.

Canberra: L, 6 – 12. .314, .366, .400; 11.3 ip, 12 er. I admired Canberra’s acquisition of Marcus Semien (2 for 5 with a homer yesterday, .799 OPS overall), although at the time it wasn’t with much regret.  My admiration has since then acquired a tinge of envy. I didn’t kick myself when Ryan used my draft pick to get Shane Greene (4 ip, 8 er yesterday) although I have done that several times since (still a nice 3.00 ERA overall).

Kaline:  L, 1 – 5.  .148, .179, .185; 0 ip, 0 er.  The Drive are still reeling from those 5 er the official scorers post-facto punished Paxton with. I tried hard to get three Drives this last spring:  Brad Miller (1 for 3 yesterday,  .773 OPS overall); Travis Snider (0 for 1; .836 OPS overall  ) and Justin Turner (  0 for 1;  .708 OPS overall).  Alex Guerrero has made me feel better about losing Turner, but I’d still like to have the other two.