League Updates

May’s Drafting Lesson

 

I wonder what we can learn from each team’s drafting strategy at the last monthly meeting.

EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 32 17 .658 257.0 185.0
Haviland Dragons 30 19 .613 2.2 232.0 185.0
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 25 22 .540 5.8 221.5 204.5
Cottage Cheese 26 22 .536 6 204.4 189.6
Peshastin Pears 27 23 .530 6.2 203.5 191.2
Flint Hill Tornadoes 25 24 .516 6.9 227.9 220.7
Kaline Drive 24 25 .480 8.7 203.4 213.1
Canberra Kangaroos 23 25 .476 8.9 258.7 269.8
Portland Rosebuds 18 32 .369 14.2 200.6 264.1

Old Detroit:  W 2, L 1; 15 – 7.  .250, .312, .470;  26.3 ip, 7 er.  The W’s were in a panic because early May pitching returns indicated they didn’t have enough good pitching, and still scrambling to get grades in sort of on time. They came to the meeting having only scouted two pitchers (Brandon Morrow and some guy named Heston).  They grabbed Brandon Morrow.  The Tornados feigned interest by matching the minimum bid, so the W’s bumped their bid up to 3 years, $2,000.000. The strategy: When you don’t know what you’re doing, go with someone you’ve at least heard of.   The result?  Canberra teased us on-line, telling us to “enjoy both of his innings.”  The actual innings Morrow has thrown for the W’s so far?  6.  Ha! Take that, you Kangaroo! It turns out Morrow, unknown to the W management, was on the DL (again) and the 6 innings he’d already thrown was all they’d get out of him in May.  The W’s May EFL ERA?  3.80, 5th in the EFL.  Estimate of success?  Not a disaster.

Haviland: W 1, L 1; 13 – 11. .282, .317, .487;  40 ip, 21 er.  The Dragons spent $4,250,000 on Colby Lewis and $3,250,000 on Kyle Blanks: The strategy: We thought it was “corner the market on Texas Rangers with spotty histories.”  But the Chief Dragon corrected us. The strategy: buy up good stats already on the books.   How’d it work out.  Well, Blanks right now has contributed 60 plate appearances at .339, .383, .571 for 8.57 rc/g game.  Success!  And Lewis has produced 21 more innings, allowing 20 earned runs, for  a total May line of 35.3 ip at 5.35 ERA.  Hmmm.

Pittsburgh: W 1, L 1; 7 – 8.  .240, .289, .413; 32 ip, 12 er.  When we last drafted, the Alleghenys were on a rise that would inevitably take them into first place and beyond to another season of league dominance. Having eschewed rookies in the Rookie Draft, the Alleghenys adopted a compensating strategy: buy up every touted debutant possible. Results:  Jung Ho Kang, .313, .396, .488.  Addison Russell: .284, .333, .505.  Xavier Cedeno:  1.08 ERA.  Roberto Osuna: 1.54 ERA.  Archie Bradley: 11.81 ERA.  And all the Allegheny leader ever wants to talk about is Bradley… because the A’s never actually made it into first place, coming as close as 0.2 games behind before collapsing in one week to 5.8 games back.  Kang, Russell, Cedeno, Osuna are all going unappreciated for their outstanding efforts.  So sad. Someone should liberate them from the Allegheny gulag.

Cottage: W 1, L 1; 5 – 5. .197, .265, .316; 31 ip, 13 er.  The Cheese last time had a very simple strategy: get Kris Bryant, the best debutant in the history of baseball! (According to the press — the Cheese, to their credit, never made this claim.)   The result: .265, .368, .520.  Well, we’ll admit it was better line than Addison Russell’s.  The Cheese are still right where they were last time: 4th place.  Good thing they got the best debutant in the history of baseball.

Peshastin: W 4, L 1; 21 – 14. .230, .313, .419; 24 ip, 1 er.  The Pear strategy was so obvious: pay the most for a debutant.  You knew this was their approach as soon as they jumped the bidding by a $6,000,000+ increment to $10,000,000 on Yasmany Tomas.  That was 25% more than the price for Kris Bryant.  Was Tomas 25% better?  Hmmm: .330, .344, .429.  Well, his batting average was just about exactly 25% better!  I guess you do get what you pay for. And the Pears are still where they were at the beginning of the month: in 5th place.

Flint Hill: W 3, L 0; 33 – 13. .396, 454, .792; 29 ip, 9 er.  Wow! What a three-day run, gaining 1.3 games on first place and leapfrogging the Drive in the standings. The Tronados extended the draft by hours (I think) with their strategy: picking over the leavings after everyone else was done. Rodon, Liberatore, Heston, Harang, Giavotella, Ogando — Flint Hill took 6 of the last 14 drafted players, and 4 of the last 6, and all of the last two.  Liberatore had the best ERA — 2.99.  The next three pitchers (Rodon, Heston and Harang) were all in the 3’s for ERA.  Ogando was one pick too many: 5.15 ERA for May. And Giavotella?  .226, .283, .286 for the month, but .375, .444, .750 over the last three days!

Kaline: W1,  L 1; 3 – 10. .261, .323, .357; 14 ip, 7 er.  It’s been a roller coaster ride for the Drive in May — zooming up to fourth place and now, despite hovering near the .500 mark, finding themselves back in 7th. The Drive picked Kelly Johnson and Carlos Corporan — a strategy to fill holes with solid players.  And you’d have to say it worked! The Drive were in 8th a month ago and spent most of the month at higher elevations.

Ok, it’s draft time and I;m not done. But I accomplished the main purpose for this theme  — ribbing John for Colby Lewis.