Oh, man, I’ve been forgetting to check the Mr. EFL Answer Man mailbox for weeks now. Let’s see… lots of bills, including Bill James threatening to sue for infringing on his “Hey, Bill” letter-to-the-expert patent; birthday card from Rob Manfred; flyer from Bernie Sanders urging me to vote for a salary cap for rich people — way ahead of you here at the EFL, Bernie… Isn’t there anything here from an actual EFL member?
Ah, here are a couple, just came in today.
Dear Mr. EFL Answer Man:
I can’t decide which pitcher to send to the minors this month. Here are the stats so far in August. The rules require me to have 10 active pitchers — but there are eleven on this list. I am in a dither as to whom to bench. Does anyone stand out to you? (You may have to stretch your window way out to its widest to see everything.)
| Name | AGE | IP | BABIP | WHIP | SO9 | ER | H | HR | SO | BB | W | L | G | GS | SV | ERA | FIP |
| Luis Avilan | 25 | 2.0 | .286 | 2.00 | 4.5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4.50 | 5.11 | |
| Trevor Bauer | 24 | 6.7 | .235 | 1.20 | 8.1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.35 | 3.08 | |
| Madison Bumgarner | 25 | 7.3 | .350 | 0.95 | 11.0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.23 | 0.66 | |
| Anthony DeSclafani | 25 | 6.0 | .429 | 1.17 | 13.5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.00 | 2.28 | |
| Andrew Heaney | 24 | 11.0 | .324 | 1.55 | 4.1 | 6 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4.91 | 5.35 | |
| Corey Kluber | 29 | 5.7 | .409 | 1.76 | 6.4 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7.94 | 4.49 | |
| Lance McCullers | 21 | 0.3 | 1.000 | 24.00 | 27.0 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 162.00 | 45.08 | |
| Wade Miley | 28 | 6.7 | .200 | 0.90 | 5.4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2.70 | 4.28 | |
| Matt Moore | 26 | 3.0 | .615 | 3.33 | 6.0 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18.00 | 7.08 | |
| Erasmo Ramirez | 25 | 6.0 | .250 | 1.33 | 3.0 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7.50 | 5.58 | |
| Joe Ross | 22 | 12.3 | .214 | 0.81 | 9.5 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.19 | 4.41 |
— Helpless in Seattle Last Week
Dear Helpless:
I can see your problem. You have trouble spotting the obvious. Look at it this way — only one of these pitchers has a FIP more than twice his ERA. That man’s account at the Luck Bank is the most overdrawn. Why you would even draft such a player is inexplicable. Please don’t tell me Joe Ross is the only player you got in yesterday’s draft.
Dear Mr. EFL Answer Man:
Look at this lineup we could put out there now, with its defensive ratings:
| C | Austin Hedges | 10.4 |
| 1b | Anthony Rizzo | 3.7 |
| 2b | Kolten Wong | 7.4 |
| SS | JJ Hardy | 9.5 |
| 3b | Manny Machado | 6.1 |
| OF | Jackie Bradley | 3.0 |
| OF | Christian Yelich | 3.1 |
| OF | Kevin Kiermaier | 6.0 |
That’s a total defensive rating of 49.2. How would that affect our position in the EFL pennant race?
— No Longer Helpless
Dear No Longer:
That’s an historically great defense! How did you manage to assemble such a thing with your random approach to player acquisition? Don’t tell me you found that 10.4 catcher lying around the house!
They say that every point in a team’s defensive rating should be worth about a win over an entire season. If you had a 35.5 defensive rating, your team would be about .500 in terms of defense. So a 49.2 defense team, over a season, could win 13 or 14 extra games just based on its defense. You have 1/3 of a season left, so you should expect to gain maybe 4 or 5 games on the average team due to your defense, if you played this lineup every day.
However, there are some issues. First, you can give back that advantage if your hitting and/or your pitching is worse than your rivals. Second, Austin Hedges plays about every fourth day, and Jackie Bradley is there only until Betts comes off the DL for bonking his head leaping over an outfield wall to make a circus catch. Even the great Kevin Kiermaier is only a part-time player. Sooner or later you have to let Gomes, Polanco and Upton play, and POOF! 7.5 points of your defense disappears.
Dear Mr. EFL Answer Man:
As long as you’re going mad, and trading the future for the present, what would you give me for (name withheld — a superstar debutant) (assuming I continued to pay his way).
Hopeful in (location withheld somewhere in an English-speaking country)
Dear Hopeful:
What do you mean I’m going mad? Or trading the future for the present? That was the crazy owner of the Wolverines. I am Mr. EFL Answer Man. Please do me the kindness of not confusing me with Wolverine ownership.
And anyway I suspect the madness of the Wolverines has passed. They are embarked on a noble experiment. Can they compete with the Haviland juggernaut using only their gloves? Wolverine pitchers surrendered 8 earned runs in 10.3 innings today, all three pitchers involved allocated at 100%. How much of a dent in that pile of earned runs allowed will their 42 – 43 daily defense make? It’s a valiant experiment, and should earn them a plaque in the EFL Hall of Sabermetrics (EHS for short), but I don’t think its prospects are all that great as a competitive strategy with that pitching they’re getting.