League Updates

Wait for it

Before I updated the standings, I had already written part of this post.  Here is the first sentence:

The race for the EFL pennant got a lot less dramatic this week, because someone is dropping the ball.

I wrote that sentence because I expected the standings to show the Wolverines down by close to 6 games, the largest gap between first and second all season — and growing rapidly.

But here are the standings as they came out of Dave’s database this morning:

EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Haviland Dragons 81 42 .658 614.5 443.1
Old Detroit Wolverines 75 46 .623 4.5 593.7 459.3
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 74 47 .608 6.3 594.4 475.2
Cottage Cheese 66 55 .548 13.6 529.2 475.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes 65 56 .538 14.8 579.9 536.0
Peshastin Pears 64 57 .533 15.5 509.5 476.3
Canberra Kangaroos 53 68 .438 26.8 608.3 690.5
Kaline Drive 53 70 .427 28.4 487.8 572.9
Portland Rosebuds 47 74 .392 32.5 489.9 614.9

 

How did Old Detroit GAIN 0.6 games on the Dragons? This is most unexpected … well let’s be frank here: most unexpected good news!

Haviland: W 1, L 1; 3 – 9.  .200, .284, .369;  22.7 ip, 10 er.  I didn’t write any comments yesterday, but if you checked the standings anyway you saw that the Dragons’ lead in the EFL race had jumped to 5.1 games.  That was probably already the biggest lead of the season for anyone in the league.

(Yes, I am being nice here: “anyone in the league” has meant “the Dragons or the Wolverines” since April 13. So here’s an interesting trivia question: without checking the standings history chart, see if you can guess which team was the last besides the W’s and the D’s to be in first place.)

Haviland built that giant lead in part on the foundation of Chris Archer’s complete game, 1 hit, 11 strikeout shutout Thursday evening. But then yesterday the Dragon’s hit an unexpected bump in the road.  Johnny Cueto tanked (a Kluberesque 6 ip, 6 er) and Justin Wilson triple chulked in an inning’s work. Meanwhile Dragon hitters yesterday emulated recent Wolverine production:  .161, .25o, .355.

Old Detroit: W 0, L 2;  5 – 8; .198, .278, .296;  13.7 ip, 4 er.  It looks like Old Detroit got good pitching over the last two days.  But 7.3 ip, 1 er of that was from Old Toledo Mud Pterodactyls starting pitcher Wade Miley.  I suppose I can think of those as good innings in the bank in case a major league Wolverine pitchers go down with injury, but until then those innings are locked away in a safe, which leaves the Woeverines still sagging badly.

At any rate — I had excellent reasons to expect the W’s to have added to the Dragons’ season-record lead.  Instead, they clawed back part of what they’d given away the day before.  Perhaps — just maybe, not really a good chance, but just maybe — the desperate dump of three injured Wolverines for a month of Craig Kimbrel won’t be wasted after all.

Pittsburgh: W 2, L 0; 16 – 7.  .367, .413, .500;  15.0 ip, 13 er.  Aw, who am I kidding?  The Alleghenys gained an entire game on the Dragons (and 1.1 on the Wolverines) in the last two days.  It’s only a matter of (a very short) time until the A’s reel in the W’s — and then, inevitably, the D’s as well.

Don’t let that nasty 15 ip, 13 er line fool you.  1.7 innings belong to Erie Eries pitcher Jerome Williams, in which he ushered 8 er across the plate  — nearly a quintuple chulk.  So the Mud Pterodactyls are probably miles ahead of the Eries in the International Fantasy League standings, but nobody cares.

Still — you have to wonder if the Alleghenys are going to rue trading away Dellin Betances yesterday.  What if the W’s beat the A’s for first place by the difference between Kimbrel’s pitching and whoever will be closing for Pittsburgh? Come on, admit it: wouldn’t that be sweet?

Cottage:  L, 2 – 5; .226, .262, .371;  2.3 ip, 0 er.  You can see why the Cheese might be willing to trade away Kris Bryant’s last month as a debutant. (I did read that somewhere, right? I’m not just making this up? I probably should check… nah! What other angle am I going to find with for the Cheeses’ writeup?) Bryant’s line the last two days: a measly, wolverinesque .143, .143, .286.  Only Jonathan Schoop was worse for the Cheese.

Flint Hill:  W 2, L 0; 14 – 5. .383, .431, .617;  11.3 ip, 1 er.  Outstanding performances on both offense and defense torqued the Tornados toward the leaders.  Tornados out-hit Alleghenys by a substantial margin even though the A’s were enjoying two Edgar Martinez days.  And if it weren’t for the 1 run Collin McHugh allowed in his 7 innings, the Flint Hill hurlers would have been spotless.

Peshastin:  L,  3 – 8.  .216, .250, .405; 18.7 ip, 14 er.  Yesterday the Top Pear  confided to me that his team “stinks.”  On one hand, you can empathize.  His team was midway through a two-day stretch of bad hitting and worse pitching.  He probably sensed the Pears’ impending entombment in sixth place. But, really, Phil: your team is still 8 games over .500.  If you were in MLB, you’d only be 2.5 games out of first in the NL West.  Most teams — well, not most teams in the EFL, but most teams counting our MLB competitors — would love to be in the Pears’ position. Take the Mariners, for example, who would be tucked into the standings just behind the Astros and in the hunt for a wild card spot.

Canberra:  L, 6 – 7. .291, .371, .418;  7 ip, 5 er.  If the Peshastin “stinks”, what are we going say to the Kangaroos, who are 11.3 games behind the Pears?   You should be more careful about what you say, even in confidence, to a commissioner who buys pixels by the barrel.  What can I write now about Canberra that will be both  a) true, and  b) kind?

Well, I guess I could say that it’s good to see Bryce Harper back in stride:  .500, .625, .1.167 ofer the last two days. And Jason Kipnis back in his season-long role as Harper’s sidekick:  .444, .444, .556.

Kaline: W 2, L 0 ;  19 – 14.  .391, .412, .703;  5.3 ip, 3 er.  Whidbey Island must be abuzz!  Yesterday the Wizard essentially traded Craig Kimbrel’s expiring contract  for a year of Dellin Betances (even better than Kimbrel) and a chance to reap the benefits of possible healthy returns for three fine major league players.  The Drive were sellers before they were buyers. With just a little luck they will have plugged four holes in the 2016 Drive roster. So it’s a wonder that they didn’t also, over the last two days, do something to improve their draft position.  I attribute this to the Wizard being an honorable sorcerer, still playing to win rather than throwing games to improve draft position.  Go Drive! Pass the Kangaroos!  Let the W’s draft in front of you next year! (No, we all can’t be as pure and upright as the Wizard.)

Portland:  W, 13 – 3.  .426, .471, 1.094;  17.3 ip, 9 er.  Wow! Look at that offensive outburst.  Nick Hundley never made an out over the last two days, going 3 for 3 with a double and a homer.  I guess the Rosebuds are in the Drive’s league for integrity: Portland risks the #1 overall pick with wins like these.

By the way, did you guess which team was the last to be in first place, other than the W’s and the D’s?  It was the… Rosebuds!