League Updates

Grading Time

I gave my last final this morning.  I’m done tormenting students for this year.  They aren’t done tormenting me — I still have plenty of grading to do. Since grading is what I do best (at least over the next few days, this will be true), why not do it for the EFL, too?

Ah, I see you all realized you were sitting for your exam. You’ve spaced yourselves almost evenly up and down the standings — no one within a half game of anyone else, all 10 of us within 10 (or so) games from the top.  This isn’t easy to do, you know, so I really appreciate the effort. Now, put your notes away.  Turn off your phones and put them on the floor or in your bag.  Go to the bathroom now (because you will have to turn in your exam before you leave the room for any reason).

EFL Standings for 2016
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Haviland Dragons 16 6 .724 113.0 69.8
Canberra Kangaroos 14 7 .665 1.5 110.8 78.6
Old Detroit Wolverines 13 8 .617 2.5 127.2 100.1
Portland Rosebuds 13 10 .558 3.6 97.3 86.6
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 12 11 .529 4.3 110.8 104.7
Flint Hill Tornadoes 10 11 .474 5.5 89.1 93.7
Cottage Cheese 9 12 .446 6.1 79.6 88.9
Peshastin Pears 10 13 .418 6.8 98.1 115.7
Kaline Drive 8 14 .347 8.3 95.8 131.6
D.C. Balk 5 16 .231 10.6 75.7 138.1

Haviland:  DNP, 1 – 0. (.214, .353, .286; 0 ip, o er)  Clearly the organization gets an A for so resoundingly exceeding expectations. Matt Joyce was on the way to an A for his 1.130 OPS, but he’s only turned in 36 plate appearances. Neil Walker gets an A for his 9 homers and .963 OPS.  Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb are due for at least A- for belting out OPSes of .928 and .945, respectively.  No one on the pitching staff is struggling, all getting a C- or better, and similar things can be said about the hitters.  Except Hank Conger, with his 4 for 25 batting line and zero extra bases (.352 OPS) — maybe he should be warned he is about to fail.

Canberra: W, 8 – 4. (.318, .444, .455; 1 ip, 1 er). The ‘Roos have two hitters OPSing over 1.000 (and eligible for Edgar Martinez status with a line of .300, .400, .500 or better):  Bryce Harper (duh!) and Michael Conforto.  They get A’s, as does Taijuan Walker for his 25 ip, 25 so, 1.44 ERA, 1.92 FIP.  Yonder Alonso might be failing with his .388 OPS over 69 plate appearances.  Former Wolverine Adeiny Hechavarria started out fast, but homesickness has given him trouble lately, his line sinking to .182, .222, .273, which is awful even for him. He’s in line for a dismal D-, I would think.

Old Detroit: W, 8 – 6. (.333, .438, .704, Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; 0 ip, 0 er.) Manny is over 1.000 (1.68 OPS) but isn’t in Edgar territory since his OBP is a smidge under .400.  But three others are  pulling A’s  for their Edgar lines: Christian Yelich, Gregory Polanco, and Mark Reynolds.  Anthony Rizzo is OPSing .966 but is batting only .213 — he gets an A-.  Surprising Brandon Drury (.918 OPS in a super-utility role) would be in A- territory, too, if only he were enrolled in the class rather than wasting his time auditing from the bench. In a related note,  Kolten Wong is flunking right now (.504 OPS) and Kyle Schwarber withdrew from class weeks ago for some reason. On the pitching side, only Erasmo is getting an A, and Wade Miley has a D- for his 7.04 ERA (frittering away his 4.31 FIP).

Portland:  W, 4 – 4. (.167, .375, .167; no pitching).  The big news in Portland is Dee Gordon’s suspension from school for cheating with two banned substances.  He was in C- territory anyway with his .629 OPS. The entire team has been doing pretty well, with Chris Sale possibly the only A (1.66 ERA in 38 innings) although Johnny Cueto (2.65 ERA) and Yordano Ventura (2.35 ERA) getting at least A-‘s. Starling Marte leads the hitters with an OPS of .889 – a strong B+ in my book, but maybe if you grade on a curve he can squeeze up into the A- range.  Keon Broxton flunked his first test (o for 16) and Aaron Hill (.457 OPS) and Carlos Gomez (.478) are struggling.

Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 0  (.227, .292, .455; 7 ip, 0 er)  Rubby de la Rosa aced an exam last night to boost his grade to a solid C+ (4.18 ERA). Stephen Strasburg probably gets an with an A with his 2.17 ERA /2.32 FIP.  Among the hitters, there is, of course, only one Edgarian line: .330, .422, .659… by Jose Altuve, of course. His A stands for “aggravating and annoying Altuve.” (That other guy, Trout, misses twice with his .295, .398, .538 effort — only an A-, then).  Probably Pedro Alvarez is flunking the worst .588 OPS over 53 plate appearances.  I think Jason Gurka already flunked out with his 9.31 ERA.

Flint Hill: L, 3 – 5. (.083, .267, .167; no pitching)  Mat Latos was on academic probation when the Tornados enrolled him.  He is now sporting an ERA of 0.74 in 24.3 innings: an A for sure! Doug Fister is in D territory with his 5.56 ERA, and threatening to slip further according to his 6.27 FIP. Scooter Gennett was the best hitter, working on a B+ at .877 OPS, before he went on the DL yesterday.

Cottage: “L”, 4 – 3.  (.167, .318, .333; 2 ip, 0 er)  Pablo Sandoval was expelled, essentially, for his poor attitude, poor study habits , and 0 for 6 start. Chris Heston (10.80 ERA), Archie Bradley (10.38 ERA) and Aaron Hicks (.258 OPS) were also on course for F’s.  Andrew Miller (no earned runs yet) and Drew SMyly (2.51 ERA in 28.7 innings) are the only pitchers in the A range, probably. Salvador Perez leads a weak offense with an .838 OPS, good enough for a B, certainly.

Peshastin: W , 6 – 3. (.356, .476, .647; no pitching) Three star students are carrying the class: Nick Tropeano (2.11 ERA) and Danny Salazar (2.35 ERA) from the mound, and surprising Zack Cozart from the plate and shortstop (.991 OPS!).  That’s an A+ for Cozart, and A’s I would think for the pitching stars.

Kaline:  W 1, L (-1), 2 – 0. (.409, .536, .465;  7.3 ip, 5 er) A team ERA of 5.34  suggests a lot of dismal grades in the pitching staff  — F’s for Bud Norris (8.74 ERA) and Jarred Cosart (7.98 ERA), and a D for Clay Buchholz (6.51 ERA). But Dellin Betances and Daniel Hudson have each allowed only 1 earned run in 10 or more innings pitched — that’s an A for relief pitching.  And Yoenis Cespedes gets an A for his 1.056 OPS, as does Dexter Fowler for his 1.103 OPS.  Fowler, of course, also gets an A in martial arts this month.  Carlos Perez, Craig Gentry, Peter Bourjos, Brad Miller are all in the .400s for their OPS, which if the Drive is at all a firm grader (one worries about this, given their graciousness), all four of those ten-o’clock “scholars” should get Fs.

DC: L, 4 – 8. (.300, .364, .300, in 11 plate appearances;  1.3 ip, 0 er)  We have to remember that DC is still building its program, so there will be gaps in the student body to keep in mind. Welington Castillo will get his A, of course (.930 OPS from the catching position), and Josh Tomlin is worthy of a B+ for leading the staff with 17.3 innings pitched while maintaining a strong 3.18 ERA.  But other than a trio of low-inning relievers under 1.00 ERA, and competent but unspectacular hitting from freshman Corey Seager (.721 OPS), the Balk are still waiting for their trainees to develop.