EWIE’s and Other Fun and Useful Facts

Did you know?

—  You can’t reallocate for June until Dave gives us a go sometime on Wednesday, after I’ve done the last May update.

— The roster allocation deadline is Thursday at midnight PDT.

— All the drops from the draft are technically DFA’s.  So if you want to acquire, say, a Justin Wilson, you have two choices: bid to beat the Tiger in the open market, or make a trade with the Dragons and get him on the Dragons’ contract.  But a trade has to happen before the Thursday midnight roster allocation deadline, because the Dragons lose control over him at that point.

There are other things I bet you didn’t know in the team comments.  Don’t miss them!

• Old Detroit: L, 5 – 8. (.250, .302, .500; 0.3 ip, 4 er).  Jackie Bradley’s May has been better than any other regular in the league: .381, .474, .701.  The average and OBP are down from yesterday because he only went 1 for 4 with a homer and a walk last night. The W’s lost because Erasmo Ramirez is back to being the old Erasmo, with a nasty little Royal Chulk (0.3 ip, 4 er). Maybe it’s time to trade him back to the Kangaroos, to console them for missing out on Justin Wilson.
• Canberra:  L, 4 – 5. (.333, .366, .410; 8 ip, 4 er). Blake Swihart went 3 for 4 with a triple. Here’s the odd fact about the Kangaroos:  they have the most consistent lineup in the EFL.  Their top hitter in May, Jonathan Lucroy, OPSed .951.  Their worst hitter OPSed .550 — and that was Logan Forsythe.  The Kangaroos were so horrified they figured Forsythe must be injured, so they put him on the DL after only 25 ABs for “mutilated OPS.” So the worst active Kangaroo is Michael Conforto (.611 OPS), leaving a gap of only .340 between best and worst regular Kangaroos.  Here are the best and worst May regulars OPS (at least 50 PA) for every other team:
  • Old Detroit: JBJ (1.175); Yan Gomes, .536 OPS; .639 gap.
  • Haviland: Jake Lamb (.918); Kurt Suzuki (.474); .434 gap.
  • Pittsburgh: Mike Trout (1.013); Jake Marisnick (.520); .493 gap.
  • Portland: (EWIE) Aaron Hill (1.086); Chris Iannetta (.546); .540 gap.
  • Flint Hill:  (EWIE) Xander Bogaerts (1.043); James McCann (.422); .621 gap.
  • Peshastin:  Khris Davis (.921); Yasmani Grandal (.455); .467 gap.
  • Cottage: Matt Adams (1.082); Yasiel Puig (.593); .491 gap.
  • Kaline: Jonathan Villar (.935);  Chris Coghlan (.482); .453 gap.
  • D.C.: Franklin Gutierrez (.919); Adonis Garcia (.367); .542 gap.
• Haviland: W, 6 – (-1). (.225, .279, .475; 9.7 ip, 2 er). Carlos Martinez twirled 8 shutout innings.   Speaking of Justin Wilson — his Tigers contract is for $1,525,000 for this year only. A bid of $1,000,000 for two years would beat that.  On the other hand, his rookie contract with the Dragons is for $1,000,000 this year, and would be $2,000,000 next year.  Also, his May ERA and FIP (8.38 ERA, 2.13 FIP) were the most divergent in the entire EFL, for pitchers with more than 1 inning.
• Pittsburgh: W 2, L 1; 12 – 9. (.167, .242, .267; 8 ip , 0 ER).  Marco Estrada’s 8 sparkling innings, and a surprise triple header drawing on surplus stats stored up all month, gave the Alleghenys their boost back into fourth place. Jose Altuve is only Edgar Martinez playing a solid second base: .342, .406, .505 in May.  And that’s only over 128 PA. He’s on pace to get 732 plate appearances this year! Edgar at 2b with an extra 100 plate appearances… This is why I drafted Sean Rodriguez — so I could reap a little benefit from the Ex-Wolverine Infielder Effect.
• Portland: “L”,  4 – 3. (.257, .333, .286; 2 ip 0 er).  Just two innings from Jason Hammel?  I thought he was a starter.  The Rosebuds are just oozing with significant fun facts:
  •  Yes, that was Ex-Wolverine Infielder Aaron Hill leading the Rosebud offense, followed closely by another Ex-Wolverine Infielder Steve Peare (.1052 OPS).
  • I had to put the 1-inning lower limit on the Widest Gap between ERA and FIP becayse Cory Luebke, in his 0.3 innings, allowed 3 earned runs for a monthly era of 81.00.  But his FIP was a far-more-encouraging 42.15.
  • But for some reason Luebke didn’t get the axe at the draft.  Instead, it was Kyle Lobstein, with his palter 9.82 ERA in 3.7 innings. Clearly, the King of the Rosebuds appreciates art. Lobstein’s crumminess was just crummy.  Luebke’s was epic.
• Flint Hill: L, 3 – 8. (.250, .280, .375;  14.7 ip, 10 er). Huh. Who would have thought it?The Tornados — the ones I have so much trouble thinking of things to write about — also are oozing significant facts. Like:
  • McCann is the fourth catcher to trail his team in OPS, out of the 6 we’ve looked at so far. This and the $6.5 million Haviland has spend on backup catchers in our first two monthly drafts are related facts, I’m guessing.
  • Tony Zych went to the DL after 1 inning in May. His ERA was 0.00, but apparently that’s pessimistic about his future. His FIP is -2.94, according to BP.
  • Xander Bogaerts joins Jackie Bradley as Boston Killer B’s leading their EFL teams. Mookie Betts (only .839 OPS) is going to have to pick it up if he wants to avoid being replaced by some other B on the Boston roster.
• Peshastin: “W”, 2 – 3. (.182, .222, .333;  6 ip, 2 er). Zach Cozart ( 3 for 6 with a homer) is the one infielder who comes by his greatness honestly, since he’s never been a Wolverine.
  • Grandal — 5th of 7.
  • Blake Wood, he of the horrendous infinite chulk (0 ip, 4 er), still managed a 3.31 ERA in May — and a 2.78 FIP.  He pitched 16.3 other innings — isn’t that amazing?
  • Cam Bedrosian pitched to a 0.71 ERA in May so far. I never pay any attention to Cam Bedrosian. He deserves more respect.
• Cottage: L, 2 – 4. (.216, .256, .689; 6 ip, 2 er).  The Cheese’s problem is it lacks a single EWIE on its active May roster.  So yesterday Todd Frazier, Matt Duffy, Addison Russell and Jonathan Schoop combined to go 3 for 13 with a double: .231, .231, .308.
  • Perhaps the Red Sox (and/or the Rosebuds) should trade for Jay Bruce. He’d make a nice Killer B… well, except he’s not hitting any better than Betts (.846).
  • The Cheese outfield is good and consistent: Bruce (.846); Nomar Mazara (.840), Mallex Smith (.826).  Jorge Soler only brings then down to .747.
  • I assume the Cheese keep Puig on the bench in months like May. Right?
• Kaline:  W (-1), L 2; 2 – 7.  (.175, .214, .200; 7 ip, 5 er). What a miserable day, offensively, for the EFL.  At least we are inoffensive!  Tyler White doesn’t pay muchattention: 2 for 4 with a HBP stands out on a day like today.
  • Shawn O’Malley would have been the bottom Drive OPS (.333!) except he’s only had 21 plate appearances.  The M’s miss Ketel Marte.
  • The Drive ERA as a team was 4.01 in May. It’s FIP was 4.03. So at least the Wizard should be able to count on consistency!
  • On the other hand, Carson Smith’s 0.00 ERA is not long for the world, judging by his still-excellent 2.69 FIP.
• D.C.:W (-1), L 2; (-2) – 7. (.138, .138, .172; 6.3 ip, 4 er). The weak offense bit the Balk badly. Josh Tomlin having an uncharacteristically poor outing (3.7 ip, 4 er) didn’t help.
  • OK, I admit it — I ignored the threshold of 50 plate appearances for the Balk on the OPS gap. The problem is they have only 6 batters with over 50 plate appearances in May.  So Gutierrez’ 45 PA’s, and Garcia’s 30, are under that limit.
  • I had some standards. I ignored Scott Schebler’s 1.111 OPS because he’s had only 9 plate appearances.
  • Henry Owens had the second biggest gap between his ERA and his FIP.  Alas, there is  bad news:  his ERA was 6.00, but his FIP was 12.06.  On the other hand, there is good news: that came in only 3 innings, when he allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits (including a homer) and 6 walks. I’m not saying it will be easy for Owens to improve.  But at least the path is clearly marked.