Bill James? Who is Bill James? – The Official EFL Web Site

In my ongoing campaign to get you all to read Bill James Online — because the more time you spend reading what I read, the less you’ll have to read other stuff, from which (judging by the Wolverines’ place in the standings) you are all getting a competitive advantage — so this is for the greater good of league parity, then…

…um, where was I? Oh yes, trying to get you to read Bill James Online, this time to look at his current pitcher rankings. CAVEAT: These are as as of Monday morning. James’ system is dynamic, so ratings can gradually change from start to start.

Rank	Started Season	Name	Current Score
World’s #1 Starting Pitcher Rankings: CURRENT RANKINGS
1	1	Clayton Kershaw	567.6
2	2	Max Scherzer, PP	551.5
3	4	Madison Bumgarner, OD	541.3
4	3	Corey Kluber, OD	537.1
5	5	Jon Lester	536.7
6	6	Justin Verlander	527.9
7	8	Chris Sale, PR	527.0
8	7	Jake Arrieta	523.0
9	9	Johnny Cueto, PR	509.7
10	10	David Price, PA	499.8
11	11	Kyle Hendricks	495.4
12	13	Zack Greinke	490.5
13	12	Rick Porcello, CK	488.4
14	15	Cole Hamels	482.7
15	14	Marco Estrada, PA	479.9
16	20	Noah Syndergaard	479.1
17	17	Chris Archer CC	478.9
18	16	John Lackey	478.1
19	21	Julio Teheran	475.8
20	19	J.A. Happ	475.1
21	18	Jose Quintana	471.6
22	22	Stephen Strasburg, PA	467.5
23	24	Ian Kennedy	460.6
24	25	Masahiro Tanaka	455.4
25	23	Carlos Martinez, HD	453.9
26	26	Carlos Carrasco, PP	453.3
27	31	Dallas Keuchel	451.9
28	30	Jacob Degrom	451.5
29	33	Ervin Santana, HD	450.9
30	27	Jake Odorizzi, PA	449.7
31	28	Felix Hernandez	444.6
32	29	Jeff Samardzija, DC	441.9
33	37	Tanner Roark	435.4
34	39	Aaron Sanchez	435.3
35	40	Hisashi Iwakuma, FH	435.0
36	32	Collin McHugh, KD	434.6
37	35	Chris Tillman	432.4
39	41	Bartolo Colon	430.1
40	45	Jeremy Hellickson, DC	428.0
41	43	Gio Gonzalez	427.9
42	36	Francisco Liriano, OD	424.9
43	51	Jerad Eickhoff	424.6
44	38	R.A. Dickey	423.5
45	49	Michael Pineda	422.5
46	42	Jason Hammel	422.1
47	52	Danny Duffy	421.0
49	54	Matt Moore, OD	418.7
50	46	Trevor Bauer	417.8

Remember: you need to gradually sign up for Bill James Online so I can defend these wholesale copyings as promotional blurbs.

Here is how we fare.

Old Detroit 4 1920.0

Pittsburgh 4 1897.0

Portland 2 1036.7

Peshastin 2 1004.8

Haviland 2 904.8

D.C. 2 869.9

EFL Average 1.8 853.3

EFL “Share” 1.67 747.7

Canberra 1 488.4

Cottage 1 478.9

Flint Hill 1 435.0

Kaline 1 434.6

Dave recently accused me of moving the goal posts after I’d kicked the ball. I am innocent of that here. I found these goal posts and was just lucky that they were built right under where my ball was sitting.

Still — I admit I am sharing this publicly only to cheer up the depressed Wolverine fan base. I suppose one or two of them will ask “If our pitching is the best according to Bill James, why are we in last place?” But those emails won’t come until tomorrow. Maybe by then we’ll be out of last place. Today we can bask in the glory of our starting pitching, including Liriano’s staggering 135.00 ERA (which cost him 6 places in the ratings, by the way).

EFL Standings for 2017

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Peshastin Pears	7	2	.768	—	41.3	22.7
Cottage Cheese	6	2	.726	0.6	44.1	27.1
Flint Hill Tornadoes	4	2	.716	1.1	29.4	18.5
Haviland Dragons	5	3	.598	1.6	45.5	37.3
Kaline Drive	4	4	.557	2	29.1	26.0
Canberra Kangaroos	4	4	.521	2.2	36.3	34.8
Portland Rosebuds	4	5	.445	2.9	35.3	39.5
D.C. Balk	3	6	.313	3.9	35.8	53.1
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	2	5	.289	3.9	21.1	33.1
Old Detroit Wolverines	1	5	.248	3.9	17.7	30.9

Peshastin: W, 3 – 0. (.148, .303, .222; 15.7 ip, 3 er) Mitch Haniger is panning out! 1 for 2 with a double and three walks yesterday. That was enough for a win with Carrasco, Taillon and two relievers all pitching well. Seven days in a row for the Pears in first place.

Cottage: W, 8 – 4. (.286, .382, .714; 6.3 ip, 3 er) Five Cheese OPSed over 1.000. Harper and Trout, plus new stud Wil Myers, plus Maikel Franco… and led by Travis d’Arnaud (3 for 4, double, homer, walk: .750, .800, 1.750 — that’s an OPS of 2.550).

Flint Hill: W, 9 – 1. (.423, .444, 1.038; 12.7 ip, 2 er). The 5 Cheese Special featured four OPSes between 1.000 and 1.999, and one at 2.550. The Five Tornado Apocalypse featured 5 OPSes over 1.000: 3.000 (Gatts, a 2b and 3 BB in 4 PA), 2.600 (Murphy: 4 for 5 with 2 2b and a homer); 2.000 (Todd Frazier, waking from the dead with a 2b and HR in 4 AB), 1.750 (Manuel Margot, 2 for 4 with a homer), and 1.667 (James McCann: a homer in three trips). With better pitching, too, the Tornados are threatening to crash the party, blow the party to bits, and leave the other party-goers waist-deep (and maybe upside-down) in the mud.

Haviland: “L”, 8 – 7. (.375, .474, .625; 2 ip, 1 er) I interrogated the Chiefest of Calamities yesterday about what the Dragons use to prepare for drafts, if not WAR. He denied it was voodoo. Instead he said he looks at minor league stats. Yeah, right. Who doesn’t? I think it’s voodoo. Or maybe the Russians. Whatever it is, the Dragons need more of it: they only had 4 batters yesterday. They all did well, averaging that 1.099 OPS. But it wasn’t enough.

Kaline: “L”, 9 – 7. (.372, .400, .721; 1 ip, 0 er). Man — there was a lot of offense in the EFL Tuesday! Four straight teams OPSing over 1.000. Kaline had three superlative offensive performers: Cespedes (4 for 6 with THREE homer: 3.000e); Vazquez (4 for 4 with a double and a triple: 2.750); and Brandon Phillips (2 for 3 with two doubles and a HBP). How do you even think about keeping up with teams like this?

Canberra: L, 2 – 4. (.205, .244, .282; 1.7 ip, 0 er). Some of us don’t try to keep up with offenses like those. Some of us don’t even think about it. Thinking is hard. Only one Kangaroo OPSed over 1.000 — Jonathan Lucroy with is homer and three singles in 5 AB.

Portland: L, 4 – 5. (.261, .320, .329) Without aney pitching Tuesday, Portland only had offense to offer. It wasn’t much. Keon Broxton was probably the highlight with his homer and single in 5 AB. Who would have thought that Broxton would be outperforming Buxton at this point? I wonder how conversations go when Mark J and Jamie J see each other.

DC: W 1, L 1; 3 – 7. (.250, .294, .281; 14 ip 9 er) The Balk are convincingly ahead of two teams who, between them, have 10 EFL championships. Out of the 13 that exist. It would be even more convincing if Sam Dyson could be relieved of his torment. He allowed 3 earned runs in an inning Tuesday, to go with the other 8 earned runs he has so far allowed in the other 2 innings he’s pitched. His season ERA is now 33.00. That doesn’t lead the league — no, that honor still belongs to Wolverine Francisco Liriano (135.00). But it’s still miserable for Dyson, and a drag on the Balk.

Pittsburgh: L, 3 – 6. (.175, .267, .300; 5 ip, 4 er). Typical of teams down here in the EFL septic tank: pathetic offense with ineffective pitching. But at least there’s a glimmer here: Michael Brantley came back, and went 1 for 3 with two walks and a double for a nice 1.267 daily OPS. That’s about it for bright spots.

Old Detroit: L, 3 – 6. (.150, .320, .150; 6.3 ip, 5 er.) Thank you Tyler Skaggs: 5 ip, 5 er. That’s two bad starts out of two. Four days in a row in last place now.

Commissioner Comment: So the top three teams in Bill James’ “Greatest Pitchers” list are in 10th, 9th, and 7th places, respectively. And the 8th place team is above average in the pitchers ratings. So much for Bill James.

I suppose this means the Dragons — and the Pears and Cheese — aren’t using Bill James’ pitcher ratings. Rats. The search for the magic elixir continues.

AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Flint Hill Tornadoes	4	2	.716	—
Baltimore Orioles	4	2	.667	0.3
Tampa Bay Rays	5	3	.625	0.3
Boston Red Sox	4	3	.571	0.8
New York Yankees	3	4	.429	1.8
Old Detroit Wolverines	1	5	.248	2.8
Toronto Blue Jays	1	6	.143	3.8

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Washington Nationals	5	3	.625	—
New York Mets	5	3	.625	—
Miami Marlins	4	3	.571	0.5
Canberra Kangaroos	4	4	.521	0.8
Philadelphia Phillies	3	5	.375	2
D.C. Balk	3	6	.313	2.5
Atlanta Braves	1	6	.143	3.5

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Detroit Tigers	5	2	.714	—
Minnesota Twins	5	2	.714	—
Cleveland Indians	4	3	.571	1
Chicago White Sox	2	4	.333	2.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	2	5	.289	3
Kansas City Royals	2	5	.286	3

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cincinnati Reds	6	2	.750	—
Cottage Cheese	6	2	.726	0.2
Chicago Cubs	5	2	.714	0.5
Pittsburgh Pirates	3	4	.429	2.5
Milwaukee Brewers	3	5	.375	3
St. Louis Cardinals	2	6	.250	4

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Los Angeles Angels	6	2	.750	—
Haviland Dragons	5	3	.598	1.2
Kaline Drive	4	4	.557	1.5
Houston Astros	5	4	.556	1.5
Oakland A’s	4	4	.500	2
Texas Rangers	2	5	.286	3.5
Seattle Mariners	2	7	.222	4.5

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Arizona Diamondbacks	7	2	.778	—
Peshastin Pears	7	2	.768	0.1
Colorado Rockies	6	3	.667	1
Los Angeles Dodgers	4	4	.500	2.5
Portland Rosebuds	4	5	.445	3
San Diego Padres	4	5	.444	3
San Francisco Giants	3	6	.333	4