League Updates

Cheese and Pears Still Fresh?

Funny how time plays tricks with our perspective. After 13 years of Alleghenys, Wolverines and Dragons, I’m already getting tired of the Cheese and Pears atop our standings.  Boring. What else is new?

You would think Cheese would get stale pretty quickly, exposed as much as it has been this season. And Pears do not keep this long outside of cold storage.  So we shouldn’t have to wait too long for them to go bad, right?  And if they do go bad — there’s the Drive!  So it’s not like we’d just be returning to Dragon rule.

EFL Standings for 2017
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Cottage Cheese 16 5 .771 132.6 72.2
Peshastin Pears 17 6 .735 0.3 113.8 68.4
Kaline Drive 14 8 .652 2.4 97.6 71.3
Haviland Dragons 14 8 .625 3 136.2 105.6
Flint Hill Tornadoes 12 8 .624 3.2 94.2 73.2
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 11 10 .507 5.6 84.7 83.6
Portland Rosebuds 10 13 .436 7.2 93.1 106.0
Old Detroit Wolverines 8 12 .412 7.5 70.6 84.4
Canberra Kangaroos 9 13 .410 7.7 88.0 105.5
D.C. Balk 8 14 .378 8.4 105.4 135.1
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Cottage: DNP, 0 – 0. (.269, .321, .462;  0 pitching).
Peshastin: W, 6 – 4.  (.261, .346, .304;  0 pitching). Our top two teams didn’t do anything memorable yesterday, except continue their stranglehold on the EFL pennant race.  I guess the Pears crept a little bit closer to the top, but this is really only an artifact of the extra two games they’ve played.                  
Kaline:  W, 6 – 3.  (.276, .323, .690;  0.7 ip, 0 er).  That Drive line for batting looks a lot like the Pears and Cheese, until you see the slugging percentage. Who!  Isolated power of .414!  How did that happen?  Well, you can thank the Drive middle infielders.  Ryan Schemp hit a homer, and Chris Owings hit two homers and got a walk. Chris Owings!  He’s OPSing .915 on the year so far, good for fourth on the Drive.  Kris Bryant is 6th at .833. So I guess Chris Owings is going to be Kris Bryant until Kris Bryant can be Kris Bryant.   Meanwhile, the Drive keep creeping closer to the elites.  They aren’t there yet…
Haviland: W, 6 – 3. (.500, .500, .625;  8.7 ip, 3 er).  Don’t let that 1.125 team OPS dazzle you too badly. It’s only  2 players in 8 plate appearances. One of those was Neil Walker going 3 for 4.The biggest driver of those 6 runs scored is the fact that the Dragons have been scoring 6 runs a game all season.  Meanwhile, Carlos Martinez (6 ip, 3 er) is grateful for Josh Smoker (2.7 ip, 0 er).
Flint Hill: DNP, (-1) – (-7).  (.214, .214, .317;  7.3 ip, 0 er).  Daniel Murphy is the only Tornado that stirred much up at the plate, going 3 for 6 with a homer and a double.  Meanwhile Mariners Iwakuma and Zych flattened batters for a combined 7.3 inning shutout.
Pittsburgh:  L, 2 – 6. (.136, .310, .182;  6 ip, 2 er).  Other than Kaline’s 1.023 OPS, EFL struggled offensively yesterday.  Unfortunately, Kendall Graveman’s fine 6 innings didn’t help as much as they might since they were relief innings, while 5 more starting innings were covered by replacements.
  
Portland: W, 2 – (-1).  (.105, .190, .105;  13.7 ip, 3 er).  Julio Urias stepped up and  gave the Rosebuds 5.7 strong innings (1 er) to complement one of Chris Sale’s usual performances (8 ip, 2 er).  So Portland won despite its staggeringly poor day at the plate — fortunately only involving 21 plate appearances.
Old Detroit:  DNP,  (-1) – (-3).  (.222, .250, .333;  14 ip, 4 er).  Similar to the Rosebud’s day, except Old Detroit didn’t get in an actual game.  We hit a little better, led by Kolten Wong’s latest good performance (3 for 8  with a double, a triple, and a walk) in the ongoing last-minute resurrection of his carer.  Matt Moore rebounded from his last disaster with a 7 ip, 1 er day, joining Kluber’s routine 7 ip, 3 er
  
Canberra:  W,  5 – 3.  (.167, .286, .444;  8 ip, 2 er).  At least with our poor hitting down here in the EFL nether regions, we are also getting good pitching. Canberra is no exception:  Taijuan Walker came up with a Chris Sale-ish 8 ip, 2 er.  Adam Eaton was almost the entire offense: .500, .667, 1.500 on 2 for 4 with a homer, a double, and two walks.  The team as a whole only appeared at the plate 21 times.
DC:  L, 1 – 4.  (.120, .214, 240;  6 ip, 1 er).  Again, the same formula.  All we can afford down here is some decent pitching now and then.  This time it was Jeremy Hellickson going 6 ip, 1 er. Corey Seager was the main offensive spark: .333, .600, 1.333 with 2 walks and a homer in 5 trips.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Baltimore Orioles 14 6 .700
New York Yankees 13 7 .650 1
Flint Hill Tornadoes 12 8 .624 1.5
Boston Red Sox 11 10 .524 3.5
Tampa Bay Rays 11 12 .478 4.5
Old Detroit Wolverines 8 12 .412 5.8
Toronto Blue Jays 6 16 .273 9
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Washington Nationals 16 6 .727
Philadelphia Phillies 11 9 .550 4
Miami Marlins 10 10 .500 5
Canberra Kangaroos 9 13 .410 7
Atlanta Braves 8 12 .400 7
New York Mets 8 13 .381 7.5
D.C. Balk 8 14 .378 7.7
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Cleveland Indians 12 9 .571
Chicago White Sox 11 9 .550 0.5
Detroit Tigers 11 10 .524 1
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 11 10 .507 1.4
Minnesota Twins 10 11 .476 2
Kansas City Royals 7 14 .333 5
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Cottage Cheese 16 5 .771
Chicago Cubs 12 9 .571 4.2
Milwaukee Brewers 12 11 .522 5.2
St. Louis Cardinals 11 11 .500 5.7
Cincinnati Reds 10 12 .455 6.7
Pittsburgh Pirates 9 12 .429 7.2
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Kaline Drive 14 8 .652
Houston Astros 14 8 .636 0.3
Haviland Dragons 14 8 .625 0.6
Los Angeles Angels 12 12 .500 3.3
Texas Rangers 10 12 .455 4.3
Oakland A’s 10 12 .455 4.3
Seattle Mariners 10 13 .435 4.8
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Peshastin Pears 17 6 .735
Arizona Diamondbacks 15 8 .652 1.9
Colorado Rockies 14 9 .609 2.9
Los Angeles Dodgers 11 12 .478 5.9
Portland Rosebuds 10 13 .436 6.9
San Diego Padres 9 15 .375 8.4
San Francisco Giants 8 15 .348 8.9