League Updates

Coming in in a blaze of glory

My last few updates have wandered too far afield.  Today we will look at some baseball questions, the first of which is punctuated by Juan Soto hitting the first pitch he saw Monday for a homer — in his first start in the big leagues.

EFL Standings for 2018
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Brookland Outs 30 18 .618 260.7 206.9
Old Detroit Wolverines 26 18 .583 2 185.8 157.6
Canberra Kangaroos 26 20 .569 2.5 208.2 181.1
Portland Rosebuds 27 21 .567 2.5 220.5 192.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes 23 21 .529 4.4 185.4 174.8
Kaline Drive 24 24 .506 5.4 213.2 210.9
Cottage Cheese 24 24 .496 5.9 249.2 251.3
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 21 24 .470 7 237.4 254.1
Haviland Dragons 22 26 .458 7.7 195.8 213.2
Peshastin Pears 21 27 .447 8.2 204.0 230.8
D.C. Balk 20 26 .431 8.9 186.9 214.7

.

Brookland:  L, 3 – 7. (.136, .240, .409; 8.3 ip, 6 er).  On Sunday Ryan pointed out to me how the Brookland Outs were like the  Golden Knights. If you are as ignorant as I was, this may be news to you:
1.  The Golden Knights call Las Vegas home.  (No, I don’t know what hockey lore “Golden Knights” refers to.  Hockey lore must be very thin, if teams are reaching this far. At least Ducks, Sharks, and Hurricanes are aquatic references, although distinctly unseasonal for hockey. There is even a hockey team oxymoronically called the “Flames.” The ice is burning! The ice is burning!)
2.  The Golden Knights won their division and three rounds of playoffs.  They are going to play in the Stanley Cup.
3.  The Stanley Cup is not a giant cup where people play hockey.  It’s the hockey version of the World Series. Stanley was someone who used to be famous in hockey circles. Sort of like Albert Spalding, I think.
4.  The Golden Knights are an expansion team. Like the Outs.
.
I found this news disturbing. I was consoling myself that it was impossible for an expansion team to win a title. Surely the Outs would collapse and restore hope to the pennant race.  But now, knowing of the Golden Knights,  things have changed.  Now I have to console myself with the news that it’s possible for the Outs to lose a game once in a while, and let their pursuers gain 0.6 games all in one day.  It can happen, if Bartolo Colon surrenders 6 earned runs in 5.3 innings. (I guess the Yankees are good for something after all).
.
Old Detroit: W, 4 – 2. (.190, .190, .381; 7 ip, 1 er). Walker Buehler’s 7 ip, 1 er outing carried the team to the win, despite that bad batting line. Buried in that badness is a puzzle:  why are Lewis Brinson and Ronald Acuna slumping so badly (bot 0 for 4 yesterday), while Buehler and Ohtani aren’t?  Are Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, and other phenoms bound  to slump sometime?  Most crucially — how likely is it the Outs will also slump? I don’t understand the dynamics of mysterious prospect booms and busts, nor how to manage them.  And since I have Brinson and Acuna and Rafael Devers (and Buehler and Ohtani) and am chasing this apparition of a phenom team, I must get on top of this.
.
Canberra: L, 4 – 5. (.292, .370, .417; 1 ip, 0 er).  Seven ‘Roos batted yesterday.  The studs were veterans at the beginning of the aplhabet (Abreu, Adrianza, and Conforto) who combined to go 5 for 11 with three doubles and a walk: .455, .500, .727).  The busts were the rookies and prospects (Anderson, Garver, Hoskins, Kingery) who combined for 2 for 13 with a walk (.154, .214, .154). The Kangaroos should also have a keen interest in the dynamics of prospects’ early careers.
 .
Portland: W 2, L 0; 11 – 4.  (.240, .367, .480; 16 ip, 3 er).  Gleyber Torres comes up in our discussion today because of his two homers yesterday to help the Yankees win one and the Rosebuds win two.  I don’t know how the Rosebuds can stand the moral contradictions in benefitting from Yankee success.  You’d think they wouldn’t have bid so high on Torres, or would jump at the first opportunity to wash their hands of him. But they did and they haven’t. ( Disclosure: as part of my duty as Commissioner to tend to the spiritual welfare of my flock, I offered a generous trade to the Rosebuds as a way of helping them escape their immoral entanglement with the Yankees. But after Torres hit those two homers, the Rosebuds withdrew from negotiations. They were like the rich young man in Jesus’ parable.  And I wasn’t even calling them to give up all they had. I was too late.  The Precious had gained too much power over Portland.)
Flint Hill: L,  2 – 3. (.105 .261, .105; 1 ip, 0 er).  I have to be careful these days.  I have always assumed that a pitcher going only one shutout inning is a reliever. In Flint Hill’s case, Corey Knebel was relieving.  But in MLB, Sergio Romo wasn’t, twice in a row.  He started two Tampa Bay Rays games, pitched only an inning, and gave way to the traditional starter who in at least one game pitched the next 6 1/3.  Romo is on our free agent list.  He’ll be eligible next month as a starter. He will have very limited innings for a starting pitcher, but that’s how it works for the Rays, so it’s not a problem for us.
.   
Kaline: DNP, (-2) – (-1). (.129, .129, .387; 6 ip, 2 er).  The Drive are looking sluggish lately, stuck in first or reverse.  Of the nine Drives who appeared yesterday, 2/3 seemed to be in park: six Drive batters combined to go 0 for 21.  On the other hand, Aaron Judge and Neil Walker — Yankees! — had identical 2 for 5  days, each with a homer and a double (and a strikeout). And Chase Anderson — mercifully not a Yankee — went 6 innings with only 2 earned runs.  This is an excruciating game sometimes.
.
Cottage: L, 2 – 7. (.158, .200, .211;  0.3 ip, 0 er).  Another team suffering from incredibly bad hitting.  This bout of offensive ineptitude left the once high-flying Cheese just under .500 for the season. Actually, Monday was a small piece of that dismal puzzle.  The biggest is the collapse of Danny Duffy:  19.3 innings pitched, 20 earned runs. That’s a 9.31 ERA.  To go with a 9.35 FIP — meaning he is probably not suffering from bad luck. He’s just been bad. Why is this happening?  Danny Duffy doesn’t even know, according to mlbtraderumors:
“Sometimes you’re not special at something. Right now I’m not special at pitching,” he said. “What are you going to do? Run from it with some phantom DL crap? I’m not going on the DL. I feel great. Do they want to talk about the bullpen? I don’t know. That’s their decision.”
I don’t know, if I was paying someone $15,750,000 a year to pitch I think I’d like something more than “What are you going to do?”  from a pitcher carrying a 9.31 ERA and a 9.35 FIP.
.
Pittsburgh: DNP, 1 – 0. (.257, .278, .629; no pitching).  Mark Reynolds blasted two homers yesterday, part of his 3 for 5 performance. Reynolds couldn’t get an MLB contract last winter, so he ended up signed after Opening Day to play in the Nationals (and Allegheny) minors. Now, 6 games into his 2018 MLB season, Reynolds is batting .444, .500, 1.167  (8 for 18 with a double, two walks, and four homers).  Surely this is unsustainable. Right? Not that I’m all that afraid of another unstoppable Allegheny rise to the top or anything.
.
Haviland: W 1, L (-1); 3 – (-2). (.214, .313, .500; 3 ip, 1 er). Bryce Harper is not one of those prospects we talked about above. Nor is he an older player making an improbable comeback after a detour through the minors.  Harper’s an established expensive star. So we expect him to go 2 for 4 with a homer, double, and walk. Jake Lamb, however, hasn’t established himself at that level — so his 1 for 2 with a homer and two walks may please Dragon fans even more.
Peshastin: W 0, L 2; 6 – 10. (.176, .263, .412;  no pitching). The Pears did not build on Sunday’s success because they sent no one to the mound for either half of the double hitter, except replacements. Joey Gallo ripped another homer, and Jose Iglesias a double, but the rest of the hitting might as well have been replacements, too.
DC:  “W”, 5 – 5. (.200, .200, .600; no pitching).  Like the Pears, only less (with just 10 plate appearances compared to Peshastin’s 19) .
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
New York Yankees 31 13 .705
Boston Red Sox 32 15 .681 0.5
Old Detroit Wolverines 26 18 .583 5.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes 23 21 .529 7.7
Tampa Bay Rays 22 23 .489 9.5
Toronto Blue Jays 22 25 .468 10.5
Baltimore Orioles 15 32 .319 17.5
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 28 18 .609
Philadelphia Phillies 27 18 .600 0.5
Canberra Kangaroos 26 20 .569 1.8
New York Mets 24 19 .558 2.5
Washington Nationals 25 21 .543 3
D.C. Balk 20 26 .431 8.2
Miami Marlins 17 30 .362 11.5
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Cleveland Indians 22 23 .489
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 21 24 .470 0.8
Minnesota Twins 20 23 .465 1
Detroit Tigers 20 27 .426 3
Chicago White Sox 13 31 .295 8.5
Kansas City Royals 14 33 .298 9
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Brookland Outs 30 18 .618
Milwaukee Brewers 29 19 .604 0.7
St. Louis Cardinals 26 19 .578 2.2
Chicago Cubs 25 19 .568 2.7
Pittsburgh Pirates 26 20 .565 2.7
Cottage Cheese 24 24 .496 5.9
Cincinnati Reds 16 32 .333 13.7
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 30 18 .625
Seattle Mariners 27 19 .587 2
Los Angeles Angels 26 21 .553 3.5
Oakland A’s 25 22 .532 4.5
Kaline Drive 24 24 .506 5.7
Haviland Dragons 22 26 .458 8
Texas Rangers 18 31 .367 12.5
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 27 21 .567
Colorado Rockies 26 22 .542 1.2
Arizona Diamondbacks 25 22 .532 1.7
San Francisco Giants 24 24 .500 3.2
Peshastin Pears 21 27 .447 5.7
Los Angeles Dodgers 20 27 .426 6.7
San Diego Padres 20 29 .408 7.7