League Updates

The Commissioner is Happy!

Going into this season I had the following goals:

  1. Rebalance our model so we wouldn’t dominate the MLB so much.
  2. Have the Wolverines in the pennant race.
  3. Make sure the league allows upward mobility for teams not in the Tri- or Du- umvirate.
  4. Have a rip-roaring pennant race.
  5. Have some new characters in the race this year
  6. Make sure the Outs were treated fairly as an expansion team.

A couple of notes about these goals:

A.  I am being pretty frank here. Goal #2 is not like the others, and probably shouldn’t be so high if I was really a Christian fantasy commissioner.

B.  I have no control over #4 and #5.  One of the things I’ve learned a lot about lately is how dicey it is when you have important, cherished goals about things you don’t have any control over.

C.  Is it possible to succeed too well?  Sometimes I think so, about goal #6.  Mostly on days when #6 gets in the way of #2.

Like today, a little.  Although much less today than yesterday.

Just one more reason the Commissioner is happy.

 

EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Canberra Kangaroos 30 21 .582 235.4 199.3
Brookland Outs 31 23 .569 0.5 273.0 238.8
Portland Rosebuds 30 23 .566 0.7 242.5 211.9
Old Detroit Wolverines 30 23 .565 0.8 219.7 193.2
Flint Hill Tornadoes 28 25 .521 3.1 226.6 217.1
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 25 25 .496 6.1  266.0 271.5
Cottage Cheese 26 28 .486 4.9 277.8 284.9
Kaline Drive 26 28 .485 5.0 228.8 234.9
Haviland Dragons 23 31 .431 7.9 223.0 256.3
Peshastin Pears 22 31 .422 8.4 220.4 259.8
D.C. Balk 21 30 .407 9 201.0 243.6
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Canberra: W 1, L 1; 5 – 9. (.125, .239, .275;  1 ip, 0 er). The Kangaroos uncharacteristically sort of backed into first place. In fact, this has to be one of the least impressive taking-over-first-place days in history. The offense over two games consisted mostly of Jonathan Lucroy’s homer.  One inning of effective relief. And that’s how you reach the top in the modern EFL, by the team which has reached the top of the EFL the most often this year.
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Brookland: “W”, 2 – 4. (.200, .310, .340;  2 ip, 1 er)  Christian Arroyo went 2 for 2 with a double and 2 walks. Bellinger and Chirinos homered  And that’s pretty much everything to write home about.
Portland: W (-1), L 2; 3 – 12. (.258, .324, .419;  21.3 ip, 16 er). Anthony Rendon homered, doubled, and walked in four trips to the plate to lead a decent offense, but Portland pitchers performed pitifully, especially Kevin Gausman (2.7 ip, 7er).
Old Detroit: W, 3 – 3. (.191, .296, .319; 8 ip, 2 er).  Walker Buehler pitched brilliantly (7 ip, 1 er, 8 so, 0 bb), which was just enough for the W’s to eke out a real win by less than a run.  This was the only real win recorded in the EFL — an extremely rare outcome.  (Had Carlos Gonzalez been active this one day, his 4 for 4 with a homer might have elevated the W’s very close to first place!)
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Flint Hill: “W”, 5 – 7. (.344, .367, .563; 3.3 ip 1 er). It looks like the Tornados should have done better. But 2 out of their 3.7 ip were by players active at 0% (Blake Parker, Tanner Scott) and their best hitters on the day (Gattis: 1.667 OPS, Pirela: 1.750 OPS) are both less than 100% active.
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Pittsburgh: W 1, L (-1); 2 – (-7). (.333, .417, .429; 6 ip, 0 er).  For the second day in a row, I first updated the Alleghenys with their entire year-to-date stats.  So some versions of the standings you might have seen might show them in 8th place.   In fact, I suspect that 2 runs scored is understated — I may not have hand-corrected the runs scored yesterday when I redid the Allegheny update. I will try to get it right tomorrow.  At any rate, the Alleghenys have made a move in the standings, which is the tiny cloud on my sunny horizon. And their move is the only thing that kept the EFL from slipping under .500 for the season.  So I’d say we’ve recalibrated things enough on the EFL/MLB competitiveness balance.

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Cottage: L, 2 – 9. (.208, .296, .250; 2 ip, 2 er).  Lots of 2’s in the Cheese’s numbers!  Unfortunately, those 2’s s rendered the offense as listless as replacements. And it’s a good thing the pitching was so thin, because it was worse than replacement.
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Kaline: L, 2 – 2. (.138, .286, .276; 4.7 ip, 0 er). Three relievers did a good job covering more than half a game, which is how the Drive nearly got a win with sub-replacement hitting. Ian Desmond homered and drove in two runs to achieve the virtual tie.
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Haviland: L, 2 – 6. (.200, .277, .375; 2 ip, 0 er) The offense was in the neighborhood of replacement level.  The pitching was thin. The result was as expected for that comnbination of modest offense and skinny pitching.
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Peshastin: L, 5 – 7. (.229, .289, .457; 7 ip, 5 er).  They hit well, those Pears, at least by Wolverine standards, led by middle infielders Javier Baez (2. for 5 with a homer) and Devon Travis (2 for 3 with a double and a walk).  They pitched poorly, “led” by Robert Gsellman’s triple chulk (0.7 ip, 2 er).
DC:  W 1, L 1; 6 – 12.  (.220, .256, .293; 2 ip, 3 er).  This was the predominant EFL pattern Sunday: poor hitting and skinny pitching.  At least the Balk only lost 0.1 game in the standings, since the same affliction is affecting the top of the table about as much as the bottom.
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Boston Red Sox 36 17 .679
New York Yankees 33 16 .673 1
Old Detroit Wolverines 30 23 .565 6.1
Flint Hill Tornadoes 28 25 .521 8.4
Tampa Bay Rays 25 26 .490 10
Toronto Blue Jays 25 28 .472 11
Baltimore Orioles 17 36 .321 19
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 30 21 .588
Canberra Kangaroos 30 21 .582 0.3
Philadelphia Phillies 29 21 .580 0.5
Washington Nationals 29 22 .569 1
New York Mets 25 24 .510 4
D.C. Balk 21 30 .407 9.3
Miami Marlins 19 33 .365 11.5
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Cleveland Indians 25 25 .500
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 25 25 .496 0.2
Minnesota Twins 21 26 .447 2.5
Detroit Tigers 22 29 .431 3.5
Chicago White Sox 16 33 .327 8.5
Kansas City Royals 17 35 .327 9
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Milwaukee Brewers 34 20 .630
Brookland Outs 31 23 .569 3.3
St. Louis Cardinals 28 22 .560 4
Chicago Cubs 27 22 .551 4.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 28 24 .538 5
Cottage Cheese 26 28 .486 7.7
Cincinnati Reds 19 35 .352 15
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 34 20 .630
Seattle Mariners 32 20 .615 1
Los Angeles Angels 29 24 .547 4.5
Oakland A’s 28 25 .528 5.5
Kaline Drive 26 28 .485 7.8
Haviland Dragons 23 31 .431 10.7
Texas Rangers 22 33 .400 12.5
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 30 23 .566
Colorado Rockies 28 25 .528 2
Arizona Diamondbacks 26 26 .500 3.5
San Francisco Giants 25 28 .472 5
Los Angeles Dodgers 24 28 .462 5.5
Peshastin Pears 22 31 .422 7.7
San Diego Padres 22 32 .407 8.5