Here’s some random stuff so you have something to read while awaiting real EFL updates.
- In a contest perfectly timed to help fill our start-of-the-month gap in EFL news, England just beat India in the first of their five international test cricket matches. It was fairly close — England 467, India 436. That’s close enough for the BBC to call it a “thriller.” And perhaps it was: the test, scheduled for 5 days, took only 4. (Thrilling for those who bought tickets for the fourth day, sure. But what if you were the unlucky chap who had tickets for the 5th day, expecting to see the culminating 6 hours of a 30-hour contest? And they wonder why cricket ticket sales aren’t booming.) But here’s the big news, the reason why I am bringing it up: this was England’s 1000th international test match, dating back to 1877. Think of it: in 141 years, England has had only 2000 international test innings at the bat. Of course, most of those innings went for 10 outs, so it’s more like about 6000 baseball innings, or about 4 seasons’ worth.
- After three days of August competition, here are our raw stats (with rosters in their current state as of this morning) (you may need to expand your window or scroll right to see all of this ):
| Tm | AB | H | 2b | 3b | hr | w | hbp | sb | cs | sf | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | ip | er | era | |
| OD | 75 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0.440 | 0.512 | 0.813 | 1.324 | 61 | 40 | 13 | 2.93 | |
| PR | 99 | 26 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.263 | 0.354 | 0.485 | 0.839 | 48 | 15.3 | 4 | 2.35 | |
| BO | 87 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0.207 | 0.320 | 0.345 | 0.665 | 30 | 6.7 | 3 | 4.03 | |
| CK | 92 | 29 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0.315 | 0.376 | 0.511 | 0.887 | 47 | 6.7 | 12 | 16.12 | |
| CC | 97 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.289 | 0.349 | 0.598 | 0.947 | 58 | 22.7 | 20 | 7.93 | |
| PA | 58 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.172 | 0.200 | 0.362 | 0.562 | 21 | 18 | 2 | 1.00 | |
| KD | 93 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0.258 | 0.317 | 0.430 | 0.747 | 40 | 28 | 19 | 6.11 | |
| FH | 94 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0.234 | 0.280 | 0.340 | 0.620 | 32 | 27.3 | 17 | 5.60 | |
| HD | 67 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.269 | 0.355 | 0.522 | 0.878 | 35 | 21 | 11 | 4.71 | |
| PP | 113 | 33 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.292 | 0.350 | 0.558 | 0.907 | 63 | 9 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| DC | 108 | 28 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.259 | 0.342 | 0.333 | 0.675 | 36 | 23.7 | 14 | 5.32 |
- While there is a correlation between place in the standings and performance so far in August, the standout outliers are the Pears, who may find themselves moving rapidly down the Rookie Draft order if they don’t turn things around.
- The Wolverines are a little light on plate appearances, so some replacements may mar that shiny offensive line. On the other hand, they have some extra pitching so they could set aside a few uncomfortable innings — or trade some away.
- Mookie Betts played second base last night. Great — the Rosebuds can play him there, too — but not until September. And he’ll only be a 6 defensively there.
- Canberra is lugging around an ugly ERA mostly because of a quintuple chulk by Matt Albers (1 ip, 5 er). As our rotations rotate maybe the ‘Roos will produce some better pitching to heal that wound. Stephen Matz’ trip to the DL won’t help in that regard.
- A rash of injuries! Ian Kinsler (HD) and Wil Myers (CC) are the latest, joining Matz, Blake Swihart (PA), Jake Lamb (HD), Carlos Martinez (PR), Jesse Winker (KD), Dan Altavilla (CK), Stephen Strasburg (PA), Kris Bryant (KD), Yu Darvish (HD), Erick Fedde (CC) and more. Including Kolten Wong, who is supposed to come off the DL today.