May’s done. We won’t be able to move on to May’s successor until our June 8 meeting. The contest for leadership will carry on long after we leave May behind. Even if that gets resolved in July, as one would normally expect, we still won’t know the full outcome of all this year’s dramas until October.
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EFL Standings for 2019
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 37 | 19 | .661 | — | 369.7 | 264.6 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 38 | 20 | .647 | 0.5 | 354.1 | 261.4 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 31 | 25 | .559 | 5.7 | 320.7 | 280.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 32 | 25 | .554 | 6 | 320.6 | 288.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 31 | 27 | .530 | 7.3 | 298.1 | 280.2 |
| Kaline Drive | 30 | 28 | .510 | 8.4 | 241.9 | 235.6 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 28 | 28 | .495 | 9.3 | 256.8 | 258.6 |
| Haviland Dragons | 26 | 32 | .441 | 12.4 | 271.9 | 306.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 25 | 31 | .438 | 12.5 | 266.1 | 305.8 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 31 | .431 | 12.8 | 275.9 | 317.0 |
| Brookland Outs | 23 | 32 | .412 | 13.8 | 264.9 | 317.8 |
| D.C. Balk | 21 | 36 | .365 | 16.7 | 242.9 | 320.9 |
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Flint Hill: W, 8 – (-1). (35 PA, .267, .371, .600; 18 ip, 7 er, 3.50 ERA).
Some people have all the luck. Like the Tornados, who came into the last day of May with their starters having pitched 129.7 innings over 27 games. That left them 5.3 innings short, filled with nasty replacement pitchers earning 7.50 ERAs. They were also running almost 5 innings of replacement relief pitching.
The Tornados’ Thunderhead had a literal brainstorm: he used his last May move yesterday morning to increase Jon Duplantier’s allocation by 3%, all the way to 36%, reducing his May replacement relief innings by 0.12 to a mere 4.8.
Miles Mikolas and Tyler Mahle combined Friday for 12 starter innings (and 4 earned runs), eliminating all the replacement starter innings. Mychal Givens provided a perfect scoreless inning of relief… and Jon Duplantier went 5 complete innings — or, at 36%, 1.8 more relief innings.
Give Tornado management credit for squeezing an extra quarter-inning out of Duplantier, but I don’t think they had anything to do with the good fortune of an 18-inning day on the last day of the month erasing almost half of their replacement innings and an entire run from their monthly runs allowed. Neither did they cause Niko Goodrum to go 5 for 5 wth two homers and a double, out of the blue, and the resulting displacement of the Rosebuds from first place.
Unless this is some kind of reward for righteous living.
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Portland: W, 4 – 4. (34 PA, .276, .353, .698; 28.3 ip, 13 er, 4.13 ERA) What is it with these Johnsons? The Rosebuds didn’t have any replacement innings on the books, but they went ahead and racked up 28.3 innings in a single day anyway. They were fine innings, but not great one. And the hitting was the same — both about the level of a .500 team. Which is what they were Friday, scoring 4.3 runs and allowing 3.9. That’s not many runs scored considering all nine Rosebud batters reached safely at least once.
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Old Detroit: L, 2 – 5. (50 PA, .170, .220, .298; 4.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). By contrast, half of the 12 Wolverine “hitters” never reached base safely yesterday, over a cumulative span of 24 plate appearances. The other half batted .348, .423, .609. The W’s got 4.3 scoreless innings from Dereck Rodriguez. Who was 0% active. If luck has to average out, it seems the W’s have paid back the Tornados’ luck bill.
Still, all you Wolverine fans, take heart. Despite the end-of-month mini-collapse, the Wolverines — not the Tornados — won May:
| Team | W | L | PCT | approx GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit | 20 | 8 | 0.731 | — | 188.2 | 114.2 |
| Flint Hill | 19 | 9 | 0.672 | 1.0 | 187.4 | 130.9 |
| Portland | 17 | 9 | 0.648 | 2.0 | 143.3 | 105.6 |
| Peshastin | 15 | 11 | 0.582 | 4.0 | 140.7 | 119.2 |
| Kaline | 15 | 13 | 0.53 | 5.0 | 139 | 130.8 |
| Bellingham | 15 | 14 | 0.509 | 5.5 | 138.4 | 135.9 |
| Brookland | 13 | 13 | 0.482 | 6.0 | 132.4 | 137.3 |
| Haviland | 13 | 15 | 0.461 | 7.0 | 134.1 | 145.1 |
| Canberra | 13 | 15 | 0.452 | 7.0 | 144.9 | 159.7 |
| Pittsburgh | 13 | 16 | 0.445 | 7.5 | 122.6 | 136.8 |
| Cottage | 11 | 15 | 0.429 | 8.0 | 133.9 | 154.4 |
| D.C. | 11 | 17 | 0.376 | 9.0 | 118.6 | 152.9 |
Now where did we put the EFL May Champion’s Trophy?
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Canberra: L, (-1) – 11. (35 PA, .182, .200, .212; 8.7 ip, 9 er, 9.35 ERA) No, wait. Apparently the Tornado luck tab was larger than I thought. Things weren’t square with the universe until Drew Pomeranz went through sextuple-chulk hell with his 1.3 ip, 8 er outing. This served the useful function of keeping the K’s behind the W’s despite the W’s offensive and managerial problems.
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Peshastin: W, 6 – 4. (41 PA, .237, .293, .474; 4.3 ip, 1 er, 2.08 ERA). Juan Soto hasn’t been getting much press. But he earned some yesterday after going 3 for 4 with a double and a homer. That 2.500 daily OPS brought his May OPS to 1.127.
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Kaline: W, 6 – 4. (44 PA, .317, .364, .463; 13 ip, 6 er, 4.15 ERA) The (Tigers and) Drive’s young pitcher Spencer Turnbull capped off the month with a very nice 6 ip, 1 er performance, countaracting most of the damage caused by Jake Arrieta surrendering 5 er in 5 ip. This allowed the Drive to drive through the Alleghenys and sneak into the EFL’s upper division at the end of the month.
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Pittsburgh: L, 2 – 5. (38 PA, .147, .237, .147; 2.3 ip, 1 er, 3.86 ERA). Listen up, Pittsburgh! It’s MARCH that is supposed to go out like a lamb. Not May. Well, ok, if it’s May and you’re May and you’ve failed to achieve Brexit, then, yes, you can go out like a lamb. The sacrificial kind. But that’s the only exception!
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Haviland: W, 5 – 4. (43 PA, .300. .349, .400; 6 ip, 1 er, 1.50 ERA). See, Pittsburgh! Haviland had a month just as frustrating as yours, on top of April being frustrating, too, but they abandoned May with dignity, with their bats held high and their pitcher (Yu Darvish) still blazing. In fact, the difference in how Haviland and Pittsburgh managed May 31 is the reason the Dragons beat the A’s in May.
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Bellingham: W, (-1) – (-1). (27 PA, .154, .148, .154; 11 ip, 2 er, 1.64 ERA). I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a team — not even in the EFL — get a legitimate win while scoring negative runs. But here it is — the Cascades have done it! You scored (-1.3) runs Friday: that’s what a .154, .148, .154 line will do, despite the sacrifice fly. And you allowed (-1.3) runs: that’s what 6 ip, 1 er will often do. It looks like a tie, but these things work like video review. The change to your win-column in the standings is the call on the field, and it stands unless the runs scored/runs allowed numbers clearly show the standings to be illusory. So the call on the field stands: you won the game while scoring -1.3 runs!!
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Cottage: “W”, 7 – 8. (32 PA, .323, .344, .677; 13 ip, 10 er, 6.92 ERA). The Cottage Cheese are serving up so many delicious facts here. First — the Cascades finish May ahead of the Cheese. That’s scrumptious. Second, the Cheese tried to batter their way to a win the old fashioned way — with bats, bOPSing 1.021 — but fell anyway because their pitchers were giving away runs even faster. (And yes, I am nominating bOPSing as the new, euphonious and evocative verb for generating an OPS.) And for a tasty dessert we have Danny Duffy bobbing back over to his dark side (5.3 ip, 6 er) in a possibly vain effort to live up to his billing as the most expensive disappointment in the EFL.
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Brookland: “W”, 4 – 6. (41 PA, .263, .317, .421; no pitching.) Hmm. Pitching is usually a good idea. Especially when you are carrying 23.3 replacement innings. On the other hand, it must be heartening to see Vladdy Jr end the month with a 3 for 4 day, including a double, a homer and a walk. He has had a few sputters at the start, but this day brings his May OPS to .802. Far behind Bellinger’s .998, of course. But there are two other Outs bOPSing even better than Bellinger! Nick Hundley (albeit in only 23 PA) bOPSed 1.032. And Lourdes Gurriel (possibly Jr, or not, if BP would just make up its mind) outdid them all: 1.378 . (Although he also had only 29 PA.)
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DC: L, 4 – 7. (45 PA, .200, .289, .350; 2 ip, 1 er, 4.50 ERA). The Balk didn’t go as quietly as the Pittsburgh Sacrificial Lambs, but they still left May behind with nary a bleat. On the other hand, “Balk” is so much closer to what a lamb says than “Allegheny.” My favorite Balks, Chapman and Astudillo, left May on a good note: 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk for Matt, and 3 for 4 with a hbp for Willians. La Tortuga had a bad month. You can tell this from two stats: he bOPSed .491. And he struck out twice, driving his season total all the way up to 3. That’s one more than his walks, and also one more than his HBP, and one less than his SF, all of these out of 106 plate appearances in 2019.
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If you are like me and dismayed at the trends pushing strikeouts ever further ahead of hits, Willians Astudillo is your hero. He has 27 hits. Three strikeouts. He has 2 homers. He could very well finish the season with more home runs than strikeouts. Which, actually, might be even worse for baseball…
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2019
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| New York Yankees | 37 | 19 | .661 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 37 | 19 | .661 | — |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 35 | 20 | .636 | 1.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 31 | 25 | .559 | 5.7 |
| Boston Red Sox | 29 | 28 | .509 | 8.5 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 21 | 36 | .368 | 16.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 18 | 39 | .316 | 19.5 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 33 | 24 | .579 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 32 | 25 | .554 | 1.4 |
| Atlanta Braves | 30 | 27 | .526 | 3 |
| New York Mets | 28 | 29 | .491 | 5 |
| Washington Nationals | 24 | 33 | .421 | 9 |
| D.C. Balk | 21 | 36 | .365 | 12.2 |
| Miami Marlins | 19 | 36 | .345 | 13 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Minnesota Twins | 38 | 18 | .679 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 28 | 28 | .495 | 10.3 |
| Chicago White Sox | 28 | 29 | .491 | 10.5 |
| Cleveland Indians | 28 | 29 | .491 | 10.5 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 25 | 31 | .438 | 13.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 22 | 32 | .407 | 15 |
| Kansas City Royals | 19 | 38 | .333 | 19.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 31 | 24 | .564 | — |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 32 | 26 | .552 | 0.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 28 | 28 | .500 | 3.5 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 28 | 28 | .500 | 3.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 27 | 30 | .474 | 5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 31 | .431 | 7.3 |
| Brookland Outs | 23 | 32 | .412 | 8.3 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 38 | 20 | .655 | — |
| Kaline Drive | 30 | 28 | .510 | 8.4 |
| Texas Rangers | 28 | 27 | .509 | 8.5 |
| Oakland A’s | 29 | 28 | .509 | 8.5 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 27 | 30 | .474 | 10.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 26 | 32 | .441 | 12.4 |
| Seattle Mariners | 25 | 35 | .417 | 14 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 39 | 19 | .672 | — |
| Portland Rosebuds | 38 | 20 | .647 | 1.5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 31 | 27 | .530 | 8.2 |
| San Diego Padres | 30 | 27 | .526 | 8.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 29 | 27 | .518 | 9 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 28 | 30 | .483 | 11 |
| San Francisco Giants | 22 | 34 | .393 | 16 |
Did you notice? The Flint Hill Tornados have the exact same record as the New York Yankees. Same record, same winning percentage, neither one even smidgen behind the other.
They’re of identical quality in every material respect. Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know?