“Go get it out of the ocean.”

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	46	21	.680	—	406.5	279.6
Flint Hill Tornadoes	42	23	.652	2.2	422.8	308.1
Old Detroit Wolverines	37	28	.570	7.5	363.3	312.8
Peshastin Pears	36	31	.537	9.6	344.8	319.9
Canberra Kangaroos	35	31	.525	10.5	365.5	350.4
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	33	31	.509	11.5	299.1	292.6
Kaline Drive	32	35	.475	13.8	273.9	291.4
Haviland Dragons	31	36	.468	14.2	320.8	342.7
Bellingham Cascades	28	36	.436	16.2	308.5	354.9
Cottage Cheese	27	39	.415	17.7	338.2	404.7
Brookland Outs	26	40	.398	18.8	316.0	391.7
D.C. Balk	24	42	.370	20.7	281.8	368.2

       Historians will conclude the turning point in the 2019 pennant race was when the Outs advertised their willingness to trade key players for future value. The Wolverines (and others) rushed to respond with trade proposals.  At one point that morning, Out management wrote to me “Devers and a draft pick are nothing to sneeze at” but they weren’t going to be enough to snag Cory Bellinger. A few minutes later the Outs announced they had traded Charlie Morton and cash to the Rosebuds for a 2020 first round rookie draft pick!

        Rats! The Wolverines could have topped that offer. We were too busy being Bellinger-greedy. Meanwhile the Rosebuds were getting Morton – who as of this morning has pitched 14 scoreless innings in June. He’ll probably pitch 100 more scoreless innings before the season is over. And that will be the winning difference. Sigh. (And no, it doesn’t help to know Morton hasn’t been the Rosebuds’ best pitcher so far, because Chris Sale has 16 scoreless innings in June.)

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Flint Hill: W 5, L 4; 53 – 44. (344 PA, .253, .326, .490;  72 ip, 47 er, 5.88 ERA).

      The Morton-Sale rocket blasted the Rosebuds into first place  even though the Tornados have a winning record so far in June.  Mike Trout is batting .353, .511, .882 so far, helping the Tornados keep up with the Rosebuds at the plate. But the Tornado who has pitched the most innings without allowing an earned run is Mychal Givens at 2.3 innings. That would be good for FOURTH best on the Rosebuds.

      On Sunday, the Wolverines had one of those nail-biter days.  My Madison Bumgarner faced my Walker Buehler — my veteran ace and my up-and-coming ace.  Also, Max Muncy was in the Dodger lineup.

      On such days all you can do is hope the score is low, but your hitter is the one that has a great day.  He should wait to do anything that scores an earned run until after your ace is out of the game — say, in the 8th or 9th inning. But every reasonable person knows you can’t expect reality to conform to your needs so precisely. It’s far more likely your hitter will go 0 for 5 with a double play or two, while every other batter on both teams bashes, and your pitchers both double chulk.

      Except on Sunday it went almost PERFECTLY for the W’s.  The Dodgers won, but only 1 – 0.  Both pitchers were brilliant over 7 innings.  And the Wolverine hitter did ALL the damage.

      The only problem: Muncy forgot to wait until Bumgarner was out of the game. He blasted a home run into McCovey Cove in the first inning (with bases empty, of course).

      Muncy paused at the plate while he watched his rocket soar completely out of the park on its way to San Francisco Bay. The press said he was enjoying the spectacle.  But look at his face. There’s no elation there. In fact, it looks more rueful.  It’s because he was saying to himself, “Uh oh. I forgot to wait until MadBum was out of the game.”

      Bumgarner walked over toward the first base line, yelling and gesticulating. The press says he was angry with Muncy for not running a little faster. But that’s not what he was doing. He was reassuring Max. “No problem, Max, don’t just stand there,” he said. “Go ahead and run around the bases.”

      “If you want to do that over, you can go get it out of the ocean,” Max offered.

      “That’s ok,” said Bumgarner. “It’s no big. Go on around the bases, Max, enjoy yourself.”

      Max’s heart was so warmed by that encouragement, he motioned Madison over for a hug, or possibly to join him in rounding the bases.  But Madison was already conversing with the umpire about how much he appreciated Max.

Peshastin: W 5, L 4; 47 – 40. (351 PA, .255, .342, .448;  57.7 ip, 21 er, 3.28 ERA).

                                                                                                                                                                Joey Gallo had one at-bat in June before getting hurt. It was a homer, giving him a June OPS of 5.000, and 1,139,791.21 runs created per game (according to our database). Next best is JaCoby Jones, at 11 for 28 with 2 doubles, 3 homers and 2 walks (1.219) — that’s 15.57 runs created per game. So Gallo was only about 100,000 times better.  Albies, Eaton, and Frazier are all over 1,000 OPS as well, giving the Pears offensive production similar to the teams above them. With the fine team ERA of 3.28, the Pears should be gaining on even the Rosebuds. But they aren’t. This is because they are using replacements — about 6 replacement innings, and 12 replacement PA (1b, 3b)  plus suppressing about 23 plate appearances in the OF, OH and shortstop. These raise the team ERA to 3.63, and lower the rc/g to 5.19.

      The Kangaroo offense seems to be in line with the consensus EFL effort, but their starters are struggling.  Here are their June ERA:  Matz – 5.24; Pineda – 5.40; Snell – 6.10; Lucchesi – 7.20; Toussaint – 7.71.  Drew Pomeranz sports a 0.00 ERA, but it’s only in 5 innings, and those are only counting 50%. With a skiff of replacement innings (about 11) the team ERA balloons to 6.15.

Pittsburgh: W 5, L 3; 43 – 34. (386 PA, .253, .316, .460;  73.3 ip, 36 er, 4.42 ERA).

      Remember the Rosebuds’ three 0.00 ERA pitchers, covering a total of 35 innings (essentially 4 entire games)?  The Alleghenys have two 0.00 ERA pitchers (Trevor Gott and Dillon Maples) covering 3.667 innings — about one tenth as many.   Outfielders Byron Buxton (1.171 OPS) and Dominic Smith (1.154 OPS to go with his 0.000 defense) lead the Allegheny attack so far this month.

Kaline: W 2, L 7; 33 – 56. (376 PA, .223, .287, .415; 60 ip, 34 er, 5.10 ERA).

       A sudden slump in Kaline has left the drive under .500 in the bottom half of the league. Jared Hughes and Shane Greene have combined to amass 5.0 scoreless innings, and the ghost of Adam Wainwright is doing fine (12.3 ip, 3 er, 2.19 ERA), but the rest of the staff has 42.7 ip with 31 earned runs, plus a few replacement innings, coming close to 7.00 ERA. Todd Frazier is having a great month (1.217 OPS over 30 plate appearances) but the next best hitters are Danny Santana at .987 OPS  and Hunter Renfroe at .904 OPS.  Then it goes downhill pretty fast.

      Every Dragon hurler has given up at least 1 earned run, but only one (Brandon Brennan, 4 er, 4 ip) has really stunk. Maybe two, if you count Domingo German (9.7 ip, 6.52 ERA).  Meanwhile the other Brandon (Lowe) is arguably the Dragons’ leading hitter (1.070 OPS over 34 PA).   Recall, Brandon L had to suffer a heart-wrenching separation from his brother when Nate was dealt to the Rosebuds. But then the Dragons wondrously snagged Nate Lowe off the EWW! This restored to the Dragons Nate’s 1 for 3 with a walk from June 1.

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Bellingham: W 3, L 5; 42 – 49. (304 PA, .264, .326, .431; 33 ip, 15 er, 4.09 ERA). The Cascades would be towering over some of the lower regions of the league if only they had not needed 23 replacement innings. (The team stats page doesn’t show any replacement innings, but we are trying to get that little glitch fixed.  The team stats page DOES add them into the team’s monthly totals.) The offense is fine, and the pitching is fine when it’s real pitchers.  Even with those replacements, it should be noted that the Cascades DO loom over the Cheese, who sponsored their invitation to join the league. That’s a delicious morsel.

Cottage: W 3, L 8; 62 – 88. (320 PA, .307, .363, .493; 38 ip, 32 er, 7.58 ERA).  If you are going to keep up with the Andres of the world, you probably had better pitch better than your replacements. Duffy (15.43 ERA), Skaggs (11.25 ERA) and especially Smyly (17.05 ERA over 6.3 innings) are sinking the Cheese’s ship almost all by themselves. With half their innings coming from replacements, perhaps the real pitchers are just being tender about the replacements’ feelings, not wanting to show them up. If so, that’s ok, it’s the Head Cheese’s choice. But they’ll have to accept a slow drift to the bottom of the standings.

Brookland: W 3, L 8; 51 – 74. (350 PA, .244, .326, .466; 45.7 ip, 22 er, 4.34 ERA). Another team with a large load of replacement pitching weighing them down. I heard John Johnson mutter, when I brought up Travis d’Arnaud for the Outs, “that’s a clever pick.”  Perhaps he was referring to d’Arnaud’s 7 for 14 June batting line with a double and three homers plus two walks for a shiny 1.744 OPS. Perhaps … but as of the morning of our draft, he was only 3 for 6.  Saturday he went 2 for 4 with a homer — did John already know that had happened (or would happen)?  And on Sunday he went 2 for 4 again, with a double.  Did John already know about that?  It’s spooky what John knows.  And Brooks, apparently, too!

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DC: W 3, L 8; 39 – 47.  (368 PA, .254, .323, .399; 61.7 ip, 31 er, 4.52 ERA).  Not quite enough innings to avoid replacements, and weighed down by Kevin Gausman and Daniel Mengden combining for 9.7 ip, 15 earned runs allowed. Richie Martin is panning out nicely in June so far: 6 for 19 with 2 homers and 2 walks for a 1.013 OPS. Brock Holt is batting .500 over 20 AB, too.

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AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Flint Hill Tornadoes	42	23	.652	—
Tampa Bay Rays	41	24	.631	1.4
New York Yankees	40	24	.625	1.9
Old Detroit Wolverines	37	28	.570	5.4
Boston Red Sox	34	33	.507	9.4
Toronto Blue Jays	23	42	.354	19.4
Baltimore Orioles	20	45	.308	22.4

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Atlanta Braves	37	29	.561	—
Philadelphia Phillies	37	29	.561	—
Canberra Kangaroos	35	31	.525	2.4
New York Mets	32	33	.492	4.5
Washington Nationals	31	35	.470	6
D.C. Balk	24	42	.370	12.6
Miami Marlins	23	41	.359	13

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Minnesota Twins	43	21	.672	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	33	31	.509	10.4
Cleveland Indians	33	32	.508	10.5
Chicago White Sox	31	34	.477	12.5
Bellingham Cascades	28	36	.436	15.1
Detroit Tigers	24	38	.387	18
Kansas City Royals	20	45	.308	23.5

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Milwaukee Brewers	38	28	.576	—
Chicago Cubs	36	28	.563	1
St. Louis Cardinals	32	32	.500	5
Pittsburgh Pirates	30	35	.462	7.5
Cincinnati Reds	29	35	.453	8
Cottage Cheese	27	39	.415	10.6
Brookland Outs	26	40	.398	11.8

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	45	22	.672	—
Texas Rangers	35	30	.538	9
Oakland A’s	33	34	.493	12
Los Angeles Angels	32	35	.478	13
Kaline Drive	32	35	.475	13.2
Haviland Dragons	31	36	.468	13.7
Seattle Mariners	28	41	.406	18

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	46	21	.680	—
Los Angeles Dodgers	45	22	.672	0.6
Peshastin Pears	36	31	.537	9.6
Colorado Rockies	34	31	.523	10.6
Arizona Diamondbacks	35	32	.522	10.6
San Diego Padres	33	33	.500	12.1
San Francisco Giants	26	38	.406	18.1