The Johnson boys have had this big lead for months. Even teams as close as third place are — I can attest — struggling to maintain hope to make an impact on the pennant race.
The year the Wolverines finished deep in the bottom division, I had trouble caring much when my team slipped from 4th to 5th to 6th to 7th. I did care, but what I cared about was the awful certainty that the W’s were not going to challenge anyone at the top of the standings.
But late in the season it sank it that the W’s had company in their slide. The Canberra Kangaroos were sinking, too, far from the league leaders, but always in the vicinity of the W’s. It dawned on me that there was something still at stake. If the ‘Roos beat the Woeverines, even for 7th place, when would I hear the end of it? That was enough. I watched the stats with renewed vigor, willing my team to scrape together an extra win or two.
In the end the W’s slide ended in 8th place. The ‘Roos? They were ninth, which I believe was their worst finish ever. The Mock family sagged in unison in the EFL standings that year, but at least it wasn’t a rout. We retreated in the proper order
We are in the dog days of August for sure now. The Johnson Cartel clearly has no intention of letting anyone else into the championship market. Unless the Wolverines’ secret plan works (or the even more desperate machinations of some team even further from the top), the pennant race will be a two-man fraternal row until it’s over.
So let’s explore how the rest of us can have some satisfying competitive fun for the last few weeks of the season.
EFL Standings for 2019
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Portland Rosebuds | 77 | 42 | .649 | — | 736.3 | 539.9 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 74 | 43 | .631 | 2.4 | 737.1 | 559.9 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 68 | 49 | .581 | 8.3 | 668.7 | 564.9 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 64 | 53 | .550 | 11.9 | 605.5 | 537.5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 62 | 57 | .520 | 15.4 | 627.7 | 599.6 |
| Haviland Dragons | 60 | 57 | .515 | 16 | 641.6 | 615.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 59 | 60 | .499 | 17.8 | 664.2 | 669.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 58 | 59 | .495 | 18.3 | 554.2 | 562.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 53 | 64 | .451 | 23.5 | 559.4 | 620.9 |
| Cottage Cheese | 52 | 65 | .448 | 23.8 | 658.7 | 714.0 |
| Brookland Outs | 48 | 69 | .413 | 27.9 | 576.9 | 688.5 |
| D.C. Balk | 46 | 73 | .384 | 31.6 | 521.4 | 662.9 |
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Portland: W, 13 – 7. (52 PA, .326, .385, .848; 9.7 ip, 7 er, 6.52 ERA).
The Rosebuds blasted 7 home runs. Yordan Alvarez (whom I had never noticed before the ‘Buds drafted them) and Aristide Aquino (ditto) hit 3 each. Stupid baseball, so light this year. I think the dimples on the ball was going a step too far. At least Portland pitchers gave some back: they surrendered 3 homers.
Flint Hill: L, 1 – 8. (51 PA, .192, .294, .523; no pitching).
Tornado pitchers, on the other hand, were hiding in their storm cellars. This is perfectly understandable given the homer hurricane we are having this year. But still, it seems in poor form for Tornado hurlers to hunker in their bunker just because the winds are blowing out with extra force (assuming that’s the cause of the 2019 homer storm).
On another point, the T’s got only 1 run (approximately) from a day in which they hit four homers! This is partly because BP doesn’t count the homers, just the total bases compared to the outs made (to way oversimplify the runs created per game formula). Those four homers, plus a triple, a double, and two singles, made a .523 slugging percentage, but the team made 36 outs — actually, 39 counting the three double plays. So that’s almost 1 1/2 game’s worth of outs. It also didn’t help that the best hitter, rc/g-wise, was Teoscar Hernandez (1 for 2 with a homer and two walks, for a team-leading 2.750 OPS). But T-oscar is in the T-nado doghouse, apparently. He was offered (and rejected) as trade bait a week ago. And he’s only active 50% this month. So his efforts were mostly unappreciated.
Old Detroit: W, 4 – 0. (53 PA, .224, .283, .510; 9.7 ip, 4 er, 3.72 ERA).
The W’s pretty much duplicated the Tornado batting line, including the 39 outs (there was on GDP). But the OD pitchers braved the hostile elements, surrendering only 1 homer. Most encouraging was the return of Andrew Heaney (3.7 ip, 1 er) from the MLB IL! That should trouble the Johnson Gang’s dreams! No? Then get a load of this: Sunday’s Wolverine batting line will feature numbers about 75% better than Saturday’s.
Who am I kidding? The W’s are almost 5 games behind the T’s and over 8 behind the Rosebuds. They won’t even pay any attention to the W’s fate. However, one team I suspect WILL pay attention, because its owner enjoys pounding the W’s hopes into the ground. I suspect he enjoys it even when the W’s are only hoping to finish third. How do I know? Because the Alleghenys are the EFL team which has beaten the W’s the most times in the past 15 years.
Pittsburgh: W, 8 – 0. (43 PA, .167, .302, .278; 7.3 ip, 2 er, 2.45 ERA).
Hmmm. Something is amiss. There’s no way a .580 OPS can produce 8 runs scored. Hold on, A’s fans. As soon as we can, Jamie, Dave and I will find out what happened here. I have a theory… We’ll also check to see if the problem might have affected other teams. (LATER NOTE: the Wolverines’ 0 runs allowed doesn’t make sense either, now that I look at it. Both the W’s pitchers Saturday are allocated at 0%, so there should have been at least 4 runs allowed if the W’s had enough stored up pitching, or up to 7 if they had to use replacements.)
While we await the results of the inquiry, we provide this Jose Altuve stat line for your viewing pleasure: 6 AB, 3 h, 1 2b, 1 hr: 1.667 OPS.
Peshastin: W, 4 – (-1). (41 PA, .222, .317, .528; 11 ip, 0 er, o.00 ERA).
No obvious glitches here: if your team pitches a LOT of innings, and allows no earned runs, your runs allowed will decline. Also, Juan Soto went 2 for 3 with 2 homers and a walk for a fine 1.833 OPS. Then he hurt himself. Peshastin has let the Alleghenys get away a bit — the A’s are 3.5 games ahead after Saturday. So maybe the Pears aren’t thinking that much about catching Pittsburgh at the moment. Instead, I think their worries focus more on what’s going on just behind them, threatening to dislodge them from a respectable 5th place finish.
Haviland: “L”, 8 – 5. (35 PA, .294, .314, .618; 6.3 ip, 3 er, 4.26 ERA).
The Dragons were following the Tornados’ approach, too, except the did everything about 20 – 30% better: higher batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage all across the board. Still, an isolated power (slugging percentage – batting average) of over .300 is a monster result. Haviland had only 3 homers and two doubles, but they also were very economical in plate appearances. Still, the Pears doubled their narrow lead over the Dragons to 0.6 games.
Canberra: “L”, 8 – 5. (31 PA, .367, .387, .767; 3 ip, 0 er, 0 era).
The Kangaroo diet right now is probably too low on calories. 31 plate appearances per game COULD in theory be enough, if all the players are calibrated just right and all the positions are covered. In this case, though, only 8 batters batted. Alex Bregman batted like he was three players (3 for 3 with two doubles and a homer, for a 3.667 OPS), but he can’t cover both 3b and 1b (or OH, wherever Rhys Hoskins wasn’t playing Saturday night.) The ‘Roos have to step it up just a bit to finish above .500 and catch one or more of the teams ahead of them.
Kaline: W, 11 – 3. (63 PA, .321, .397, .750; 16.3 ip, 8 er, 4.41 ERA).
The Kangaroos and the Drive had sort of the same shape to their day, especially at the plate, but nowhere near the same size. The Drive had twice as many plate appearances, involving more than twice as many batters (17!) They got almost exactly the same batting line, but the results were more robust because of the greater volume. The Drive did get a batter — Hunter Renfroe — posting a perfect 3 for 3 with two doubles and a homer (and a walk): good for a 3.667 OPS for the day. This put the Drive only 0.5 games behind the ‘Roos for 7th place. In other words, they cut the deficit in half in one day, essentially on volume.
Bellingham: L, 2 – 9. (22 PA, .158 .273, .158; 1.7 ip, 2 er, 10.80 ERA).
The Cascades had far too little on the field — about 75% of the minimum plate appearances to avoid replacements, and only about 1/5 of the innings. On the other hand, small is beautiful when the team is having a bad day. Those 22 plate appearances produced 3 singles, 3 walks, and 16 outs. And Craig Stammen chulked (1 ip, 2 er) but it was at least a small chulk. And besides, in the most important race to Cascade fans – the hottest race of all, or at least of the bottom 10 teams — this hyper-minimal was just fine because…
Cottage: L, 1 – 7. (33 PA, .2.50, .273, .469; no pitching)
… the Cheese were doing their own version of minimalism: getting only about half a game’s worth of work from your players, but make them all be hitters so you can blame the pitchers (who were apparently sharing storm cellars with the Tornados). New Cheese Corey Dickerson celebrated his new team (in EFL and MLB, too) with an outfield error followed by a home run… sort of a wash. But from an EFL perspective, the homer outweighs the error because the homer has a direct impact on the standings while the error has to pass through the alimentary canal known as our defense rating system before it affects the Cheese.
Brookland: L, 3 – 7. (24 PA, .218, .333, .381; 1 ip, 0 er, 0 ERA).
I know Brookland is in Washington, D.C., and I know August is the dead month in D.C. when everyone is on vacation. But you have to convince the Outs that there really are games being played pretty much every day, and only having six hitters and a relief pitcher show up is not going to build fan loyalty.
DC: W, 6 – 1. (35 PA, .222, .400, .444; 8 ip, 4 er, 4.50 ERA)
In the country of the blind, they say, the one-eyed man is king. Although I remember being forced in high school to read a story where the one-eyed man who visited a country of the blind was treated by the vast majority of the population as freakish and probably dangerously insane. (He couldn’t convince them, for example, that the bird song they were hearing was made by small flying animals). Except — my memory of this story is very fuzzy — for one young woman who was on the fringes of society because she had fully formed (albeit blind) rounded eyeballs while everyone else’s eyeballs were flat. There was a potential romance in this, as I recall, but I think it didn’t end well for the one-eyed man. (I may not have finished the story. I knew by high school that you didn’t have to actually read every page to get by in a literature class.) (That is confidential right? You won’t tell Melanie I said that, right?)
Rob is a librarian. He should probably look this story up and take counsel. In the EFL’s land of the replacement players, running a full lineup out there (10 batters!) with 5 pitchers completing a home game victory, your neighbors may decide you are freakish and probably dangerous. You should be king of this part of the league, but look where you are being held prisoner! Also, be careful about going out alone at night.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| New York Yankees | 76 | 41 | .650 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 74 | 43 | .631 | 2.1 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 68 | 49 | .581 | 8.1 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 68 | 50 | .576 | 8.5 |
| Boston Red Sox | 62 | 57 | .521 | 15 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 49 | 71 | .408 | 28.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 38 | 78 | .328 | 37.5 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 69 | 50 | .580 | — |
| Washington Nationals | 61 | 55 | .526 | 6.5 |
| New York Mets | 61 | 56 | .521 | 7 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 60 | 57 | .513 | 8 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 59 | 60 | .499 | 9.6 |
| D.C. Balk | 46 | 73 | .384 | 23.4 |
| Miami Marlins | 44 | 72 | .379 | 23.5 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Minnesota Twins | 71 | 46 | .607 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 70 | 47 | .598 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 64 | 53 | .550 | 6.6 |
| Chicago White Sox | 52 | 63 | .452 | 18 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 53 | 64 | .451 | 18.3 |
| Kansas City Royals | 42 | 76 | .356 | 29.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 35 | 79 | .307 | 34.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 63 | 54 | .538 | — |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 62 | 56 | .525 | 1.5 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 60 | 55 | .522 | 2 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 56 | 59 | .487 | 6 |
| Cottage Cheese | 52 | 65 | .448 | 10.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 48 | 68 | .414 | 14.5 |
| Brookland Outs | 48 | 69 | .413 | 14.7 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 77 | 40 | .658 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 66 | 51 | .564 | 11 |
| Haviland Dragons | 60 | 57 | .515 | 16.7 |
| Texas Rangers | 58 | 58 | .500 | 18.5 |
| Kaline Drive | 58 | 59 | .495 | 19 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 57 | 61 | .483 | 20.5 |
| Seattle Mariners | 48 | 701 | .064 | 345 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 78 | 41 | .655 | — |
| Portland Rosebuds | 77 | 42 | .649 | 0.7 |
| Peshastin Pears | 62 | 57 | .520 | 16.2 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 59 | 58 | .504 | 18 |
| San Francisco Giants | 58 | 60 | .492 | 19.5 |
| San Diego Padres | 55 | 61 | .474 | 21.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 52 | 65 | .444 | 25 |