Today was the first day of classes at GF. The river of life has dragged us, helpless, past another marker of summer’s end, from which there is no return. If your team is not in the pennant race now, it’s not going to be.
Which is depressing, depending on how you define “in the pennant race.” This year the pennant race hasn’t really even been a race. I guess it’s still technically a race when the competitors are going as fast as they can. But if this race were in space we wouldn’t even be able to tell we were moving. The teams at the top have been in the same position relative to each other since May.
I heard someone say yesterday the Diamonbacks have been within 2 games of .500 for 52 days. They were again this morning, and will be again tomorrow morning. This run has set a new major league record in a year in which I’m sure we’ve seen a major league record number of major league records.
The D-Backs can only aspire to what’s happening in the EFL. When the Wolverines started being 7-ish games behind the Rosebuds, the W’s were well under .500. Now their winning percentage is almost .600, and they are STILL 7-ish games back. The W’s have been between 5.5 and about 9.0 games back since late APRIL. I say PHOOEY! to the D-backs’ puny little record.
Records aren’t what they used to be. When I was a kid there were maybe a dozen major league records. Maybe two dozen, if you count pitchers. The problem with the infinite expansion of major league records is they all lose meaning.
I like to ask students on the first day of class to tell us something about themselves that is completely unique to the class. Today one guy said he was rebuilding an old Dodge. Another said he was rebuilding an old Datsun. Was either unique? Well, sure, a Dodge is not the same as a Datsun. But they are both cars. If we take things to the molecular level, we are all unique in a million ways… and being unique loses most of its meaning.
Being unique then becomes synonymous with existing.
So I suppose I could write about how this is an amazing pennant race with the main competitors frozen in place compared to one another, no parallax, no movement against the stars, just Rosebud/Tornado/Wolverine (and lately maybe Allegheny). Since Haviland fell back out of fourth place sometime weeks ago, it’s been those four. Grass grows with more drama.
EFL Standings for 2019
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
RS |
RA |
| Portland Rosebuds |
85 |
47 |
.648 |
— |
817.7 |
603.0 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes |
80 |
52 |
.609 |
5.1 |
809.7 |
644.3 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines |
78 |
54 |
.591 |
7.4 |
764.8 |
631.6 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
73 |
57 |
.560 |
11.7 |
706.0 |
612.1 |
| Peshastin Pears |
70 |
62 |
.527 |
15.9 |
689.3 |
654.2 |
| Haviland Dragons |
68 |
64 |
.513 |
17.7 |
734.6 |
708.4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos |
65 |
67 |
.492 |
20.5 |
720.4 |
734.9 |
| Kaline Drive |
64 |
68 |
.486 |
21.3 |
629.1 |
649.3 |
| Bellingham Cascades |
60 |
70 |
.459 |
24.9 |
619.1 |
676.8 |
| Cottage Cheese |
58 |
71 |
.449 |
26 |
735.3 |
797.5 |
| Brookland Outs |
56 |
73 |
.432 |
28.3 |
640.8 |
737.1 |
| D.C. Balk |
53 |
79 |
.399 |
32.9 |
593.3 |
731.8 |
(Data is from games Saturday and Sunday)
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Portland: W 1, L 1; 17 – 9. (112 PA, .293, .411, .489; 14.7 ip, 5 er, 3.07 ERA)
Portland had it all this weekend. An exactly .900 OPS for the weekend. Anthony Rendon making 2 outs in 11 plate appearances, Kevin Newman just 2 outs in 10. Great pitching, especially from mid-season pickup John Means (7 ip, 1 er). Gaining ground on everyone in sight (ie, from their perspective, the Tornados are still sort of in sight), and so on. You never want the biggest gap in the standings to be between first and second place, but that’s the case right now. Portland leads the Flint Hill team by 5.1 games.
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Flint Hill: W 1, L 1; 12 – 7. (94 PA, .259, .388, .395; 17.3 ip, 3 er, 1.56 ERA).
The Tornados hurled the ball wonderfully. Zach Gallen’s 5 ip, 2 er performance was the LOWlight of the weekend in Flint Hill pitching. And they hit pretty well. A .783 OPS is pretty good when it is half OBP. Everyone got a hit except Cameron Maybin, and he only got one plate appearance. But it wasn’t enough. The Tornados are back at about their apogee of the season, and only 2.3 games in front of the Wolverines.
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Old Detroit: W 1, L 1; 1 – 5. (115 PA, .178, .270, .317; 10 ip, 2 er, 1.80 ERA)
Something there is about the EFL that doesn’t love a braggart. After I executed an artful and devastating put-down of the Tornados Thursday, the W’s have been terrible. One to five over two games? P a t h e t I C. (Emphasis on the “ICK!”) All that hitting — tons and tons of it — and all so crummy, like 115 bites of bad meat loaf in one sitting. That would sink anything. It would have been worse but the W’s sealed the bulkheads on their listing ship, locking Brinson (0 for 9 with 3 k’sand a double play) and Diaz (2 for 6 with a walk) into an air pocket with room enough for only one of them (apparently) to breathe. (That is assuredly the most disturbing image I’ve ever used in an EFL update. I almost didn’t go see Dunkirk because of the previews of men in sinking ships. I may not be able to sleep tonight. But doggone it, Brinson and the rest of ’em need to get the message!!) The W’s didn’t sink, yet, but they did bob down, now only 4.3 ahead of Pittsburgh.
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Pittsburgh: W 2, L 0; 20 – 14. (69 PA, .298 .420 .719; 10.7 ip, 8 er, 6.75 ERA)
I just killed a spider building a web on my computer. I need to pick up the pace … The A’s pitching wasn’t great but it worked with that nearly Ruthian offense. As a team. Jose Altuve outdid Babe with his 4 for 8 including 2 2b, 1 3b, and 1 hr, plus a walk (1.931 OPS). All this output helped the Alleghenys rebuild their lead over the Pears to 4.2 games.
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Peshastin: W 0, L 2; 1 – 14. (91 PA, .186, .231, .314; 13.7 ip, 9 er, 5.93 ERA).
The Pears were the EFL’s hottest team going into the weekend, but they came out of it much cooler. All the good Zach Eflin did (6 ip, 2 er) was more than undone by Matt Wisler’s near-Royal Chulk (0.33 ip, 3 er). Phil has rued drafting Matt Wisler before, but he is such a gracious man he gave Wisler another chance. Alas. Wisler’s repeat failure leaves the Pears only 1.8 games up on the Dragons.
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Haviland: W 1, L 1; 6 – 3. (65 PA .190, .277, .362; 15 ip. 3 er, 1.80 ERA)
Teams in the middle of the standings have this experience often: one day the hitting sings, but the pitching squawks, and the next day the two switch places. A weekend of beautiful mound music also features clangs and crashes at the plate. The Dragons lead the Kangaroos by 2.8 games. (But then, shouldn’t dragons easily outpace kangaroos?)
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Canberra: W 2, L 0; 13 – 6 (71 PA, .270, .352, .556; 25 ip, 9 er, 3.24 ERA)
Maybe the best balanced quality in the league from the Kangaroos over the weekend. Enviable (I can tell you at least one place it’s being envied) .908 OPS hitting, with all but three players reaching base at least twice. The only pitching clank came from Jordan Yamamoto (3.7 ip, 6 er) still reeling from the hit to his self-image when the W’s kept Brinson and Monte Harrison but not Jordan from the Yelich trade. I think Isan Diaz was in that deal too, also rejected at the time, but now back in Old Detroit’s graces and a prized possession currently carefully stored in a locked room. With an air pocket. Anyway, the Kangaroos zipped past the Drive in the most dramatic move in the standings in eons, transforming a 1.0 game deficit into a 0.8 game lead.
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Kaline: W o, L 2; 6 – 17. (113 PA, .176, .248, .353; 10.7 ip, 10 er, 8.44 ERA)
Kyle Farmer. He was the Drive’s bright spot over the weekend, going 2 for 4 with a homer. Aaron Judge went 2 for 8 with two homers, so that was pretty bright, too, I guess, if your favorite player growing up was Dave Kingman. None of Kaline’s three pitchers did very well: Buttrey (0. 7 ip, 1 er), Fried (5 ip, 5 er), Lamet (5 ip, 4 er). Lamet is Kaline’s weekend Cy Young! Sorry, that was a little snarky, not sensitive to the feelings of a team who went from 1 game up on the Kangaroos to 3.6 up on the Cascades in the inaugural Salish Sea Regatta. (Yes, there is a Salish Sea. I know because my eldest grandson, living in Seattle, learned a great song about it in kindergarten 18 months ago. It’s the name for the combined waters of the Puget Sound up through the Georgia Straight in B.C.)
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Bellingham: W 2, L 0; 6 – 4. (48 PA, .182, .229, .386; 13.7 ip, 1 er, 0.66 ERA).
The best pitching in the league (so far; something was going on over in DC we’ll have to look into) featured Dakota Hudson’s 6 scoreless innings. Rather modest hitting was good enough, apparently, to preserve a 1.1 game lead on the Cheese.
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Cottage: W 1, L 1; 11 – 9. (74 PA, .284, .351, .403; 6.3 ip, 1 er, 1.42 ERA)
The Cascades zigged (lots of pitching, weak hitting) so the Cheese zagged (good hitting, not much — but good! — pitching). Chase Anderson warmed the Head Cheese’s heart with a fondue pot… I mean, 5 scoreless innings. Five Guys (Willi Castro, Corey Dickerson, Jeff McNeill, Wilson Ramos, and Eric Thames) fried up 5 nearly identical OPSes, ranging from 1.000 to 1.200. Thus the Cheese kept pace with the Cascades, but saw their margin over the Outs shrink by 0.3 games to 2.3.
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Brookland: W 2, L 0; 7 – 3. (51 PA, .150. .333, .350; 16.3 ip, 2 er, 1.10 ERA.)
Pitching nearly the equal of the Cascades lifted the Outs to two wins despite week hitting. Manny Machado’s 2 for 6 with a homer and three walks helped blunt the effects of everyone else’s weak weekend. So the Outs come out of it clinging to a 4.6 game cushion against landing in the cellar.
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DC: W 2, L 0; 5 – (-5). (62 PA, .176, .323, .431; 25 ip, 7 er, 2.52 ERA)
The Outs had a good old-fashioned Amish barnraising of a pitching performance over the weekend, amassing 25 ip from a crew of 8 pitchers. Trevor Williams led the way with 6 ip 0 er, and only Kevin Gausman faltered (1 ip, 3 er) as the Balk got 3 1/2 games’ worth of great pitching in only 2 days. That’s erase a bunch of replacement innings, and boost the Outs’ lead to … infinity, over … no one? No — his lead is infinite over EVERYONE.
Buttercup: Everyone but the eleven fastest, you mean.
Humperdinck: Hmmm?
Buttercup: Everyone but the eleven fastest in the EFL.
Humperdinck: Yes, yes, of course. Naturally not those eleven.
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| New York Yankees |
85 |
47 |
.644 |
— |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes |
80 |
52 |
.609 |
4.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines |
78 |
54 |
.591 |
6.9 |
| Tampa Bay Rays |
76 |
56 |
.576 |
9 |
| Boston Red Sox |
70 |
62 |
.530 |
15 |
| Toronto Blue Jays |
53 |
80 |
.398 |
32.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles |
43 |
88 |
.328 |
41.5 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Atlanta Braves |
80 |
52 |
.606 |
— |
| Washington Nationals |
73 |
57 |
.562 |
6 |
| Philadelphia Phillies |
67 |
62 |
.519 |
11.5 |
| New York Mets |
67 |
63 |
.515 |
12 |
| Canberra Kangaroos |
65 |
67 |
.492 |
15 |
| D.C. Balk |
53 |
79 |
.399 |
27.4 |
| Miami Marlins |
47 |
82 |
.364 |
31.5 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Minnesota Twins |
79 |
51 |
.608 |
— |
| Cleveland Indians |
76 |
55 |
.580 |
3.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
73 |
57 |
.560 |
6.2 |
| Chicago White Sox |
60 |
70 |
.462 |
19 |
| Bellingham Cascades |
60 |
70 |
.459 |
19.4 |
| Kansas City Royals |
46 |
85 |
.351 |
33.5 |
| Detroit Tigers |
39 |
89 |
.305 |
39 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| St. Louis Cardinals |
71 |
58 |
.550 |
— |
| Chicago Cubs |
69 |
61 |
.531 |
2.5 |
| Milwaukee Brewers |
67 |
63 |
.515 |
4.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds |
60 |
69 |
.465 |
11 |
| Cottage Cheese |
58 |
71 |
.449 |
13 |
| Brookland Outs |
56 |
73 |
.432 |
15.3 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates |
55 |
75 |
.423 |
16.5 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Houston Astros |
85 |
47 |
.644 |
— |
| Oakland A’s |
74 |
55 |
.574 |
9.5 |
| Haviland Dragons |
68 |
64 |
.513 |
17.2 |
| Kaline Drive |
64 |
68 |
.486 |
20.8 |
| Texas Rangers |
64 |
68 |
.485 |
21 |
| Los Angeles Angels |
63 |
70 |
.474 |
22.5 |
| Seattle Mariners |
56 |
75 |
.427 |
28.5 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers |
86 |
46 |
.652 |
— |
| Portland Rosebuds |
85 |
47 |
.648 |
0.5 |
| Peshastin Pears |
70 |
62 |
.527 |
16.4 |
| San Francisco Giants |
65 |
65 |
.500 |
20 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks |
65 |
66 |
.496 |
20.5 |
| San Diego Padres |
60 |
69 |
.465 |
24.5 |
| Colorado Rockies |
58 |
73 |
.443 |
27.5 |
