Yesterday morning Canberra management sent along the following Athletic article excerpt to my inbox: “Feels like that should drop them in the ol’ power rankings, if not relegate them to the EFL.” The quote was delivered by reporter Grant Brisbee while writing about the Orioles sweep of the Rays over the weekend.
Initially, I was surprised and pleased that a nationally-known MLB reporter knew about our league. However, those feelings of pleasure soon dissipated once I realized the extreme disrespect he was exhibiting towards us. So I decided to do some research to figure out exactly if we are the league to which underperforming MLB teams should be relegated, or if we are, as is my own belief, the true premier league to which all MLB teams should aspire. Here is what I found:
- There are 16 MLB teams under .500 (53% of all teams); there are 8 EFL teams under .500 (73%). Winner: MLB
- MLB has an average OPS of .712; The EFL has an average OPS of .691. Winner: MLB
- MLB has an average ERA of 4.15; The EFL has an average ERA of 4.64. Winner: MLB
Ok, so maybe the stats do indicate some type of MLB dominance over the EFL, but they also have unlimited resources to use whereas we operate under a salary cap. And they deal in practices that are shady (at best) while everyone in our league operates with integrity, even pointing out when something has gone wrong that is NOT in their favor. How many MLB teams would do that?
In fact, the camaraderie is so strong in the EFL I wouldn’t be surprised if the more values-driven MLB organizations weren’t doing what they could this season to make a case for being adopted into the EFL. The difficult part is trying to determine which MLB organizations are virtuous enough to be permitted as members in our league. My guess is not many of them.
So while Brisbee wants to mar our league’s reputation by suggesting MLB teams be relegated to our league, I maintain that any MLB team would be lucky to join the ranks of the EFL, if for no other reason that to be surrounded by people who love the game AND who love doing things the right way, the EFL way.
________________________
August is upon us, which means there will be a lot of baseball in the next 31 days – mostly because there are several teams who have not played the normal allotment of games due to COVID, and so will be playing frequent 7-inning DHers. I imagine this will create some tumult both within the MLB and also within the EFL. You might see your team moving up and down the standings more than is typical, especially in August.
I think this will create an extra level of excitement and engagement for us, because how often in August do we have hope of moving up dramatically in the standings? Rarely ever, and especially if you are 4 or 5 games out of first, August is typically when you become resigned to the fact that you just don’t have enough to finish first.
But not this year! So buckle your seatbelts, because I am predicting August will be a wild ride in the EFl
| EFL | ||||||
| Team | Wins | Losses | Pct. | GB | RS | RA |
| Cottage Cheese | 7 | 3 | .672 | — | 62.9 | 41.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 5 | 4 | .604 | 0.8 | 42.8 | 35.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 6 | 4 | .591 | 0.8 | 54.3 | 38.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 5 | 5 | .454 | 2.2 | 49.9 | 55.6 |
| Peshastin Pears | 4 | 5 | .430 | 2.4 | 41.7 | 47.9 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 3 | 6 | .364 | 3 | 46.4 | 61.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 4 | 7 | .379 | 3.1 | 44.7 | 62.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 3 | 7 | .321 | 3.5 | 44.4 | 65.0 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 3 | 7 | .293 | 3.8 | 38.9 | 73.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 2 | 7 | .184 | 4.6 | 25.0 | 53.4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 2 | 9 | .187 | 5.2 | 32.2 | 66.7 |
Cottage: W3, L0, 26-10 (103PA, .337, .408, .511; 25.4IP, 10ER, 3.54 ERA) We have a new leader! Dave and I were conversing this morning because there were a couple of steps he had to do before I could update, and I told him it would be to his favor to do it quickly because I had a feeling he would jump over me in the standings. Little did we know he would jump over Pittsburgh, too! 3 days worth of Edgar Martinez Days combined with good pitching has the Cheese in the lead, and us hoping he doesn’t shred the rest of us this month.
Flint Hill: W1, L2, 14-15 (64PA, .276, .317, .534; 11.5IP, 4ER, 3.13 ERA) The Tornadoes didn’t lost their hold on second place, and that is good. And we only lost a tenth of a game even though we only got 1 win in 3 games. But we have some work to do to keep up with those Cheesy dudes.
Pittsburgh: W1, L2, 5-10 (126PA, .171, .264, .207; 31.7IP, 15ER, 4.26 ERA) Mark’s beginning to August is ominous, and I think he’d prefer to still be in July. Both the hitting and the pitching were sub-par, and now the Alleghenys are third in line.
Kaline: W2, L1, 20-25 (112PA, .287, .357, .515; 9IP, 9ER, 9.00 ERA) The Drive held on to 4th place on the strength of good hitting, despite their symmetrical but abysmal pitching.
Peshastin: “W,” 7-8 (63PA, .255, .333, .491; 13IP, 10ER, 6.92 ERA) This was a bad weekend for the Pears. First, they lost Mike Soroka for the season to a torn achilles. If nothing else, that is bad news. Even this fake win can’t help them to feel better, I don’t think.
Portland: L, 4-6 (109PA, .258, .330, .381; 18.7IP, 13ER, 6.26 ERA) So many PAs, and it amounted to very little due to surplus PAs. The Rosebuds did move up a spot in the standings, for which I bet they are grateful.
DC: W0, L3, 10-25 (87PA, .200, .310, .347; 11.6IP, 7ER, 5.43 ERA) Yikes! 0-3 is really challenging for a weekend’s worth of games. Their hitting and pitching were both not what has been standard for the Balk this season, and now they have dropped two spots in the standings.
Haviland: W1, L2, 12-22 (77PA, .212, .325, .409; 5.4IP, 2ER, 3.33 ERA) Dragon management the other day was lamenting that their hitting and pitching would not have a good day on the same day. So they decided to alleviate his pain by giving him a bad weekend in both areas! They lost .7 games on the new leader, even though a Dragon would surely destroy Cheese if given a fair chance.
Bellingham: W2, L1, 17-10 (74PA, .338, .384, .529; 22.1IP, 7ER, 2.85 ERA) The Cascades have be loving August! They definitely had the best all around day of everyone in the league, and jumped out of the basement, leaving the Mocks to have a family reunion in the cellar.
Old Detroit: W1, L2, 10-23 (118PA, .206, .280, .346; 13.7IP, 10ER, 6.57 ERA) It appears that perhaps the Wolverines read their Manager’s memorandum, because they did improve their BA…but it didn’t really help since they are now 4.6 games behind the Cheese.
Canberra: W0, L3, 6-14 (93PA, .167, .247, .250; 26IP, 11ER, 3.81 ERA) The pitching was good, and the hitting was not. And just like we have a new leader, we have a new not-leader – is that what is called?