Twisting to the Top

Today’s news – the Tornadoes are now in first! – is causing me a bit of strife. Why, you ask, would being in first place cause an owner strife? Well, I’ve already seen this movie and so I know how it goes.

Before I woke up this morning as the top Tornado in the EFL, two other teams occupied the spot. Both of those teams, the Alleghenys and the Cheese, spent a few days atop the standings before plummeting to third place. Being in second place has so far been much safer, and until this morning it was where the Tornadoes had resided so comfortably for a while.

But here we are. In first place on August 6th. That’s never happened before. 

This is very exciting! And also irritating because how long until I, too, must drop to third place? Looking at the standings, it won’t be long. The Dragons are breathing fire down my neck and the Cheese did a poor job of dropping very far down the standings, technically in third but only .1 game behind first place.

So I will relish this while I can, but don’t be surprised to see me looking up at two other teams in a matter of days.

(I’m trying out a new format – let me know if you like it or now)

EFL
Team	Wins	Losses	Pct.	GB	RS	RA
Flint Hill Tornadoes	6	5	.590	—	52.4	44.3
Haviland Dragons	7	5	.579	—	59.8	52.4
Cottage Cheese	7	5	.576	0.1	64.3	55.2
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	6	6	.536	0.6	58.3	45.1
Kaline Drive	6	6	.518	0.8	58.2	55.6
Peshastin Pears	4	6	.391	2.1	41.7	52.5
Portland Rosebuds	4	6	.373	2.3	49.0	63.7
D.C. Balk	5	8	.363	2.8	51.2	70.6
Canberra Kangaroos	4	9	.315	3.4	45.5	72.3
Old Detroit Wolverines	3	8	.242	3.8	32.3	56.7
Bellingham Cascades	3	9	.224	4.3	41.1	87.3

Flint Hill: W0, L2, 9-10 (44PA; 3.7IP)

AVG: 0.250

OBP: 0.318

SLG: 0.500

OPS: 0.818

ERA: 2.43

WHIP: 0.541

How in the world did my team move into first after losing 2 games yesterday? Only in the EFL. Mike Trout hit two HRs and Max Kepler added his own (to win the game for the Twins), and the pitching was good but sparse. And so we lost two games but moved into first place. Weird, but I’ll take it. 

Haviland: W, 9-1 (30PA; 21IP)

AVG: 0.261

OBP: 0.433

SLG: 0.565

OPS: 0.999

ERA: 2.14

WHIP: 0.857

Two days in a row of excellent pitching has propelled the Dragons into second place. And it didn’t hurt that the hitting was pretty strong, too. Yu Darvish threw 7IP and gave up 1ER, while Dragon hitters had 6 hits and 6 walks to contribute to the win.

Cottage: L, 1-7 (49PA; 5.3IP)

AVG: 0.227

OBP: 0.306

SLG: 0.409

OPS: 0.715

ERA: 6.79

WHIP: 1.509

The Cheese are surely reeling from their drop from 1st to 3rd, and how they respond to this change will determine their ability to contest for the championship this season. Ok, maybe that is a little dramatic. Cottage was led by Yandy Diaz, who went 2-4 with 2 doubles, but who is unfortunately allocated 100% to the bench. 

Pittsburgh: L, 0-1 (39PA; 13IP)

AVG: 0.083

OBP: 0.128

SLG: 0.139

OPS: 0.267

ERA: 2.77

WHIP: 0.769

I’ve not been shy about describing the Wolverines problems at the plate, but did you know that the Alleghenys are trying to go from first to last in team offense? At the end of July the Alleghenys had the best offense in the league with a slash line of .268/.358/.549. So far this month his offense is in last, with a slash line of .182/.263/.250. That explains quite a lot, perhaps everything, about their swoon.   

Kaline: “L,” 6-3 (60PA; 4.3IP)

AVG: 0.288

OBP: 0.373

SLG: 0.462

OPS: 0.834

ERA: 6.28

WHIP: 0.465

I think these kinds of losses might be my least favorite part of the EFL. This is an excellent day for Drive hitters, and though the pitching wasn’t great, it wasn’t very many innings worth of mediocrity. And the score was 6-3! That’s not even close. But it is a loss on the day. The Drive had 15 hits on the day, 12 of them singles and 3 HRs. 

Peshastin: DNP, (-2)-0 (27PA; 1.3IP)

AVG: 0.200

OBP: 0.222

SLG: 0.240

OPS: 0.462

ERA: 6.92

WHIP: 0.769

The Pears didn’t have a game today, but their hitters were able to strike out more than twice as many times as they got a hit (11 Ks to 5 hits), which is generally not a good way to add runs to your record, which is why they lost a couple of runs yesterday.  

Portland: DNP, (-1)-(-1) (40PA; 7IP)

AVG: 0.167

OBP: 0.250

SLG: 0.306

OPS: 0.556

ERA: 1.29

WHIP: 0.571

Another abysmal day for an EFL offense. But Trevor Williams came through to at least salvage something from a day without a game. The Rosebud offense has had a similar start to August as the Alleghenys. After averaging over 5 runs a game in July, they have been averaging just 3.5 runs a game this month. 

DC: W, 1-(-2) (38PA; 11IP)

AVG: 0.206

OBP: 0.263

SLG: 0.206

OPS: 0.469

ERA: 1.64

WHIP: 1.364

DC picked up another win and got within 2.8 games of the league leading Tornadoes. Their offense was as EFL offenses have been trending – not great – with 7 singles and 10 Ks. Their pitching, however, was very strong yesterday, led by Mike Clevenger and Alex Cobb.

Canberra: W, 7-6 (49PA; 1IP)

AVG: 0.238

OBP: 0.347

SLG: 0.476

OPS: 0.823

ERA: 0.00

WHIP: 1.000

Canberra tasted the cellar and realized it wasn’t where they wanted to reside, so they’ve been working their way slowly up the standings. With 10 hits on the day, and 6 of them for extra bases, they did enough to pull out the win.

Old Detroit: W1, L1 8-9 (52PA; 16.3IP)

AVG: 0.250

OBP: 0.365

SLG: 0.455

OPS: 0.820

ERA: 4.42

WHIP: 1.166

Old Detroit management has allowed us to see his plan for climbing out of the cellar, and it appears to be working – both the vulnerability and also the plan. In fact, as I am writing this Dan Vogelbach hit his first HR of the season, so tomorrow is already looking good for the Wolverines. More importantly? He is no longer in the cellar.

Bellingham: L, (-1)-8 (27PA; 1IP)

AVG: 0.120

OBP: 0.185

SLG: 0.160

OPS: 0.345

ERA: 9.00

WHIP: 3.000

The Cascades tasted life out of the cellar, and decided they’d like to be back in it, for now. Perhaps it is a ply to keep the Wolverines and Roos feeling secure before blowing past them again, which would be an interesting an fun strategy to employ. They almost pulled of the “more stolen bases than hits” play, but fell one SB short. Maybe tomorrow!