I’ve got a 7:30am tee time this morning, so this will be short and to the point – the Drive are in first place! If I am being forthright with everyone, I had gone to bed last night thinking that the Tornado chances of being in first place this morning were very good. Turns out another Johnson wanted a turn at the top. How did he do it? Let’s check.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Kaline Drive | 10 | 6 | .620 | — | 70.3 | 55.9 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 9 | 7 | .579 | 0.6 | 88.2 | 77.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 8 | 8 | .518 | 1.6 | 75.4 | 75.2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 6 | 7 | .492 | 2 | 65.9 | 68.0 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 8 | 8 | .486 | 2.1 | 73.8 | 68.2 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 7 | 10 | .408 | 3.5 | 62.6 | 83.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 6 | 9 | .397 | 3.5 | 62.5 | 77.1 |
| D.C. Balk | 6 | 11 | .343 | 4.6 | 64.7 | 91.7 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 5 | 10 | .320 | 4.6 | 66.9 | 96.6 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 5 | 11 | .320 | 4.8 | 64.7 | 107.4 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 3 | 13 | .158 | 7.4 | 43.9 | 103.7 |
Kaline: W3, L(-2), 3-(-13)
| AVG: 0.241 | OBP: 0.290 | SLG: 0.517 | OPS: 0.808 | PA: 31 |
| ERA: 0.76 | WHIP: 0.633 | IP: 23.7 | |||||||||||
The formula is simple – pitch 24 innings and give up 2 runs. That’s all you have to do for a 5 game swing in the EFL. Drive hitters didn’t do anything special, but it didn’t matter. The Wizard of Whidbey Island is in first place!
Flint Hill: W, 6-(-6)
| AVG: 0.297 | OBP: 0.381 | SLG: 0.514 | OPS: 0.894 | PA: 42 |
| ERA: 2.21 | WHIP: 0.798 | IP: 16.3 | |||||||||||
I thought I had a good day on the pitching front, but it looks bad compared to Tom’s. You know what else looks bad compared to Tom’s? My humility!
Haviland: L, 1-7
| AVG: 0.103 | OBP: 0.257 | SLG: 0.207 | OPS: 0.464 | PA: 35 |
| ERA: 5.03 | WHIP: 1.624 | IP: 19.7 | |||||||||||
The Dragons were able to do what the Tornadoes were unable to do – move from first to third in a single day. I can’t imagine they are happy about it, except I can’t imagine them being angry about Tom being in first. Who can ever be angry with Tom? The Dragons got potentially bad news, with Charlie Morton leaving the game due to injury and Ramon Laureano trying to fight the entire Astros team. We should learn today the fate of those two players. Dragon management stayed up all night, I imagine, just thinking about life without those two players for the foreseeable future.
Cottage: W(-1), L1, (-4)-(-1)
| AVG: 0.178 | OBP: 0.255 | SLG: 0.289 | OPS: 0.544 | PA: 51 |
| ERA: 3.60 | WHIP: 1.400 | IP: 5.0 | |||||||||||
Cottage felt pretty negative yesterday, it seems, losing 4 runs scored and 1 run allowed. But waking up this morning to the Drive in first place has to erase a lot of those negative feelings, I imagine.
Pittsburgh: L, 5-9
| AVG: 0.278 | OBP: 0.366 | SLG: 0.306 | OPS: 0.671 | PA: 41 |
| ERA: 6.92 | WHIP: 1.474 | IP: 15.6 | |||||||||||
It seems everyone in the league took a similar approach to the games yesterday. Do a little, not a lot, in hopes of moving closer to the Dragons. But the Drive decided to take a different route, and now all of us are looking up at him in awe. And I think Pittsburgh would agree it’s still a nice view.
Canberra: W0, L2, 7-12
| AVG: 0.172 | OBP: 0.314 | SLG: 0.241 | OPS: 0.556 | PA: 35 | ||||||||||||
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 1.000 | IP: 1.0 | |||||||||||
Another two loss day, the kind that really stings. Poor hitting and not enough pitching erased some of the gains the Roos made yesterday. But as far as I know, Roos and Drives get along just fine with a little bit of distance, so perhaps this was part of Ryan’s plan as he saw Tom ascending to the top.
Peshastin: L, 2-4
AVG: 0.167 OBP: 0.231 SLG: 0.333 OPS: 0.564 PA: 26
ERA: 2.70 WHIP: 0.800 IP: 10.0
The formatting stopped working and I don’t know why…but this is another loss on the day for an EFL team. But Tom is in first!
DC: W0, L2, 7-16
AVG: 0.156 OBP: 0.229 SLG: 0.375 OPS: 0.604 PA: 35
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 0.000 | IP: 0.3 | |||||||||||
Everyone did their best to let Tom feel how wonderful first place is, even the Balk! Look at how well our league can work together!
Portland: L, 2-7
| AVG: 0.170 | OBP: 0.264 | SLG: 0.277 | OPS: 0.541 | PA: 53 |
| ERA: 6.79 | WHIP: 2.075 | IP: 5.3 | |||||||||||
More of the same…another loss for an EFL team. And Tom is in first place!
Bellingham: W, 9-5
AVG: 0.367 OBP: 0.367 SLG: 0.833 OPS: 1.200 PA: 30
| ERA: 2.73 | WHIP: 0.909 | IP: 3.3 | |||||||||||
Finally, an EFL win! Nice work, Bellingham. Keep it up, and you, too, might find yourself at the top with Tom.
Old Detroit: “W,” 3-8
| AVG: 0.200 | OBP: 0.256 | SLG: 0.286 | OPS: 0.542 | PA: 39 |
ERA: 6.70 WHIP: 1.383 IP: 9.4
I’m guessing at this point Ron will take any win he can get, even a fake one!
Four comments, three of them brief:
1. Notice how the first ten teams in the standings cluster within 4.8 games of the front. Then the last team is 7.4 games back. Notice how the 9th and 10th place teams have winning percentages a little better than half as good as the first place team — but more than twice as good as the 11th place team. Notice how the 11th place team looks like it is on pace to go 30 – 132 — BY FAR the worst record ever compiled in the EFL. No major league team has won so few games in a season since 1900, not even in 1994 or 1981 or the old 154-game seasons. But also notice this: a .158 winning percentage in 162 games only produces 25.6 wins. So 3 – 13 is EXAGGERATING how good the Woeverines are by almost half a win, or almost 20%!!!
I seem to remember someone describing the Wolverines as the favorites for the 2020 season. Ha. Good one. The W’s aren’t even in the same league as the rest of the EFL.
2. This does NOT feel like random variation. Something systematic has happened to the Wolverine players. Some one thing they all share which explains this total collapse. It’s not COVID-19. Yesterday I made up NOGUD-20 to explain it, but that is pure fantasy. There is only one thing they all have in common, but do not share with other major leaguers: they are on the Wolverine roster. I am somehow causing this.
3. Why couldn’t this happen to the Cheese, instead? At least then we would get beautiful, poignant laments — or more likely, one single lament. With the Wolverines we get daily whines.
4. On the other hand — the Drive are in first place! I have wished for this for many years. I hope it lasts!
In re: point 3 of my above comments — I guess it makes sense. Dundee is one of the nation’s leaders in the whine industry.
The Drive management is delighted for the excellent pitching by previous underachievers, who will likely revert to their mediocre past performances, relegating the Drive to its hoped for middle of the road goal. Thankful but doubting, Thomas.