It’s only fitting. In a year like 2020, in a month like August, after a brilliantly hectic MLB trade deadline followed within hours by an EFL draft… my post for this update mysteriously wouldn’t load.
It turns out that WordPress logged me out without telling me. An hour’s worth of work — what it took for me to include the responses from the survey questions 6 of you filled out for me this morning, plus my own responses — all disappeared.
Not even I have enough time to re-do an hour’s lost work. So I’ll post now what I had written before I looked at your responses. If I get a chance I’ll work up a summary of your responses later, this evening perhaps. They were interesting! And if it gives the rest of you time to respond to my email with the questions, all the better.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Kaline Drive | 21 | 13 | .606 | — | 169.4 | 136.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 20 | 14 | .575 | 1.1 | 181.7 | 157.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 17 | 18 | .482 | 4.3 | 180.3 | 199.3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 16 | 18 | .480 | 4.3 | 166.2 | 173.5 |
| D.C. Balk | 16 | 18 | .463 | 4.9 | 158.4 | 170.8 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 16 | 18 | .460 | 5 | 176.4 | 191.6 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 16 | 20 | .454 | 5.3 | 187.5 | 210.6 |
| Peshastin Pears | 16 | 20 | .445 | 5.6 | 164.4 | 183.7 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 13 | 22 | .384 | 7.7 | 164.2 | 207.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 12 | 24 | .339 | 9.4 | 179.4 | 250.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 12 | 24 | .334 | 9.6 | 160.9 | 223.9 |
Kaline: W 1, L (-1); 2 – (-1)
| AVG: 0.304 | OBP: 0.304 | SLG: 0.391 | OPS: 0.696 | PA: 23 |
| ERA: 2.57 | WHIP: 1.286 | IP: 7.0 | |||||||||||
On an off-day in Kaline, only Jesse Winker (2 for 4) and Willie Adames (3 for 5) shone. Yet the Drive tacked 0.1 games onto their lead over Haviland.
Will deadline acquisitions carry Kaline to its first EFL championship? They traded for Keuchel and Contreras and drafted Mitch Moreland, Triston McKenzie, and Jonathan Schoop. That’s five impact players.
Haviland: W 1, L (-1); (-1) – (-3)
| AVG: 0.219 | OBP: 0.324 | SLG: 0.313 | OPS: 0.637 | PA: 37 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 0.500 | IP: 6.0 | |||||||||||
Tyler Glasnow twirled six scoreless innings to save the Dragons from losing too much ground on this end-of-August off day. Miguel Sano homered, singled, and walked in 5 plate appearances to salvage an otherwise weak day on offense.
Did the D’s do enough to catch the other D’s? The Dragons nabbed apparent #1 rookie pick Luis Robert for September, although they gave up a pretty good outfielder (Nimmo) to do so. I thought Sixto Sanchez was one of the two or three biggest impact players in the draft, and Dylan Carlson has the potential to join him — although it’s a lot to ask of a player who hadn’t appeared above AA before his August debut.
Bellingham: W, 7 – 4.
| AVG: 0.333 | OBP: 0.440 | SLG: 0.429 | OPS: 0.869 | PA: 26 |
| ERA: 1.29 | WHIP: 0.571 | IP: 7.0 | |||||||||||
Paul Goldschmidt spearheaded the Cascade offense with a double, two singles and a walk in six plate appearances, and Dakota Hudson capped his Cascade career with seven sterling innings.
Bellingham was in last place on July 31, but rose to third place by August 31. The Cascades may not need any more help to finish the job of running down the league leaders, but they snagged Marcell Ozuna in the Dakota Hudson trade, and Wolverine wannabe Jo Adell in the draft.
Cottage: DNP, 4 – 0.
| AVG: 0.387 | OBP: 0.472 | SLG: 0.710 | OPS: 1.182 | PA: 36 |
No pitching? No problem. Alex Verdugo, Jeff McNeil, and Yandy Diaz will just combine to go 7 for 11 with 5 doubles. And in his last game as a Cascade, Luis Robert will make you regret your misdeed by adding a homer and a double in his four trips to the plate.
Pity the poor people in the tumultuous middle reaches of our league, where teams can leap from 6th place to 4th place without even playing a game or fielding a single pitcher. How were they supposed to decide between buying and selling? The Cheese had to be torn — and they acted it. They traded away one month of Robert (currently OPSing .960) but got seven months of Nimmo back (OPSing .861). Earlier they traded Sean Manaea (5.64 ERA) to buyer Flint Hill, but got back Caleb Ferguson (and his 0.65 ERA). Maybe by the time of the draft Cottage had settled into future mode — all three players they acquired were debutants.
DC: L, 3 – 8.
| AVG: 0.182 | OBP: 0.289 | SLG: 0.242 | OPS: 0.532 | PA: 38 |
Nick Markakis and Jorge Alfaro combined to go 5 for 8 with two doubles and a walk. But the rest of the team only produced a single single in 25 ABs — and 0 pitching. The Balk slid only one position in the standings, but fell 0.8 games further off Kaline’s Driving pace.
DC traded long-term prospect Adam Hasely for star reliever David Phelps, which indicated a buyer’s approach to the deadline. But the Balk settled for moderate-impact players in the draft. They definitely weren’t sellers, but they weren’t all-in as buyers, either.
Canberra: L, (-2) – 10.
| AVG: 0.222 | OBP: 0.263 | SLG: 0.444 | OPS: 0.708 | PA: 19 |
| ERA: 10.00 | WHIP: 2.778 | IP: 3.6 | |||||||||||
The Kangaroos and the Cascades inspired the Wolverines’ quixotic September quest to win the month. Bellingham rose from 11th to 3rd place over the month. As of yesterday morning, Canberra had risen from 10th to 3rd place.
We started drafting at 11 pm EDT. The first pick took 20 minutes. Canberra used the next pick to place Tommy LaStella into the draft, dashing a Tornado plan. When the ‘Roos won the bidding, that was clearly a win-now move. But at 11:23 — while the LaStella move was afoot — Cleveland’s game at Kansas City ended with wunderkind reliever James Karanchak’s 0.3 ip, 2 er blown save. Just a little earlier in Minneapolis, Rich Hill’s start ended early with 3.1 ip, 2 er. That 10.00 ERA, combined with lackluster offense (Rhys Hoskins’ homer and double providing the only highlights), inflicted a lopsided loss at a critical moment. In an eyeblink, Canberra had collapsed from 3rd place to 6th, 1.4 games further from first.
Flint Hill: L, 2 – 7.
| AVG: 0.241 | OBP: 0.267 | SLG: 0.379 | OPS: 0.646 | PA: 30 |
| ERA: 6.08 | WHIP: 1.486 | IP: 7.4 | |||||||||||
Flint Hill was in 7th place yesterday morning, and are still there now, despite weak hitting and pitching Monday. Teoscar Hernandez’ last game in a torn Tornado uniform featured a double, but was otherwise 0 for 4. German Marquez (is there a Spanish Schmidt pitching somewhere, for balance?) coughed up 5 er in 6 ip.
Flint Hill was the buyingest buyer in the league this year. Before the draft he bought Willi Castro, Julio Urias, Joey Gallo, Carlos Carrasco, Yasmani Grandal, Sean Manaea, Anthony Rendon, and Jose Berrios. He added four more in the draft, including Cristian Pache and Trevor Cahill. That’s 12 new players at least, not counting any obtained in mid-draft trades, at least 40% of his pre-draft roster. No one has staked more on this month’s competition, clearly shooting for Flint Hills’ first EFL championship.
Peshastin: DNP, 4 – (-1).
| AVG: 0.353 | OBP: 0.389 | SLG: 0.941 | OPS: 1.330 | PA: 18 |
| ERA: 4.50 | WHIP: 0.750 | IP: 4.0 | |||||||||||
Monster numbers from the Pears’ hitters — for a rather small monster of only 18 plate appearances. Juan Soto’s two homers were the highlight, as has been the case an awful lot lately. Rather more pedestrian pitching was still more than for a good off-day outcome, pulling the Pears to within 0.3 games of 7th place, and making them one of only two teams to gain on the Drive Monday.
That was before the draft. The Drive had a strong draft, but the Pears might have been even bolder. Risking a wad on James Paxton could pay big, but grabbing Ross Stripling was also a coup, and snagging Ryan Mountcastle could be even bigger. I don’t know if it’s enough to catch Kaline, but it should be good enough to move up the standings in September.
Pittsburgh: L, 4 – 8.
| AVG: 0.211 | OBP: 0.360 | SLG: 0.263 | OPS: 0.623 | PA: 25 |
No pitching and weak hitting (although the OBP is solid) left the Alleghenys with a loss, sucking them down to within 2 games of last place. Pittsburgh neither bought nor sold in the pre-deadline trade market, and (except for Kevin Plawecki) drafted nothing but very promising prospects. These may help them avoid the cellar, but appear to be more forward-looking than that. Having matching rights on a bunch of sparkling rookies next spring could pay off for the Alleghenys next championship.
Portland: DNP, (-3) – (-1).
| AVG: 0.100 | OBP: 0.217 | SLG: 0.250 | OPS: 0.467 | PA: 23 |
| ERA: 6.75 | WHIP: 2.250 | IP: 4.0 | |||||||||||
Rosebud players did nothing to divert their management from its selling ways. Marcell Ozuna left a double on the mantlepiece as a good-bye present.
The Rosebuds were the sellingest of the selling teams this year, trading away Jason Kipnis, Marcell Ozuna, Blake Taylor, Yasmani Grandal, Anthony Rendon, and Jose Berrios before the draft. The Rosebuds drafted modestly (only 3 picks) but consistently looking toward the future with three young players on two year deals. The #1 pick in next spring’s draft would be a nice capstone to their future-oriented strategy.
Old Detroit: L, 6 – 8.
| AVG: 0.286 | OBP: 0.302 | SLG: 0.405 | OPS: 0.707 | PA: 43 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 1.333 | IP: 3.0 | |||||||||||
Wolverine hitters cooled off a bit from their recent hot streak. Well, not Trea Turner, of course, he still went 4 for 5 with a homer (raising his batting average to .377 and his OPS to 1.077). Jurickson Profar caught the bug (3 for 4) which is also a promising sign. Adrian Morejon did all he could with the 3 innings he was given (0 earned runs) but being allocated only 33% decimated the impact he could have. (As you can see from the featured image atop this post, Daniel Vogelbach made a long-distance call from Buffalo to say good-bye to his Wolverine career with another signature 0 for 3. He also welcomed Robbie Ray to Wolverine exile with the Blue Jays.)
The W’s should have been sellers, as anyone with a brain can see. Instead they switched from selling (AFTER trading away their best pitcher) and tried to buy their way to a monthly championship. There’s no such thing as monthly championships, but you can fool some people nearly all the time, apparently.
The W’s should have been sellers, as anyone with a brain can see. Instead they switched from selling (AFTER trading away their best pitcher) and tried to buy their way to a monthly championship. There’s no such thing as monthly championships, but you can fool some people nearly all the time, apparently.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2020
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 25 | 11 | .694 | — |
| New York Yankees | 19 | 14 | .576 | 4.5 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 18 | 15 | .545 | 5.5 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 16 | 20 | .454 | 8.6 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 15 | 19 | .441 | 9 |
| Boston Red Sox | 12 | 23 | .343 | 12.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 12 | 24 | .334 | 13 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 20 | 14 | .588 | — |
| Miami Marlins | 15 | 15 | .500 | 3 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 15 | 15 | .500 | 3 |
| D.C. Balk | 16 | 18 | .463 | 4.3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 16 | 18 | .460 | 4.4 |
| New York Mets | 15 | 20 | .429 | 5.5 |
| Washington Nationals | 12 | 20 | .375 | 7 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 22 | 13 | .629 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 21 | 14 | .600 | 1 |
| Minnesota Twins | 20 | 16 | .556 | 2.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 16 | 16 | .500 | 4.5 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 17 | 18 | .482 | 5.1 |
| Kansas City Royals | 14 | 21 | .400 | 8 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 13 | 22 | .384 | 8.6 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 20 | 14 | .588 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 13 | 13 | .500 | 3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 16 | 18 | .480 | 3.7 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 16 | 18 | .471 | 4 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 15 | 20 | .429 | 5.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 10 | 22 | .313 | 9 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Oakland A’s | 22 | 12 | .647 | — |
| Kaline Drive | 21 | 13 | .606 | 1.4 |
| Houston Astros | 19 | 14 | .576 | 2.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 20 | 14 | .575 | 2.5 |
| Seattle Mariners | 15 | 22 | .405 | 8.5 |
| Texas Rangers | 12 | 21 | .364 | 9.5 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 12 | 24 | .333 | 11 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 26 | 10 | .722 | — |
| San Diego Padres | 22 | 15 | .595 | 4.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 17 | 18 | .486 | 8.5 |
| San Francisco Giants | 17 | 19 | .472 | 9 |
| Peshastin Pears | 16 | 20 | .445 | 10 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 14 | 21 | .400 | 11.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 12 | 24 | .339 | 13.8 |
That is super frustrating, Ron! It has happened to me a time or two, which is why I will copy and paste what I have on another post just to make sure I don’t lost it. So sorry!