Answers are Not Mine

I suppose the famed Mr. Answer Man column has fallen to me, though I feel unworthy. I do miss those posts in which our famed Commissioner would wax eloquently about questions asked of him. Maybe the well of questions has run dry among EFL owners? Maybe the new database has removed many of the question that would arise? Whatever the reason, I am grateful for a chance to answer some questions, though admittedly, some of these are quite challenging:

How can the light go out so suddenly and dramatically on Carlos Correa?  Is something going on in Carlos’ life? Yes, there is! Doing a smidgen of research I was able to find this information (https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/1417234414166151175?s=20). If you don’t want to watch the clip, apparently Carlos had a nasty virus (not COVID) that wiped him out for week. Then, he struggled with his timing once returning. It doesn’t help, certainly, that he is not allowed to us a buzzer anymore to help with his pitch selection, but Wolverine fans should take consolation in the fact soon he will be back to hitting as he had been all season.

So why was Crochet’s outing deemed worse than all the others? including Garrett Whitlock’s 1.3 ip outing without allowing a run… that ranked 131^st out of 132? The rankings in the Daily Log for pitchers are ranked by Game Score, but there are not scores given to every pitcher who appeared, only to those who started. Since the question here refers to relievers, I am afraid I do not have an answer, only a guess. The top relievers on the list are those who were credited with a win. After that? I have no idea. For instance, yesterday Jordan Holloway’s line was 3.2IP, 2ER, 5BB, and one K to finish 33rd on the day. Danny Coloumbe ranked 44th, and his line was 2IP, 0ER and 4 strikeouts. This leads me to believe there is not actual ranking system used for relievers who do not get a win. 

Why is Arozarena just a normal human being now (OPSing “only” .817 in July at the moment)? To answer your question, let me pose another: why is Yermin Mercedes in AAA announcing his retirement one night and returning the next night to play? Baseball is hard, and Arozarena was lucky last October. To be fair, he is also good, as his .817 OPS shows – but sometimes the (juiced) ball bounces your way. Surprisingly, once spider tack was eliminated, he started hitting home runs again…

Do we create karrasses for our players, so they become subject to unseen common causes, so their random results can be bent by common experiences like a real team’s can? While I have some idea of who Vonnegut is, I have not read his works. I suppose if you are famous enough or on enough drugs you can make up words and people accept them as real? That I am being asked to answer a question about a made-up word from an author I have never read is proof enough that I should not be the Mr. EFL Answer Man.

But why is there no mystery about the Alleghenys? I was Mark’s student 22 years ago, and I wish then I would have learned from him his secret to repeated success in the EFL. The mystery now, perhaps, is that he hasn’t shared his secrets to domination while also allowing other people to try and figure them out before he inevitably makes another run at a decade’s worth of championships. 

How did the Rosebuds turn the sow’s ear of Eric Lauer this spring (with ERA’s in double digits, as I recall, while he was still a Wolverine through spring training) into this silky person whose July ERA is 1.04?   And how do I get him back? Considering Eric Lauer is outperforming his ERA by an entire run (his ERA is 3.52 but his FIP is 4.50) I think Mark might be willing to trade him to you for the right price. To be fair, the Brewers have a recent track record of making pedestrian pitchers into stars, so that might be one answer. But I imagine he would gladly trade him to you for someone like Walker Buehler, or even Eloy Jimenez. Getting him back isn’t an issue’ him performing like this for longer? That’s where the real mystery lies.