These days of waiting between the first of the month and the monthly meeting seem to drag on forever, creating opportunity to both celebrate the first few games of the month for your team while not getting too disappointed with less-than-stellar performances. While I would prefer to have allocations locked before the first games of the month, it is understandably difficult to do so with how our league is set up, and that is ok.
But when we are ALL used to daily updates and even look forward to the email showing up in our inbox, these days feel perhaps even more tortuous. And so, I am providing you with content for today, at least, and it is not content I am content to share with you – but it needs to be shared (and celebrated) nonetheless…so, I am taking a deep breath amidst remembering that someone else’s success doesn’t necessarily mean there is less success for anyone else (though in terms of EFL championships that is NOT true) before I share this:
Both the AL and NL Pitchers of the Month for July are on the same EFL team – the Old Detroit Wolverines. It was announced today that Walker Buehler and Jameson Taillon were named, respectively, the NL and AL Pitchers of the month. Why did they earn these awards? Well, you can read for yourself.
I know these awards are not necessarily indicative of being in the running for the end of year awards, however, in the case of Walker Buehler, he has a good chance to also end up the NL Cy Young Award winner should he continue to pitch as he has pitched thus far. And if we suppose that any EFL team should only win one award each season, I eagerly cheer on Mr. Buehler so that the EFL Champion Award may still be an option for the rest of us. Of course, said supposition is perhaps a bit too much for our league to agree upon, particularly under the current administration.
So, congrats Old Detroit! Don’t feel any pressure to reproduce this stellar month – use these accolades as a nice pillow upon which to rest for the next two months.
Thank you, Jamie, for putting the spotlight on the Wolverines. They labor in obscurity so much of the time.
Actually, this level of exposure isn’t entirely comfortable in this case. If you read the article at the link Jamie provided, you’ll see that “(a)fter recording a 6.23 ERA in April, a 4.45 ERA in May and a 6.14 ERA in June,” the Old Detroit front office allocated Taillon at 50% to start the month. The W’s didn’t bump him up to 100% until the second mid-month allocation adjustment, on July 20! So about 1/3 of Taillon’s award-winning effort was wasted.
If only the W’s had competent management…