Lewis Brinson has been a regular in these updates. We have followed his struggles as the man the Marlins (and Wolverines) got when they traded away Christian Yelich in the 2017-18 offseason.
In 2018 Yelich, who was already good, got dramatically better, jumping from .282, .369, .439 to .326, .402, .598. He led the National League in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS+ and total bases. Then in 2019, Yelich got even better: .329, .429, .671, leading the league in all three slash-line rates, and thus in OPS and OPS+.
Brinson had been very impressive in the minors, OPSing 1.004 across three levels in 2015, and .962 in AAA in 2016. But he had yet to show much in MLB. In 2018 he improved on his previous MLB performance but still produced a disappointing .199, .240, .338. In 2019 he slipped to .143, .236, .221. He improved a bit in 2020 (.226, .268, .368), but for a 26-year-old it was still very discouraging, and made even worse in the glare of Yelich’s glory.
I finally dumped Brinson this spring, after complaining bitterly in these pages about his struggles. He had become the butt of a running joke about disappointing performance. This season he was down to .196, .213, .304 before he went 3 for 4 with a homer on May 9, the day after his 27th birthday, to bring his line up to .240, .255, .400. But no one was watching anymore. After he went 1 for 8 over the next week, the Marlins sent him back to AAA. I figured his career was over.
He didn’t hit all that well in AAA, but somehow the Marlins brought him back anyway for four games in June. He went 2 for 9 over a 12-day span, so he disappeared again. I don’t think I even noticed that cup of cold coffee.
And yet he still wasn’t done. The Marlins called him up once again, in time for the July 19 game. Starting in 5 games and pinch hitting in 4 more, never getting more than one hit a game, he still managed to produce a .273, .360, .545 July batting line. I didn’t notice. MLBtraderumors didn’t notice. Fangraphs didn’t notice.
Then August rolled around. He went 2 for 4 with a homer on August 2, then 2 for 4 Aug 3. Perhaps going 1 for 10 over his next three games dimmed the lights, but in his last three games he’s gone 3 for 3 with two double and a walk, 2 for 4 with a double and a walk, and yesterday 2 for 4 with a homer.
Brinson finally made the news – but it was about someone being heard shouting the N-word at him in Denver (who may have been shouting “Dinger” instead), not his scintillating August slash line: .364, .400, .667.
I hesitate to shine this spotlight on him now, in case my attention is what caused his miseries. But he deserves recognition, for his persistence at least. And if he’s finally figured it out, he deserves admiration. As do the Marlins for their patience.
Go Lewis Brinson! Make me regret giving up on you a few months too soon!
EFL Standings for 2021
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
RS |
RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines |
79 |
33 |
.704 |
— |
639.9 |
414.4 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes |
75 |
37 |
.667 |
4.2 |
585.6 |
411.2 |
| D.C. Balk |
70 |
42 |
.627 |
8.6 |
633.9 |
489.6 |
| Peshastin Pears |
70 |
42 |
.626 |
8.7 |
552.8 |
430.2 |
| Kaline Drive |
68 |
44 |
.608 |
10.8 |
584.6 |
468.6 |
| Haviland Dragons |
65 |
47 |
.580 |
13.9 |
581.5 |
508.2 |
| Cottage Cheese |
63 |
49 |
.560 |
16.1 |
653.9 |
592.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
62 |
51 |
.548 |
17.5 |
574.3 |
520.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos |
60 |
52 |
.538 |
18.6 |
571.4 |
549.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades |
59 |
54 |
.525 |
20.1 |
485.0 |
461.6 |
| Portland Rosebuds |
52 |
60 |
.465 |
26.8 |
574.8 |
624.9 |
Old Detroit: W 1, L (-1); 3 – (-2). (5 PA, .500, .600, 2.000; 7 ip, 1 er, 1.29 ERA) MLB scheduled only 5 games for yesterday, and one of those was rained out. Fortunately for the Wolverines, that one wasn’t the White Sox game — Eloy’s second straight 2- homer performance.
Nor was it the scintillating Yankees-Royals game in which Jameson Taillon matched the Royals’ Carlos Hernandez inning by shutout inning for the first 6 innings. Both starters surrendered a run in the 7th — Taillon’s being unearned — before being pulled for relievers. Taillon’s reliever was fellow Wolverine Jonathan Loaisiga, who surrendered the unearned run after committing an error on an attempted pickoff, and then allowed an additional run (earned) to score in the 7th.
Eloy’s day makes it a little easier for Wolverine fandom to let go of remorse over giving up on Brinson too soon. But what if both of them had been in the Oldie outfield yesterday?
Flint Hill: DNP, (-1) – (-1). (10 PA, .400, .400, .700; 6 ip, 1 er , 1.50 ERA). The Tornados had almost the same day as the Wolverines. Tim Anderson went 3 for 5 with a homer as Eloy’s sidekick in the White Sox-Twins game — but he is still unallocated on the Flint Hill roster. (Why, Jamie? What did he do to get into your doghouse?) That left Joey Gallo as the only Flinty batter. He was in the mix in the wild Yankees-Royals game, although mostly by making outs in his 1 for 5 day.
Joe Musgrove matched Jameson Taillon’s 6 sparkling innings with only one run allowed, except Musgrove’s was an earned run.
The differences don’t seem like much, but they were enough to let the W’s extend their lead by about 0.4 games.
DC: DNP, 0 – (- 1). (5 PA, .250,. .400, .500; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) Myles Straw was the lone DC hitter. He did well — a double and a walk in 5 trips to the plate — but it didn’t move the needle enough for a run to show up on the board. Garrett Crochet had better luck. His fine inning, striking out two and allowing only one base runner on a walk, did move the runs-allowed needle enough to take a run off the board.
Peshastin: DNP, 1 – 1. (5 PA, .400, .400, 1.000; 4 IP, 4 ER, 9.00 ERA). Yoan Moncada’s homer was enough to offset Zach Thompson’ struggles from the mound. But it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Balk, who inched ahead by 0.1 games in the race for third place (and a place on the fringe of the pennant race).
Kaline: DNP, (-1) – 1. (13 PA, .231, .286, .308; no pitching). Aaron Judge doubled and singled in 5 trips during the Yankees-Royals thriller. But Jesse Winker only walked in 5 PA, and Andres Gimenez only singled in 4 PA, so the final line was not good enough to avoid losing a run scored.
Haviland: W 1, L (-1); 5 – (-2). (13 PA, .538, .538, .923; 3 ip, 1 er, 3.00 ERA). Like several other teams, the Dragons carefully selected who would take the few plate appearances they would get yesterday. Amed Rosario made arguably the best use of his opportunities of anyone in MLB, going 4 for 5 with a double and a triple. Baseball Reference ranked that the #3 best hitting of the day, after Eloy at #1 and Jose Ramirez at #2, even though those two used up twice as many outs as Amed did. BR likes homers, I guess.
The Dragons won the day, by the way, gaining 0.1 games on the Wolverines.
Cottage: DNP, 0 – 0. (All the Cheese took the day off).
Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 3. (8 PA, .286, .375, .429; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Luis Robert played in his first game in months, coming off the DL to go 2 for 5 with a double. He helped the team score just enough runs to win the game, one of only two played in the EFL yesterday. Nick Sandlin notched a scoreless inning, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the team’s underlying ERA from allowing 3 runs to score.
Canberra: DNP, 0 – 0. (No, really, not a single Kangaroo played yesterday.) I don’t recall this ever happening before, and now it’s happened twice in a single day. So it must have happened before. I was probably moping about Lewis Brinson the last time it happened.
Bellingham: L, 3 – 3. (24 PA, .217, .250, .391; no pitching) Aha! This is where all those missing PA have gone, On a day when no one else sent more than 3 people to the plate, and two teams couldn’t even find one batter to come out to play, the Belles were hogging the hitters: 7 of them. DJ LeMahieu batted well (2 for 5 with a double and a triple) and Hanser Alberto sent the Yankees/Royals game into the 11th inning with his two-out single to drive in the tying run. But it was not enough to avoid a loss.
Portland: DNP, (-3) – 0. (6 PA, .000, .000, .000. No pitching.) I think this is some kind of performance art. The Cheese and the Kangaroos were plain, simple, straightforward. Their entire rosters took the day off. The zeroes in their line reflected their absence, not their performance.
The Rosebuds took a different tack. If they were going to get “credited” with 0 offense, they wanted to earn it. SO they sent Max Kepler and Ryan Jeffers out there against the Jimenez/Robert/Anderson White Sox and had them both go 0 for 3, with Jeffers adding two strikeouts for spice. But instead of this being just a neutral day, with their boat anchored in the current, that little performance left the ‘Buds drifting backward.
Oh well, that’s Portland. Keeping it weird.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines |
79 |
33 |
.704 |
— |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes |
75 |
37 |
.667 |
4.2 |
| Tampa Bay Rays |
68 |
44 |
.607 |
10.9 |
| Boston Red Sox |
65 |
49 |
.570 |
14.9 |
| New York Yankees |
62 |
50 |
.554 |
16.9 |
| Toronto Blue Jays |
60 |
50 |
.545 |
17.9 |
| Baltimore Orioles |
38 |
72 |
.345 |
39.9 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| D.C. Balk |
70 |
42 |
.627 |
— |
| Canberra Kangaroos |
60 |
52 |
.538 |
10 |
| Philadelphia Phillies |
59 |
53 |
.527 |
11.3 |
| Atlanta Braves |
57 |
55 |
.509 |
13.3 |
| New York Mets |
56 |
55 |
.505 |
13.8 |
| Washington Nationals |
50 |
62 |
.446 |
20.3 |
| Miami Marlins |
47 |
66 |
.416 |
23.8 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Chicago White Sox |
67 |
46 |
.593 |
— |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
62 |
51 |
.548 |
5.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades |
59 |
54 |
.525 |
7.7 |
| Cleveland Indians |
55 |
55 |
.500 |
10.5 |
| Detroit Tigers |
54 |
60 |
.474 |
13.5 |
| Kansas City Royals |
48 |
63 |
.432 |
18 |
| Minnesota Twins |
48 |
65 |
.425 |
19 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers |
66 |
46 |
.589 |
— |
| Cottage Cheese |
63 |
49 |
.560 |
3.3 |
| Cincinnati Reds |
61 |
52 |
.540 |
5.5 |
| St. Louis Cardinals |
55 |
56 |
.495 |
10.5 |
| Chicago Cubs |
52 |
61 |
.460 |
14.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates |
41 |
71 |
.366 |
25 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| Kaline Drive |
68 |
44 |
.608 |
— |
| Houston Astros |
66 |
46 |
.589 |
2.1 |
| Haviland Dragons |
65 |
47 |
.580 |
3.1 |
| Oakland A’s |
64 |
48 |
.571 |
4.1 |
| Seattle Mariners |
59 |
54 |
.522 |
9.6 |
| Los Angeles Angels |
56 |
56 |
.500 |
12.1 |
| Texas Rangers |
39 |
73 |
.348 |
29.1 |
| TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
| San Francisco Giants |
71 |
41 |
.634 |
— |
| Peshastin Pears |
70 |
42 |
.626 |
0.8 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers |
67 |
45 |
.598 |
4 |
| San Diego Padres |
65 |
49 |
.570 |
7 |
| Portland Rosebuds |
52 |
60 |
.465 |
19 |
| Colorado Rockies |
51 |
61 |
.455 |
20 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks |
35 |
78 |
.310 |
36.5 |
