I have run an update through Sunday’s games. It took about 5 hours… but most of that was consumed in setting things up: chasing down inconsistencies in how the 11 spreadsheets reported data, so all the key info would all be in the same cells; setting up the weekly standings links to the new versions of the spreadsheets, and formatting the weekly reports.
This is NOT an official weekly update. It is only a test. If this were a REAL update you would be instructed on how to adjust your allocations for the coming week, and would be given a deadline to get those done. And if it were a REAL update your local commissioner would be copying the team spreadsheets into a Week 1 Archive folder, and clearing the stats off the team sheets (the copies in my update folder) and entering each team’s MLB competition for the coming week. I think that’ll be about 15 minutes of work when I get the hang of it.
And I would ask you to make any changes to your allocations in your spreadsheet in the EFL Team Sheets folder by noon on Thursday — or on Dave’s allocation page although it will save me several minutes if you use the team spreadsheet, because it’s a simple cut-and-paste for me to put the new allocations into the operative spreadsheets I keep in my EFL Updates folder.
But today, you can forget about all that (unless you’re already plotting allocation changes) and just enjoy (or “enjoy” as the case may be) these standings after 3 days’ play:
The standings are depicted in the left section above, resulting from the interaction of our teams’ performance so far with our MLB opposing teams’ performances. You can get a picture of the quality of your team’s performance against hypothetical .500-level oppusition in the right-hand section.
Portland is almost in first place despite playing (barely) sub-.500 ball, evidently because its MLB opponent did even worse. The Dragons and the Pears got even bigger boosts from the poor play of their MLB opponents. The Kangaroos can complain a little about catching a team at its best, but they didn’t take a reall hit. The Tornados didn’t play well, but got punished extra because they faced a relatively strong White Sox team. Kaline and Pittsburgh compounded slow starts by playing team that were relatively hot out of the box.
Here are the Weekly results, with more information about the quality of opposition we each faced. Right now its RS and RA columns duplicate the information in the right-hand segment of the season standings, but in future weeks the standings will show totals for the season while the Week 1 results will report on just the most recent week’s performance.
While I am getting the hang of these updates you may hear less from me than is ideal about the notable individual performances for the week. For today, how about one or two of each team’s outstanding performances from the first days of the season:
Old Detroit
Byron Buxton has three home runs already, plus a hit by pitch. But that’s all — no other hits, no walks, 4 strike outs. So — and this is a very pleasant surprise — Jurickson Profar is the very early leader out of the Wolverine clubhouse, with 2 homers, two singles and three walks in 13 plate appearances, creating runs at a 26.2/game pace if he was all nine Wolverine hitters. Considering the Padres moved mountains to try to bury Profar under one, this is an inspiring performance… which, if it continued, would cost Josh Bell his job at first base. Bell is OPSing a pretty .976 so far but who’s going to pay attention to that if a) Profar is OPSing 1.538 and b) Profar’s 1b defense is 3.3 compared to Bell’s 2.5.
Of course, if Bell can respond to Profar’s challenge like Profar has been doing to the Padres’ challenges, this could turn out pretty great.
Portland
Immediately upon being allocated 100%, Jackson Kowar surrendered 7 earned runs in 3.3 innings. But Tyler Mahle cleaned up a lot of the mess with 5 scoreless innings, and Ex-Wolverine Infielder Extraordinare (EWIE) Nick Senzel had a day: just one day, but on that one day he went 2 for 3 with a homer and two walks, to set a 120.4 rc/g pace which he hopes to continue if he gets back into the lineup someday. Rhys Hoskins is getting regular playing time and making good use of it: 3 for 9 with a homer, a double, and three walks for a 27.6/game scoring pace.
Salem
The Most Heavenly Seraphim was clearly Sean Manaea, who pitched 7 no-hit innings before being removed from the game for… earliness in the season, I guess, after an abbreviated spring training. This left the Seraphim with 1/3 of a replacement inning, but also led the way to a stingy 1.80 team ERA for the opening three games.
Alex Verdugo is leading the Seraphim offensive choir, going 5 for 11 with a homer and a walk, good for 20.6 runs per game if his teammates would just keep up.
(And yes, I am in a dither about what colors to use for the Seraphim. Help me, Dave!)
Haviland
Gio Urshela (2 for 5 with a homer and two walks, 28.5 rc/g) and Jonah Heim (3 for 7 with a homer and two walks, ) pace the Dragon attack (24.7 rc/g), leading the way while others warm up. Kyle Schwarber started hot, homering in his first at bat, but since then hsa cooled off to 1 for 9 with three walks. Jered Kelenic is back to his bad old ways (1 for 11 with 1 walk). He was drafted on the idea he had found his stroke in the last half of 2021, but Mariner and Dragon fans are no doubt getting a little nervous right now.
The most valuable element of the Dragons’ game at this very early stage has been the Detroit Tigers, whose abysmal start added .399 points to the Dragon winning percentage — more than half. The Tigers will face a new team for the rest of this week, so maybe their subsidy to the Dragon cause will be cut off.
Peshastin
Reliever Kendall Graveman already has 2.7 innings pitched in his team’s first three games. Unless he’s planning to ammass 140 innings as a relief pitcher, that is an unsustainable pace. Unsustainable, but exquisitely timed to allow a stumbling Pears team (playing sub-.500-worthy ball out of the gate) to come in looking like a .719 winning-percentage team, on pace to match the 2001 Mariners’ 116 wins! Jazz Chisholm’s 3 for 6 with a double, a homer, and a walk helped, but even more useful was the Milwaukee Brewers allowing themselves to be outscored 18 – 9 while matched up against the Pears. Still three more games to go before this week wraps up, if the Brewers right their ship, the Pears had better do the same.
Canberra
The Kangaroos are the first team on this list to have their outcomes suppressed (so far) by facing a hot team. Kangaroo pitching formed another obstacle, struggling to an early 5.82 ERA despite having no replacement innings, thanks to a string of mediocre performances that led to a Caleb Smith’s quadruple chulk (1 ip, 4 er). The offense saved the Kangaroo day, led by Vlad Guerrero’s for 11 with a homer and a walk, for an 18.6 rc/g pace. Vlad had backup from three other Kangaroos who exceeded the 10 rc/g mark, the team as a whole scoring at a blistering 8.3 runs created per game so far. And there’s more in the tank; Jackie Bradley Jr will surely contribute more than the 0.1 rcg he’s doing so far (0 for 6 with a walk).
Bellingham
The Cascades are off to a leisurely start. Cascade pitching has been excellent, compiling a 3.69 team era even after accruing 3.9 innings of replacement pitching. No one has gone more than Anthony DeSclafani’s 3.7 innings yet, leaving the team short on innings with maybe not enough arms to catch up. On the offensive side, Corey Seager leads the way, going 6 for 13 with a double and a walk. In the “untapped potential” ledger we find Alex Kirilloff, who is 0 for 12 in the young season.
DC
Tyler Megill produced 5 scoreless innings to keep the Balk ERA from bloating into the 5.00 range, and catchers Tom Murphy (2 for 3 with a homer and a walk, 107.0 rc/g) and Danny Jansen (4 for 7 with a double, two homers, and a wal) rescued a listless Balky offense from 0 – 3 ignominy.
Flint Hill
Zach Eflin’s four shutout-inning start helped a thin line of pitchers keep the team ETA down to 3.91 despite 4.7 replacement innings. That created an opening for the offense to punch out some wins… but the offense had trouble seizing the opportunity. Brandon Drury — described by several EFL owners as “used to be intriguing”, “mysterious”, and “disappointing” — was the one Tornado to get off to a hot start, creating 18 runs per game in 5 plate appearances spread out over 3 games. But the rest of the team has yet to awaken, carrying on so far at a 3.6 rc/g rate.
Kaline
The Drive are still warming up in the driveway, I guess. They’ve scored only 9 runs in their first three games, despite Brad Miller’s 4 for 11 with two homers, a double, and a walk. No Drive pitcher has ammassed more than 1 inning without giving up an earned run, ballooning the team’s ERA to 6.86, worse than our new replacement rate of 6.00. Particularly galling is the identity of the lone Drive pitcher to chulk: rookie pre-emption-bid Reiver Sanmartin, whose first 2.3 innings generated 5 earned runs for opposing hitters.
Pittsburgh
Allegheny pitchers have done well so far, highlighted by Wil Crowe’s 4 scoreless innings, leading to a solid team ERA of 3.80. You don’t need all that much offense to win if your pitchers are doing that well as a squad…. but the Allghenys found a way to not reach that level of offense. Teoscar Hernandez is a pillar of strength (2 for 8 with a homer, two walks and two HBPs), Luis Robert is 5 for 13 with a double, and Mitch Haniger has homered twice, but the rest of the team is a moribund 9 for 81 with one homer.
PS: Here’s the weekly results chart, so far:
It only adds the MLB teams’ results for their first three games. In the future, the other columns will not be duplicated in the Standings chart, which will be cumulative for the season, whereas this data will always be about the current week only.