I updated for week 2 for the first time this morning. It took me less than an hour, even with some minor distractions. Let’s see if I can get a post written in less than another hour. It’s 8:39 as I start writing.
First, let’s look at Week 2 Results
Let’s focus first on the MLB teams we’re facing this week. They’re the same as last week, except the Yankees have disappeared for a few weeks, replaced by the Padres. All the others have shifted from one EFL team to another.
You might think that means our experience should be generally familiar. Of course they won’t be identical. But if we divide the possible winning percentages, from 0.000 to 1.000, into five bands (0.000- 0.199: catastrophic; .200 to .399: disappointing; .400 – .599: solid; .600 – .799: exciting; and .800 – 1.000: euphoric) it doesn’t seem too much to ask for teams to stay in their bands, or maybe edge into an adjacent one, out of fairness to their EFL opponents.
How did the 10 repeating teams do? Here are their records for w/l in each week, and their raw winning percentages:
Only 4 teams (CHC, TEX, MIL, KCR), all fairly mediocre except maybe Milwaukee, stayed within .200 points of their Week 1 performance. All the other 6 repeaters, and the Padres as replacements for the Yankees, jumped more than entire bandwidth.
It is now time for all of us to empathize with the Tornados. They had the toughest MLB opponent in week 1 — the White Sox. The Sox were only a little tougher than the Giants and Rockies, but they were still tougher. But this week the White Sox are (so far) the second easiest opponent, their winning percentage having plummeted .554 points. DC gets the benefit of the White Sox sudden incompetence.
I hope you didn’t use up all your empathy, because it gets worse for the Tornados. This week they face the Mariners, who politely put up a .260 raw winning percentage for the Wolverines last week. This week — thanks to an 11 – 1 rout last night in their home opener against the Astros — the M’s have a .985 winning percentage so far, the best in baseball (with one exception, see below). That’s a whopping .725 percentage point leap from last week. Or at least, a whopping leap so far: these are the Mariners who are certainly capable of putting up the inverse score today.
Do you have any more empathy lying around the house? Maybe that left over bit you put in the fridge last week — yeah, there, in behind the egg salad you’ve forgotten about for 8 days. Get that empathy out for the Canberra Kangaroos. Last week they faced the Giants, the second toughest MLB opponent we faced, with their .740 winning percentage. This week Canberra roofully faces the Dodgers, who have beaten the Reds twice by a 3 to 1 margin (9 – 3 on Thursday, 3 – 1 Friday) to amass a raw winning percentage of .900, third best in the EFL.
They say revenge is best served cold. Let’s hope the same is true for empathy.
You probably noticed the Giants are currently, for the second week in a row, enjoying the second best raw rs/ra winning percentage in MLB, beating the Guardians last night 4 – 1. (The Giants didn’t play Thursday.). You may be grumbling that I should have had you save some of that leftover empathy with whomever has to play the Giants this week.
You are so WRONG. What you need now is a supply of admiration, or even awe if you have some. Behold the Dragons! Faced with a Giants team boasting a .941 winning percentage, the Dragons have scored 4.9 runs and allowed only 0.5.
Seven Dragon pitchers have already taken the mound this week, tossing 22 2/3 innings… and allowing 1 earned run. Since they only had to cover one game, and have PLENTY of innings, it shows on the report as 0.5 runs allowed. Add in a robust offense, with 62 AB already, and four players OPSing over 1.000 (Jonah Heim – 2.250; JT Realmuto 4 for 4 for a 2.000 OPS; Brandon Lowe 1.089; and Jarred Kelenic, 1.048, thanks in large part to his piling-it-on home run against the Astros last night) and what you see is our THIRD place EFL team posting a .991 raw weekly winning percentage to DOMINATE, humiliate, and crush the mighty Giants despite their fancy .941 for the same week.
Go Dragons! The sky is the limit!
Ummm… could we make that “Second place is the limit!”?
Seasons standings so far:
Time to write this update: 89 minutes. Rats. Missed by 29 minutes.