Consolation for the Alleghenys

Yankees fans tend to think the World Series championship is theirs, by right, and every other World Series champion has only absconded temporarily with something rightfully belonging to the Yankees. 

If, say, a Mariners fan thought this way about his team, we would find it funny, and ignore him. But there’s nothing funny about a Yankee fan’s sense of entitlement.  The Yankees have always had the biggest fanbase, have always made their home in the biggest city,  have always been on TV more than anyone else during the season… and have, since Babe Ruth, by far the most World Championships: 27, with the Cardinals a distant second at 11. 

No EFL team is as obnoxious as the Yankees. But we do have a clear leader in EFL Championships: the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, with 7.   That’s 7 out of 18, far more dominant than the Yankees’ 27 out of 121 since 1900 — although you’d never know it, with Mark W’s graciousness and pure class. Whereas I fervently wish the Cardinals could switch places with the Yankees atop the World Series leaderboard — even though I am not a Cardinals fan — no neutral observer wishes our second-place team (the Wolverines) could switch places with the Alleghenys atop the EFL Championship leaderboard. 

Mark commented on yesterday’s post, rueing his team’s sub-replacement offense this week.  I doubt any of us are enjoying this miserable phase of generally glorious Allegheny history.  So I offer some consolation to the Alleghenys.

First, the A’s are not the worst team in Major League baseball.   Here are the standings this morning:

 

Note the abject state of the Cincinnati Reds. True, they are the only team with a worse record than the Alleghenys, but they are FAR worse. Our Pittsburgh’s record is more than twice as good as the Reds. More than 2.2 times as good, in fact.  No team in either Central Division is as much better than the Alleghenys than they are compared to the Reds.

The Reds have the worst offense in major league baseball, scoring only 3.05 runs per game for the season.  And they have the worst pitching with a 6.15 ERA.  Their hitting, as a team, is only about 10% better than replacement; their pitching is about 2.5% worse than our replacement level. 

The Alleghenys are only scoring about 2.7 runs per game, almost exactly replacement level on the season.  MLB’s average team scores 4.08, while the average EFL teams scores 4.48.  So that’s a significant problem.   But the Alleghenys’ pitching is 5th best in the EFL, giving up about 3.9 runs a game. MLB’s average runs allowed per game is 4.08; the EFL’s average is 4.36.   So the A’s are in deep crisis in only half their game. 

…

Here’s some consolation for the rest of us:  as I have just documented , the EFL this week finally saw its runs scored exceed its runs allowed.  We are, as a league, a little above .500 in our raw stats for the first time all season.  Unfortunately, the teams we have been playing so far are even more above .500, which keeps our EFL winning percentages under water. The Kangaroos continue to be our most disadvantaged team — by .181 percentage points. They should be a little above 11  – 10, but instead they’re 7.5 – 13.5.

The Dragons are in 4th place in our standings but they have been held back by .153 percentage points. They should be a smidge ahead of the Wolverines at 14 – 7 – except the Wolverines are .104 worse than their raw stats, so they should be ahead of the Balk at 16 – 5… except the Balk are .123  behind THEIR raw stats, so they should be 17 – 4.  I doubt many in the rest of the league are shedding tears at our plight.

Only two teams are being boosted by more than 0.100 in our head-to-head system:  the Cascades (.217 becomes .432) and the Drive (.276 becomes .393).  It’s a Puget Sound kind of thing, one of the many non-monetary compensations of living by the Salish Sea.

Only the Pears have avoided either victimhood on one hand, or oppression on the other.  Their raw stats would give them a .416 winning percentage; their adjusted stats give them a .416 winning percentage. Leave it to a professional ethicist to strike the morally perfect balance.

 

Finally: here are today’s standings and the updated weekly results.

 

Some notes:

• DC is clearly the best team in the league, and is trying to accelerate away from the pack with another win yesterday.  7.3 shutout innings from Tristan McKenzie and two relievers were crucial, especially considering the mild .190 .346, .357 offense. Home runs by Bryce Harper and Harrison Bader also helped.
• The Wolverines kept pace, mostly because of an unrepeatable 20 inning-dump of outstanding pitching. Four Old Detroit starters appeared. James Kaprielien’s debut off the IL didn’t go well – 2 ip, 4 er — but Buehler (5 ip), Josiah Gray (6 ip) and Marcus Stroman (7 ip) surrendered 0 earned runs. Byron Buxton blasted home run #7 on the year, to lead the W’s .314, .442, .400 offense.
• Salem got caught a little unaware by the DC/OD spurt.  Content with its impressive .297, .381, .432 offense, the Seraphim gave all their pitchers the day off.     Suddenly Salem slips to 2.3 games out. 
• The Milwaukee Brewers, bringing their 20 rs/2 ra  raw weekly record into Sunday’s game , cut the Dragons a little slack by losing 0 – 2.  But that still leaves the Brewers with a .962 raw winning percentage, a devastating number that reduces Haviland’s raw .697 record to .084.    The Brewers had 2 blow-out wins already this week.  I’m afraid the Dragons may be wishing a blow-out loss for the Brewers. 
• Bellingham batted to a nice .312, .405, .469 tune Sunday, overcoming sparse (3 ip) and shaky (3 er) pitching to hold onto fifth place in the standings. Yadiel Hernandez led the way, going 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and a walk.
• Peshastin followed the pattern of relying on its offense Sunday. The pitchers took a vacation while the hitters went .387, .487, .452.  The Pear pair of shortstops both pinch hit Sunday — Castro delivering a double and Chisholm a single amid a go-ahead rally.  Juan Soto went 3 for 5.
• Reiver Sanmartin served up a nonuple chulk — 2/3 of an inning, 6 earned runs — undermining an Edgar Martinez Day at the plate  (.345, .424, .552) for the Drive.   Patrick Wisdom homered, and Jesse Winker went 3 for 5 with a double.
• Kyler Tucker went 3 for 4 with a double and two stolen bases (.750, .750, 1.000).  The rest of the team went  7 for 43 with 3 walks (.163, .233, .163) and pitched 3.7 innings of 1 run ball.   Can Canberra management get Kyle to infect the rest of the team before the rest of the team infects Kyle?
•   Kevin Gausman gave the Rosebuds 7 strong innings (2 earned runs), and Jorge Polanco got two doubles in 5 at bats… and not much else happened to stir the Portland pot.
• I mentioned Mitch Keller and Joe Musgrove combining for 13 ip 2 earned runs yesterday – because their games were over and immediately updated while I was working (off and on) on yesterday’s post.  This was a problem I didn’t consider until I was almost done.. I also mentioned Miguel Cabrera’s home run off Phil Bickford, and Brandon Drury’s home run.  That only leaves Bo Bichette’s homer and a lot of uninspiring other offense for today’s Flint Hill comment. 
•  We talked about Pittsburgh already.  That’s enough compassion for one day, I would think.