I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news. A bunch of my news is both, but some of it is purely good, and some is purely evil.
No. That’s not fair. Some things are very bad but not at all evil. Mosquitos, for example, unless you agree with my Dad, a Bible major with a degree from Anderson College (now University), and a frequent Sunday school teacher, so clearly an expert, who used to say that mosquitoes, and possibly the red ants that bite, were the only things created by Satan. Unless you agree with my Dad, Ryan’s Grandpa, then mosquitoes can’t help being bad. They aren’t trying to be bad, and they have no moral agency, so they can’t be evil. Evil requires moral agency and culpability, according to Thomas Sowell’s article on Cosmic Justice I mentioned to you last week, so you would have learned in EFL school had you been paying attention.
So some of my news is just good. Some is just bad. A lot of it is both. Most of the bad parts aren’t evil. Maybe none of the bad parts are evil.
Which do you want first — the good news or the bad? … Let’s start with good and work down, until you figure out why Pete Alonso is our featured photo.
The Purely GOOD news:
- We have almost entirely erased the difference between our league adjusted winning percentage (.494) and our league raw winning percentage (.497).
- The Kangaroos, long the league’s head-to-head whipping boys, who at times have suffered a matchup penalty around .200 percent in the standing, have slashed it down to .023 percent. The ‘Roos have consistently been our 5th best team. They are now for the first time in 5th place.
- The Alleghenys have pulled themselves back above the .300 winning percentage line, even though their owner is absent in baseball-devoid Ireland. The A’s aren’t threatening for their 9th league championship. That would be mixed Good/Bad news. But it’s pure bad news to see our flagship franchise on pace for more than 110 losses. Pittsburgh’s .286 winning percentage at the end of Week 6 projected for a 46 – 116 record. Today’s .311 still portends a 50 – 112 record. But it’s moving in the right direction.
- The Dragons (raw weekly winning percentage .720, adjusted .687) and the Wolverines (raw .734, adjusted .760) have worked hard to blunt DC’s attempt to destroy our league pennant race (see below, The Purely Bad AND Evil News). Darin Ruf’s amazing 4 for 9 with a double, two homers, and five walks (1.822 OPS, 34.7 rc/g) leads the way for the Dragons, with Aaron Judge (5 for 12 with a double, 2 homers, and 3 walks; 1.500 IPS, 24.3 rc/g) not far behind. For the Wolverines, the key has been avoiding disasters. Of the 8 pitchers who’ve appeared for Old Detroit, two have tied for the week’s worst ERA’s at 4.50. Of the 12 hitters who have appeared, five have OPSed over 1.000, led by DC cast-off Sam Huff, who has gone 3 for 4 to create 60.7 runs per game. Josh Bell (0 for 10 with 1 walk) and Byron Buxton (0 for 8 with 3 walks) represent potential source of new
The Mixed Good / Bad news:
- Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of Week 7. Reallocations will be do by 5 PM on Monday, entered on your MAY EFL 2022 TeamName v2 Google sheets.
- The Rosebuds are on a surge. They started the week at 14 – 22, a .388 winning percentage, in 10th place. The ‘Buds have gone 4 – 0 (really 3.6 – 0.4) this week behind dominant pitching (1.18 ERA) led by… [Ah, it’s kvetching again. You don’t want to hear that.] [I don’t mind so much, Grandpa.] [Okay]. … Hall-of-Fame sure-fire lock Eric Lauer’s 7 shutout innings. What makes this even more impressive is they are playing the Texas Rangers this week, who have outscored their opponents 20 – 15 for a .640 winning percentage. There is nothing phantasmic about the Rosebud surge — sorry Rosebud road-kill Bellingham, Peshastin, and Flint Hill.
- The Kangaroos are also surging. Prize prospect Isaac Paredes has two homers, leading the team with 16.9 runs created per game. They are 3 – 1 (really 2.6 – 1.4), a much more modest record than those showy Rosebuds (but then, this is the season for rosebuds; they’ll probably wither in August). But it’s enough for the ‘Roos to gain a place in the standings (which is bad news for Kaline).
- Which has the nice side-effect of dropping Kaline to the pivotal 6th place spot, right in the middle of the standings, which is where the Wizard of Whidbey professes to prefer to be. This would be pure good news, except some of us harbor doubts that the Wizard is really happier in 6th than he is in 5th, especially after finishing a very strong 4th last season. Also, a dark cloud hovers in the Whidbey Island sky: the Drive are still enjoying a .165 winning percentage subsidy from their compliant MLB opponents. This week they are playing the Nationals, whom The Great Eric Lauer so thoroughly dominated. After this week , we face 10 more MLB opponents. That’s plenty of time for chickens to find their way to Whidbey Island to roost.
- Neither Peshastin nor Flint Hill is happy with their place in the standings. Sure, we observers can be impressed how Tornado management has assembled a respectable team after sacrificing so much future last season to try to catch the Wolverines. But the 2020 champions and 2021 close runners-up can’t be very happy with an 8th place showing. And the Pears had aspirations both this year and last of competing for the title. Last year’s 5th place finish was a disappointment, and this year’s 9th place position has to be even more discouraging.
- On the other hand — these two storied franchises are in a dogfight with each other. They are currently 0.19 games apart in the standings. At the end of Week 6 they were only 0.07 apart. The previous week the gap was 0.68, and hasn’t been greater than 1 game since week 2.
- The Tornados have churned their roster prodigiously since the end of 2021. They have to be pleased with CJ Cron (4 for 9 this week with a double and a homer; 1.333 OPS, 19.3 rc/g) and Keibert Ruiz (3 for 6 with 2 doubles and 3 walks ; 1.500 ops, 34.8 rc/g).
- The Pears have been more stable. Their investment in Anthony Rendon looks good this week ( 6 for 12 with two doubles, a homer and two walks, worth 1.488 OPS and 29.8 rc/g). But Pear pitching has been putrid this week, producing a trans-replacement 7.35 ERA , primarily because Nathan Eovaldi triple-chulked (1.7 ip 6 er).
- The Seraphim might deserve to be in the Purely Good News section, running along quietly in 4th place, staying within striking distance of first, with solid if unspectacular pitching (4.58 team ERA this week) and similar hitting (4.9 team rc/g this week). Given the grouses Seraphim management — is Dave now the Archangel of the Seraphim ?!? That’s a serious upgrade from Head Cheese! The Archangel groused recently about Abraham Toro, who was stolen from the Wolverines, but who has hit two homers this week to lead the heavenly host in offense. I fear the Seraphim. But until they make their move to take over the lead — and as long as DC remains so hot — I can’t imaging the Archangel is entirely happy.
The Purely Bad, but Not Evil news:
- I think it’s purely bad news if ANY EFL franchise ends up with 100 losses. Bellingham at the moment is on pace to go 63 – 99 The Cascades treaded water so far this week, sliding from a .388 winning percentage to a .387 winning percentage. The Cascades would be at .420 for the season today, but their opponents this week (the Brewers) stomped the Nationals 7 – 0, flipping the C’s weekly winning percentage from .708 to .378 (and flipping the Brewers’ winning percentage from .377 to .708, oddly enough). OK, sure, a .001 drop in winning percentage is a tiny bit of bad news. But it’s still bad news when your team is so close to a 100-loss pace, and when you could have been at .420 on the season, projected to go 68 – 94, safely distant from 100 wins.
The Purely Bad AND Evil news:
- It’s also bad news if ANY EFL franchise destroys our pennant race. Even if it was the Wolverines, I would think it unfortunate if they won by 20 games rather than about 5. Right now the Balk are threatening to cinch the pennant by the end of June, if not sooner. DC has the third-best raw winning percentage in the EFL this week (.732), which is transformed into the second best adjusted winning percentage (.840) by the supine performance of this week’s MLB opponent Oakland A’s (.343 winning 5% on the week). Pete Alonso leads the team this week, going 5 for 15 with two homers, two walks, an a HBP for 14.8 rc/g and a 1.178 OPS.
- What makes this not merely bad, but also evil? We all suspect the Balk are enjoying their emerging domination of the league, and might not mind adding a half a game a week until they finish 15 games up — or maybe even break the Allegheny’s record margin of victory (19.1 games in the infamous 2007 season). Maybe I’m wrong about the Big Balk’s inner motivations. Let’s hope so. In that case, the threat of Balkan dominance would be bad, but not evil.