Today is Father’s Day. And we have a sweet Father’s Day gift in the EFL. And a few other gift ideas, too.
Potentially four people in our league could give Father’s Day presents to other members of our league. Let’s see how they’ve done today — so far. And maybe make suggestions for any who, now that we’ve brought the topic up, are saying “Doh! Umm… I’ll be right back!”
First up is the lucky dad with two kids in the league who both live close by: John Johnson
The elder brother has already given Pop Johnson a nice gift: his spot in fourth place! The Tornados graciously limited their own performance to 11.2 runs scored and 11.8 runs allowed (while the Giants, their MLB opponents this week, scored 9 and surrendered only 5). You might think this was just something that happened, like John walked into the room while Jamie was just about to eat a cinnamon roll, and pretended he had gotten it specially for John. But it’s clear this particular treat was planned ahead, and created just for John.
How do we know this? Because Johnny Cueto, who yesterday pitched 7 dominant shutout innings, surrendering only 2 hits…was benched 100% for this week. Had Cueto been 100% active, the Tornados’ rs/ra would be 11.2/4.9, good for a raw winning percentage of .839. Even though the T’s are facing a the Giants (rs/ra – 9.5, .764 winning percentage), the Tornado’s would have a .616 winning percentage for the week, going 1.2 – 0.8. Instead, they have an 11.2/11.9 rs/ra, a .486 raw winning percentage, and a measly .226 adjusted winning percentage: 0.5 – 1.6. That’s a gift of 0.7 games in the standings.
It’s not like Jamie shoved John into a wheelchair and pushed him into 4th place like a Dragon invalid. No, he left some of the gift for John to take in his own way, under his own power. John was given the opportunity, but he had to assemble the pieces himself. Which he did, kind of: facing a nightmare in which four Dragon starters surrendered at least as many runs as innings pitched, (Ashcraft: 5 ip 6 er; Clevinger: 2 ip, 2 er; Lopez: 5.3 ip, 6 er; Skubal: 5 ip, 5er), John made a near-win out of scraps (one inning of shutout relief pitching) and good offense (8.5 rc/g) led by Jonah Heim (2.100 OPS), Jordan Luplow (2.000), Daniel Vogelbach (1.400) and Jake Cronenworth (1.381). The near win turned into a BIG win when weekly MLB foe Oakland put up 1 run and gave up 7 to start week 12.
So now John’s in 4th place. The T’s still lead the EFL in raw winning percentage, but languishing in 4th place is significantly better than languishing in 5th place. Jamie’s gift helped turn things in the right direction for the Dragons.
So… Mark J: do you have anything for your Father yet? Don’t panic — you can deliver Fathers Day gifts without embarrassment all the way up until about 5 pm. You have HOURS to come up with something.
And no, claiming to have arranged for the Athletics’ shellacking won’t be credible. Unless, maybe, you manage to increase the A’s negative rs/ra ratio today…
Let’s see: the dad with next geographically closest son — or in this case, son-in-law — is Dave. Hmmm. What might Andre have in mind for his father-in-law? Of course, he could leave this to his wife, Dave’s daughter, without embarrassment, but a Father’s Day present from one’s son-in-law is a nice, special gesture.
No, Andre, I don’t think Jamie’s idea (giving his dad his place in the standings) works for you. I know 8th place has its attractions, but Dave seems a little obsessed by the idea of finishing in FIRST place. Something to mellow him out a bit? Yes, I could endorse that…
THIS isn’t going to help him mellow out: 24.7 innings from four starters (Ray, Taillon, Wacha, Walker) , with a total of 3 earned runs allowed! How did that happen? Supposedly light-hitting Adolis Garcia going 4 for 7 with a single, double, triple, and homer — a cycle in only two games? That does seem hard to believe with some kind of outside intervention. Can you claim credit for that, Andre?
Now, about Ryan. It would be unseemly to use this space to hector Ryan for a Father’s Day present. But maybe a couple of gift suggestions would be in order?
a) Pitching. Somehow my bacon was saved this time by a sterling 6 inning shutout outing from Josiah Gray, but even counting him, I only have 4 healthy “starters”. One of them is Kaprielian who pitches like he’s still injured, and another one Stripling who was my “break glass in case of emergency” starter for good reasons.
Ryan has lots of pitchers.
b) Outfield. They keep giving Buxton days off. He gets at least a couple a week. This leaves me relying on Josh Bell as an outfielder, and “everyone’s favorite player” Tommy Edman. They both have their strengths… but I need a really good outfielder. You know. Like Julio Rodriguez?
Without a really nice present, the W’s are doomed to a long, slow decline which has already cost them first place. So, Ryan: are you still trying to win?
Meanwhile, Rob Bohall resumes the Balk’s first place tenure, until justice is done, either by an improved Balkan raw winning percentage, or a Dragon take-over of the lead. I don’t KNOW that any Bohall offspring had a hand in this, but I don’t see any reason for Rob not to think of it as a Fathers Day Gift.
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One last note: I fixed a glitch in the Allegheny data entry sheet that, this week, was costing the team about 0.1 wins because it was relying on replacement pitching AND had an active pitcher allocated less than 100%. I checked all the other sheets — none of them had the glitch, going all the way back to week 2. I originally fixed the glitch for everyone else between week 1 and week 2, but apparently missed the A’s. So I checked all the weeks for the A’s, starting with week 1, and found one other time when the A’s needed replacements AND had an active pitcher allocated less than 100%. Fixing the glitch this week added 0.1 games to the A’s place in the standings. Fixing the other glitch (from week 2 or 3, I don’t remember) cost the A’s about half that. So the difference wasn’t real big, but still — it’s a small gift for Mark W.
Did one or both of Mark’s sons have anything to do with this gift? That information is not mine to share.
