Yesterday evening I noticed the Mariners were ahead of the Angels 1 – 0 after the top of the first inning. That’s all knew: score (1 – 0) and the game was going into the bottom of the first.
That’s all I needed to see. Immediately I just knew Julio Rodriguez had hit a lead off homer again. For the second game in a row.
The rational part of my brain — neither cell was busy at the moment — suggested I should check the box score to be sure. I sneered at those pathetic frightened little things, but just to humor them I checked. And of course, it was just as I expected: a lead off homer. On the third pitch of the game.
The M’s still lost. And when I called Ryan to congratulate him about J-Rod’s amazingness, Ryan was appreciative, but he was still bruised from his Kangaroos’ shocking pummeling at the hands of the lowly Pirates last week. Between those bits of bad news, his exuberance never really exuberated. Very sad.
Have I told you about the time I went to Felix Hernandez’ last start in Seattle with my daughter Melissa, my son Ben, and my grandson Enzo, and predicted Narvaez’ 10th inning game-winning homer just before it happened? I have? Twice already? Oh, that’s not nearly enough times: you need to hear it again… ok, some other time. That was another occasion I just knew what was going to happen.
It wasn’t exactly the same. What I just “knew” was that, with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the 10th with the score tied, there weren’t going to be any more outs. I thought I was predicting a Narvaez base hit, or maybe a walk. But all I said was “There aren’t going to be any more outs.” What Melissa told Enzo was “Grandpa thinks the next better is going to hit a home run.” I started to correct her, but before I could, Narvaez hit a home run. So it wasn’t exactly the same. But it was close.
Back in July I studied the top 5 or 6 teams in the league, and got that same feeling: the Seraphim are better than the rest of us. This was before they were better than the rest of us in the standings. That feeling came again. I was sure the most we could do is try to make it close. Salem has this in the bag.
Those two rational cells are… not exactly filing dissenting opinions. They are urging caution. They are saying something about unforeseen mishaps that might befall the Seraphim. Or perhaps the Dodgers will call up James Outman, the Wolverine end-of-July draftee with the .462, .562, .846 slash line in the majors this year, of which the Wolverines got 1 walk and three strikeouts on his first day as a Wolverine, immediately after which he was sent back down to AAA by my Dodger management “partners.” Where he is batting .291, .384, .611. I’m willing to take those numbers… If the Dodgers would ditch the floundering Cody Bellinger (.200, .263, .377) then maybe Outman could shake things up for a couple of week, and the W’s could catch the S’s.
But they won’t. So he won’t. So they won’t. I just know it.
On the other hand…
| Season Standings W 25 | W | L | Pct | GB | RS | RA | Raw % | |
| Salem Seraphim | 95 | 50 | .656 | .0 | 863 | 564 | .701 | |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 93 | 52 | .644 | 1.7 | 864 | 609 | .668 | |
| DC Balk | 92 | 53 | .638 | 2.6 | 759 | 532 | .671 | |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 88 | 57 | .605 | 7.4 | 793 | 604 | .633 | |
| Haviland Dragons | 83 | 62 | .570 | 12.5 | 712 | 562 | .616 | |
| Kaline Drive | 79 | 66 | .546 | 16.0 | 638 | 640 | .498 | |
| Flint Hill Tornados | 70 | 75 | .480 | 25.6 | 670 | 650 | .515 | |
| Portland Rosebuds | 63 | 82 | .437 | 31.8 | 642 | 631 | .509 | |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 61 | 84 | .419 | 34.3 | 588 | 597 | .492 | |
| Bellingham Cascades | 57 | 88 | .392 | 38.3 | 660 | 758 | .431 | |
| Peshastin Pears | 53 | 92 | .363 | 42.4 | 594 | 792 | .360 | |
| Week 25 | 834 | 761 | 0.523 | 7,783 | 6,938 | .557 |
I apologize for the ugliness of these standings. Not the ugliness as in a Seraph looking at this and gasping at the sudden grotesque peril facing his team. I mean the lack of color, etc. WordPress isn’t able at the moment to upload screen-saves of our standings so I just copied them in with cut and paste.
Seraphs may be gasping because their 4.2-game lead as of a week ago, as well as their 2.4-game lead as of two days ago, is now down to 1.7 games. And James Outman is still in Oklahoma City. This can’t be happening!!
I agree. It can’t be happening. It surely isn’t happening. Not really.
Not happening, even though the Kangaroos look awfully dangerous with their early .921 raw winning percentage against the Seraphim.
Not happening, even though the Kangaroos are MOTIVATED! by the injustice of being the only team to have to face the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates (.724 winning percentage, went 110 – 42) when all the other front-running EFL teams got to face the 2022 Pirates (going .379, .315, and .315 against the Seraphim, Balk, and Wolverines). (Don’t tell Ryan, but he faced a Pirate team that was BETTER than any Honus-Wagner led version. Last week’s Pirates racked up a .775 raw winning percentage!). (On the other hand, if it will rile him up for precisely two weeks, go ahead and tell him. Tell him now so he can cool off by week 28 when the Wolverines finish the season in Australia.)
Nor is it reasonable to expect the Balk to be as accommodating as their early .586 weekly raw winning percentage. Their last two weeks were .974 and .874.
Nor should we expect the Wolverines to maintain a 1.26 team ERA. They’ve never surrendered fewer than 2 runs a game over a week this year. I think the Seraphim can relax about the Wolverines.
Whether they can relax about the Balk is another question.
OK. Not even Queen Elizabeth, on whose realms the sun never set, and who won (I just know this) every fantasy baseball league she joined, spent all her time with the upper crusts of society. So we should pay attention to the non-contenders.
Yesterday evening I noticed the Mariners were ahead of the Angels 1 – 0 after the top of the first inning. That’s all knew: score (1 – 0) and the game was going into the bottom of the first.
That’s all I needed to see. Immediately I just knew Julio Rodriguez had hit a lead off homer again. For the second game in a row.
The rational part of my brain — neither cell was busy at the moment — suggested I should check the box score to be sure. I sneered at those pathetic frightened little things, but just to humor them I checked. And of course, it was just as I expected: a lead off homer. On the third pitch of the game.
The still M’s lost. And when I called Ryan to congratulate him about J-Rod’s amazingness, Ryan was appreciative, but he was still bruised from his Kangaroos’ shocking pummeling at the hands of the lowly Pirates last week. Between those bits of bad news, his exuberance never really exuberated. Very sad.
Have I told you about the time I went to Felix Hernandez’ last start in Seattle with my daughter Melissa, my son Ben, and my grandson Enzo, and predicted Narvaez’ 10th inning game-winning homer just before it happened? I have? Twice already? Oh, that’s not nearly enough times: you need to hear it again… ok, some other time. That was another occasion I just knew what was going to happen.
It wasn’t exactly the same. What I just “knew” was that, with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the 10th with the score tied, there weren’t going to be any more outs. I thought I was predicting a Narvaez base hit, or maybe a walk. But all I said was “There aren’t going to be any more outs.” What Melissa told Enzo was “Grandpa thinks the next better is going to hit a home run.” I started to correct her, but before I could, Narvaez hit a home run. So it wasn’t exactly the same. But the feeling was very close to being the same.
Back in July I studied the top 5 or 6 teams in the league, and got that same feeling: the Seraphim are better than the rest of us. This was before they were better than the rest of us in the standings. That feeling came again. I was sure the most we could do is try to make it close. Salem has this in the bag.
Those two rational cells are… not exactly filing dissenting opinions. They are urging caution. They are saying something about unforeseen mishaps that might befall the Seraphim. Or perhaps the Dodgers will call up James Outman, the Wolverine end-of-July draftee with the .462, .562, .846 slash line in the majors this year, of which the Wolverines got 1 walk and three strikeouts on his first day as a Wolverine, immediately after which he was sent back down to AAA by my Dodger management “partners.” Where he is batting .291, .384, .611. I’m willing to take those numbers… If the Dodgers would ditch the floundering Cody Bellinger (.200, .263, .377) then maybe Outman could shake things up for a couple of week, and the W’s could catch the S’s.
But they won’t. So he won’t. So they won’t. I just know it.
On the other hand…
| Season Standings W 25 | W | L | Pct | GB | RS | RA | Raw % | |
| Salem Seraphim | 95 | 50 | .656 | .0 | 863 | 564 | .701 | |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 93 | 52 | .644 | 1.7 | 864 | 609 | .668 | |
| DC Balk | 92 | 53 | .638 | 2.6 | 759 | 532 | .671 | |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 88 | 57 | .605 | 7.4 | 793 | 604 | .633 | |
| Haviland Dragons | 83 | 62 | .570 | 12.5 | 712 | 562 | .616 | |
| Kaline Drive | 79 | 66 | .546 | 16.0 | 638 | 640 | .498 | |
| Flint Hill Tornados | 70 | 75 | .480 | 25.6 | 670 | 650 | .515 | |
| Portland Rosebuds | 63 | 82 | .437 | 31.8 | 642 | 631 | .509 | |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 61 | 84 | .419 | 34.3 | 588 | 597 | .492 | |
| Bellingham Cascades | 57 | 88 | .392 | 38.3 | 660 | 758 | .431 | |
| Peshastin Pears | 53 | 92 | .363 | 42.4 | 594 | 792 | .360 | |
| Week 25 | 834 | 761 | 0.523 | 7,783 | 6,938 | .557 |
I apologize for the ugliness of these standings. Not the ugliness as in a Seraph looking at this and gasping at the sudden grotesque peril facing his team. I mean the lack of color, etc. WordPress isn’t able at the moment to upload screen-saves of our standings so I just copied them in with cut and paste.
Seraphs may be gasping because their 4.2-game lead as of a week ago, as well as their 2.4-game lead as of two days ago, is now down to 1.7 games. And James Outman is still in Oklahoma City. This can’t be happening!!
I agree. It can’t be happening. It surely isn’t happening. Not really.
Not happening, even though the Kangaroos look awfully dangerous with their early .921 raw winning percentage against the Seraphim.
Not happening, even though the Kangaroos are MOTIVATED! by the injustice of being the only team to have to face the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates (.724 winning percentage, went 110 – 42) when all the other front-running EFL teams got to face the 2022 Pirates (going .379, .315, and .315 against the Seraphim, Balk, and Wolverines). (Don’t tell Ryan, but he faced a Pirate team that was BETTER than any Honus-Wagner led version. Last week’s Pirates racked up a .775 raw winning percentage!). (On the other hand, if it will rile him up for precisely two weeks, go ahead and tell him. Tell him now so he can cool off by week 28 when the Wolverines finish the season in Australia.)
Nor is it reasonable to expect the Balk to be as accommodating as their early .586 weekly raw winning percentage. Their last two weeks were .974 and .874.
Nor should we expect the Wolverines to maintain a 1.26 team ERA. They’ve never surrendered fewer than 2 runs a game over a week this year. I think the Seraphim can relax about the Wolverines.
Whether they can relax about the Balk is another question.
OK. Not even Queen Elizabeth, on whose realms the sun never set, and who won (I just know this) every fantasy baseball league she joined, spent all her time with the upper crusts of society. So we should pay attention to the non-contenders.
| WEEK 25 Results | W | L | Pct. | RS | RA | Raw % | Opponent | RS | RA | Raw % | ||
| Bellingham Cascades | 0.2 | 0.8 | .179 | 6.6 | 10.3 | .288 | Haviland Dragons | 4.1 | 3.0 | .649 | ||
| Canberra Kangaroos | 0.8 | 0.2 | .847 | 14.1 | 4.1 | .921 | Salem Seraphim | 4.4 | 3.1 | .677 | ||
| DC Balk | 0.1 | 0.9 | .115 | 5.4 | 4.5 | .586 | Old Detroit Wolverines | 4.4 | 1.3 | .916 | ||
| Flint Hill Tornados | 0.6 | 0.4 | .573 | 6.1 | 5.8 | .525 | Peshastin Pears | 3.4 | 3.8 | .451 | ||
| Haviland Dragons | 0.8 | 0.2 | .821 | 4.1 | 3.0 | .649 | Bellingham Cascades | 6.6 | 10.3 | .288 | ||
| Kaline Drive | 1.0 | 0.0 | .984 | 7.5 | 7.2 | .516 | Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 1.3 | 9.5 | .017 | ||
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 0.9 | 0.1 | .885 | 4.4 | 1.3 | .916 | DC Balk | 5.4 | 4.5 | .586 | ||
| Peshastin Pears | 0.4 | 0.6 | .427 | 3.4 | 3.8 | .451 | Flint Hill Tornados | 6.1 | 5.8 | .525 | ||
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 0.0 | 1.0 | .016 | 1.3 | 9.5 | .017 | Kaline Drive | 7.5 | 7.2 | .516 | ||
| Portland Rosebuds | 0.9 | 0.1 | .852 | 3.4 | 4.0 | .432 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 4.0 | 11.0 | .117 | ||
| Salem Seraphim | 0.2 | 0.8 | .153 | 4.4 | 3.1 | .677 | Canberra Kangaroos | 14.1 | 4.1 | .921 | ||
| WEEK 25 Results | 5.9 | 5.1 | .532 | 60.7 | 56.7 | .517 | 61.2 | 63.7 | .490 |
Haviland’s John Heasely anchored Dragon pitching with 6.7 scoreless innings, and Daniel Vogelbach boosted the Dragon offense with a homer, a double, and three walks (2.607 OPS). The Cascades’ Trevor Rogers who turned in a 1.7 ip, 5 er triple chulk to more than offset some fine Bellingham batting, mostly by Javier Baez (3 for 3 with a double, a triple, a walk, and a stolen base good for a slick 3.000 OPS.
Kaline caught the Alleghenys at a very vulnerable moment, Pittsburgh’s pitchers coughing up 9 earned runs in 9.7 innings pitched, and their hitters going 7 for 61 with 17 strikeouts and no walks. No Allegheny got more than one hit — although 3 of those hits were homers. (The 5 replacement plate appearances produced 1.2 hits.) Kaline’s pitching was only a little worse than replacement (6.73 ERA), but their hitting would have done any team proud (.270, .403, .534 after adjusting for allocations — almost an Edgar day).
The Tornados barely beat .500 in raw winning percentage, their offense barely covering for some rough pitching. Acuna, McKinstry and Sean Murphy homered. The Tornados are still waiting for Juan Soto to show up. He’s OPSing .424 in September. Even without much from Soto, Flint Hill was still more than the Pears could keep up with. Peshastin did get close to .500 in their raw winning percentage, thanks to 5 shutout innings from Dustin May and a nice 4 for 5 with a double and a triple by Brandon Marsh.
Finally, the Portland Rosebuds took on the red-hot Pirates … and watched them instantaneously revert to their old feeble 2022 ways. The Pirates have been outscored so far this week 11 – 4, for a .117 raw winning percentage. (I think I hear growling from Canberra.) Nick Senzel broke out for the Rosebuds, going 3 for 7 with a double, a homer and a walk.