Yesterday they marked the 50th anniversary of the construction of North Valley Friends Church’s church sanctuary. (The actual anniversary isn’t until November, but the weather was delightful yesterday for an outdoor barbecue meal, which it might not be on November 19.). Today Melanie and I celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of our marital sanctuary. A couple of you witnessed our wedding at Tilikum – thank you!
So I thought I’d celebrate these milestones with a double update, presenting an update through Saturday AND one through Sunday both at once.
But Baseball Prospectus is not cooperating. Either several of our teams only had one hitter play Sunday, or BP stopped updating early on Sunday afternoon. I suspect it’s the latter. So instead, to mark these anniversaries, here is Sunday morning’s update a day late.
(Given my schedule today, and it being our anniversary, I suspect I won’t get another update done until tomorrow. You can look at the Weekly Results page and see the effects of a partial update. You cannot count on any of the results/standings you see to be accurate at this point. )
Here are our standings as of Sunday morning:
Canberra 1.8 wins (.966), Salem 0.2 wins (.763): The Kangaroos, still determined to pay the Universe back for inflicting the Pirates’ fluke .775 raw winning percentage on them last week, continued to play awesome baseball through Saturday, running their weekly raw winning percentage to .966. This had the marvelous effect of shrinking the Seraphim’s .763 raw winning percentage all the way down to .103. But the ‘Roos also got bad news: Julio Rodriguez developed a sore back and could not play Saturday (or Sunday). But by Saturday Canberra pitchers stashed away 17.3 excellent innings — with only 6 earned runs allowed — while Kangaroo hitters were creating well over 10 runs per game, led by Isaac Paredes (4 for 8 with a double, homer, two walks, and a hbp). The Seraphim were creating runs at only about half that rate — so even though they had pitching almost as good as the ‘Roos, their very nice .763 got squeezed brutally.
Old Detroit 1.3 (.862), DC 0.7 (.754) wins: Another clash of high-flying titans – almost as high-flying as the ‘Roos and ‘Phims. Somehow the W’s compiled a 1.19 ERA through Saturday. The mystery about how the W’s good-but-not-great pitching could do this may be partially solved by noting Josiah Gray’s banishment to Toledo, and Stroman’s sudden realization that Walker Buehler has been on the IL for months, making Stroman the putative Wolverine ace — so he pitched like it for once ( 7 ip, 1 er) and Matt Manning backed him up (7 ip, 0 er). But veteran Wolverine watchers know there’s no way the team can keep up a 1.19 ERA. They’re hoping to buy time for the offense to get better than 3.2 rc/g. DC’s approach — a healthy 5.1 rc/g with a more reasonable 2.64 ERA — is more sustainable. Jose Quintana outdid Stroman with 8 ip, 0 er, while Matt Chapman far outstripped any Wolverine with his 5 for 10 with 2 hr and a walk (26.6 rc/g, 1.600 OPS).
Haviland 1.5 (.818), Bellingham 0.5 (.626). We are still flying pretty darn high, with the league’s 5th-place team sporting a raw winning percentage that fits right in with the four teams ahead of them, and the league’s 10th-place team playing well enough through Saturday to win 101 games against average major league competition over a 162-game season. Alas for the Cascades: if they were to extend this week’s competition with the Dragons over 162 games, they’d end up more like 42-120. Dakota Hudson was the stalwart for the Cascades with his 8 scoreless innings. Javier Baez led the Cascade offense through Saturday, going 6 for 8 with 1 double, 1 triple, 1 homer, 1 walk, and 1 stolen base. On the Dragon’s side Joe Ryan and Joh Heasley combined for 14.3 shutout innings. Daniel Vogelbach’s 5 for 8 with a double, a homer, and SIX walks (1.911 OPS, 73.3 rc/g !!! — .786 OBP) through Saturday was overtaken by Aaron Judge’s 7 for 12, 2 doubles, 2 homers, 4 walks (1.936 OPS, 58.9 rc/g… because the OBP is only .687).
Kaline 1.5 (.286), Pittsburgh Alleghenys 0.5 (.116). Ok, we’re down closer to earth, still getting an EFL team taking 3/4 of the wins against a fellow EFL team. The Drive offense was solid through Saturday (5.2 rc/g) thanks mostly to Willy Adames’ 5 for 11 with two doubles, two homers, and 3 walks. But Kaline lugged around a 7.87 ERA because JT Brubaker, Glenn Otto, and Jose Urquidy combined to cover 12.3 innings with 15 earned runs. Meanwhile the Alleghenys had an ERA 2 runs better (5.81), but created only about 40% as many runs per game (2.4). All the good Adley Rutschman did for the A’s through Saturday (5 for 11 with a double, a homer, and three walks) was undone by his 11 teammates who hit well below replacement level, with OPSes ranging from .000 to .432 in 97 plate appearances.
Flint Hill 1.4 (.726), Peshastin Pears 0.6 (.530). Peshastin has elevated its game through Saturday to get their raw winning percentage over .500. A solid 3.99 ERA was largely the work of Dustin May (.5 ip, 0 er) counteracting Jack Flaherty’s 5 ip 4 er rough day. An equally respectable 4.7 rc/g teetered on only 47 plate appearances by 8 rostered players, three of whom OPSed over 1.000 (Will Castro – 1.400 OPS, Brandon March — 1.123, Victor Robles — 1.083). It was all good work for an 11th place team… but not enough against the Tornados. Flint Hill had an excellent 2.91 ERA, thanks to 6 innings each by Hunter Greene and Joe Musgrove. The T’s also edged out the Pears in offense, accruing 5.1 rc/g led by the surging Ronald Acuna, Jr (4 for 11 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, and a walk).
Portland 1.8 (.430), Pittsburgh Pirates 0.2 (.089). Having sold their souls to torment the Kangaroos last week with that .775 raw percentage , the Pirates are paying the price this week. Through Saturday they were abject, scoring 5 runs and allowing 16. That didn’t create much traction against a Rosebud team featuring a 3.18 ERA through Saturday, even when the Portland offense was only producing 3.1 runs per game.