I ran across a series of articles in Fangraphs ranking all the MLB teams’ talent at each position. For example, the Blue Jays were ranked as having the best catching because their four catchers (Jansen, Kirk, Brantly, and Varsho) are expected to create 5.7 WAR while playing catcher. (Jansen: 2.4; Kirk, 3.2, in 7 fewer plate appearances; Brantly: 0.0, and Varsho, 0.1 in 6 plate appearances.) (If he can do that in 6, and it takes Kirk 307, why isn’t Varsho playing more? Give him 300 PA, and he’ll produce 5 WAR).
The Rockies are the worst at catching. Elias Diaz is projected to get 378 plate appearances, which he really doesn’t need, because he could produce that same 0.0 WAR with one. Or even none. Brian Severn is slated for only 224 plate appearances, out of which he will fashion 1.1 WAR, and Willie MacIver will accumulate 0.1 WAR in 38 plate appearances.
I heard on a recent Effectively Wild podcast that Rocky management decisions tend to be incomprehensible. And I believe it.
(What Diaz brings that Severn can’t is experience — this is his 9th season in MLB, and fourth in Colorado. I thought he might also bring consistency, but no. He had good years in 2018 (1.8 WAR), and 2021 (1.6 WAR), but not so good ones in 2017 (-1.2 WAR), 2019 (-1.5 WAR) and 2022 (-1.4 WAR). But you can see why the Rockies are planning to give him 62% of the playing time: he’s due for a positive WAR season. Put experience together with a sine-wave WAR pattern, and the Rockies may not be quite so incomprehensible.)
But enough about the Rockies’ bad catching. Enough about MLB in general. What about the EFL? How do our teams rank at each position? Here’s a report, without players’ names (my time is not infinite), but with WAR totals for each team’s players while they play at that position, according to Fangraphs’ projections — with players as of the end of Round 1 of EFLBay this spring:
CATCHER: MLB Range: TOR (5.7) to COL (1.2) Haviland (9.0), Flint Hill (5.4), Peshastin (5.2), Pittsburgh (5.0), Old Detroit (4.9), Salem (4.6), Kaline (4.4), Canberra (4.2), DC (3.7), Portland (2.6), Bellingham (1.7).
FIRST BASE: MLB Range: LAD (5.1) to CIN (1.2) : Canberra (6.5), Haviland (4.7 – spread among 6 players), DC (4.2 — spread across 1 player), Bellingham (2.8), Peshastin (2.3), Salem (2.0), Old Detroit (1.2), Pittsburgh (0.4), Portland (0.3), KD and FH (0.0). Some of us are planning to play people at 1st that Fangraphs haven’t anticipated.
SECOND BASE: MLB Range: TEX (4.7) to WAS (1.8) : DC (7.4), Portland (6.8), Salem (4.3), Haviland and Kaline (4.2), Canberra (2.5), Peshastin (2.2), Old Detroit (1.5), Bellingham (1.4), Pittsburgh and Flint Hill (0.2).
SHORTSTOP: MLB Range: PHI (5.9) to CIN (1.4): Old Detroit (9.7 — as if it were possible to play both Carlos Correa and Tommy Edman there, with Luis Garcia sneaking in occasionally, too), DC (9.1), Pittsburgh (7.4), Salem (7.1), Peshastin (6.8), Flint Hill (5.3), Kaline (4.6), Haviland (3.5), Canberra (3.3), Portland (2.1), Bellingham (0.2).
THIRD BASE: MLB Range: STL (5.9) to KCR (1.7) Old Detroit (8.3), Portland (5.9), Peshastin and Salem (3.8), Pittsburgh (3.2), Canberra (2.9), Bellingham (2.3), Kaline (2.2), Flint Hill (0.7), Haviland (0.6), DC (0.5).
I think at about this point the Wolverines surged into the overall points lead! By 0.1 points. But… it wouldn’t last.
LEFT FIELD: MLB Range: SDP (5.9) to TEX (0.8)
CENTER FIELD: MLB Range: LAA (6.6) to CIN (1.1)
RIGHT FIELD: MLB Range: NYY (6.3) to CWS (1.3)
EFL OUTFIELD: Haviland (17.0), Flint Hill (16.8), Canberra (14.6), Peshastin and Salem (10.5), Portland (9.6), DC and Pittsburgh (8.6), Kaline (7.3), Old Detroit (4.3) (Memo to Colorado management: Free Nolan Jones!), Bellingham (0.5). STOP HOGGING ALL THE OUTFIELDERS, PEOPLE! You don’t need any more. Leave some for Old Detroit and Bellingham.
DH: MLB Range: LAA (3.8) to OAK (0.5). Old Detroit (4.6), Salem (4.4), Haviland (2.4), Pittsburgh (1.7), DC (1.3), Canberra and Flint Hill (1.2), Peshastin (0.7), Kaline (0.6), Bellingham (0.5), Portland (0.3)
STARTING PITCHING: MLB Range: NYY (16.2) to WAS (7.1) Flint Hill (16.5), Haviland (14.1), Portland (14), Old Detroit (12.7), DC (10.8), Peshastin (10.7), Bellingham (9.6), Salem (8.5), Kaline (8.4), Pittsburgh (7.9), Canberra (6.3)
RELIEF PITCHING: MLB Range: ATL (4.4) to OAK (0.5):. Bellingham (3.4), Canberra (3.2), Old Detroit (1.8), Kaline (0.9), Flint Hill and Pittsburgh (0.6), DC (0.3), Peshastin (0.2), Portland and Salem (0.0). We don’t put much into our relief corps — but this is true for MLB teams, too.
OVERALL: MLB Range: NYY (52.7) to WAS (24.9): Haviland (55.9), Old Detroit (48.0), Flint Hill (46.7), DC (45.9), Salem (45.2), Canberra (44.6), Peshastin (42.2), Portland (41.6), Pittsburgh (35.0), Kaline (32.6), Bellingham (22.4).
We await the results of Rounds 2 and 3 of the EFLBay draft, and our Saturday traditional draft session. So things can change. Bellingham has the most cash left at this point — exactly twice as much as Haviland — so there is hope for closing the gap.
But, still. Behind the Dragons there is a 7.8-points space with no one in it. In the next 7.8 – point space we find 7 teams. We look to have a scintillating race!
For second place.
If we want a pennant race this season, we have to invade that first 7.8 – point space.