Late Thursday’s News On Your Doorstep Early Saturday Morning

I know, this update through Thursday is woefully late. But at least it’s an update!  Think of it as progress.

Old Detroit: W 2, L 1; 13 – 10.  (.258, .311, .380;  43 ip, 13 er, 2.72 ERA.)   Wolverine “management” goofed big time and allocated both Carlos Santana and Yan Gomes full time to catcher.  This will leave them hurting for OH unless Alex Guerrero comes through very big or someone gets hurt so we can promote… well, who? Adeiny Hechavarria?  Michael Saunders? Austin Hedges? Jake Elmore? Yikes. So, no, we don’t want anyone to get hurt. It’ll be easier if every single other thing goes right. Like, say, Erasmo Ramirez pitching well? (Check: 5.3 ip, 1 er.)  Alex Guerrero coming through? (Check: 12 PA, 1.035 OPS.)  Maybe get lucky and have fewer games this month? (Check: only 3 in five days.)

Haviland: W 2, L 2; 19 – 13. (.245, .311, .367; 39 ip, 19 er, 4.38 ERA).  The Dragons made better use of their hitting (nearly identical to Old Detroit’s) and somehow dodged the impact of Samardzija’s stinky start 5 ip, 9 er) by allocating him only 33%. Oh, I see how he did it.  Samardzija stank on Tuesday.  Rosters weren’t due until that evening.  He KNEW about it. With that clunker cut by 2/3, the Dragons have an ERA of only 3.31 — lowering it by an entire run per game. AND Haviland excised half of Alex Colome’s innings after he allowed 5 runs in 6 innings,also on June 2.  Take half of that out, and the team ERA is down to 2.74 -identical to the W’s.  Wow.  There’s a team with good management.  The W’s are doomed.

Flint Hill: W 2, L 1; 28-13. .361, .389, .615; 42 ip, 20 er, 4.29 ERA.  Seven Tornados are hitting at or over 1.000 OPS so far in June:  Kiermaier: 2.000; Pederson: 1.464 (with 4 hr already!); Giavotella: 1.300; Pollock: 1.268; Bogaerts: 1.214; Dustin Pedroia: 1.206; Leonys Martin: 1.000. This was enough to propel the Tornados past two other teams into 3 place.

Pittsburgh: W 3, L 1; 29 – 24. .283, .357, .529; 38.7 ip, 25 er. Hmmm.  Pittsburgh spent $6,000,000 on Noah Syndergaard, installed him as the #2 starter 100%, and watched him give away 7 earned runs in 4 ip. The Wolverines spent $4,250,000 on McCullers, allocated him at 0%, and watched him pitch a complete game with only 1 er. So — whichw was the more unfortunate bit of team management?  (And for you Archie Bradley watchers out there: he surrendered 5 er in 5 ip, allocated at 40%.)

Peshastin: W 2, L 3; 21-21. .294, .341, .386; 28.3 ip, 9 er. The Pears played very well, except they didn’t play enough for 5 games.  Those 6.7 replacement innings and 23 replacement plate appearances are like playing most of a game with replacements.  In a 5 game stretch, that really hurts. On the other hand, the very good news is Anthony Rendon is back, and with a bang: 2 for 4 with a double. Jay Bruce is only 2 for 9 but he has 5 walks.

Cottage: W 1, L 3; 7 – 12.  .175, .252, .247; 40.7 ip, 12 ER, 2.66 ERA.  The pitching is great. Only one pitcher stank so far — Phil Hughes, with 5 er in 4.3 ip.  But the hitting is as bad as the pitching is good. Only one Cheese is hitting (Yunel Escobar, at 4 for 11 with 2 walks — .364, .462, .364) but he hit into two GDPs, cutting his effective OPS from .825 by about .100 points.  Actually, that .500 OPS for the month overstates the Cheese offense considerably, since the team has hit into 6 GDP in 107 plate appearances.  That’s a double play every 18 plate appearances — almost 2 per game.

Kaline:  W 1, L 3; 10 – 18.  .227, .288, .313; 27.7 ip, 12 er. The Drive allocated almost all their players at 100% this month. They have what they used to call a “players’ manager” — someone who puts his faith in his players and just lets them play. Nori Aoki is thriving under this care: an .890 OPS so far this month, batting .314 on the season with the highest wOBA and wRC+ of his career. But Kyle Kendrick  (8.44 ERA) and Mike Bolsinger (7.20) struggled their first times through the rotation, as has Mike Zunino (0 for 9 with 2 walks through Thursday’s game).

Canberra: W 2, L 3: 19 – 23. .241, .322, .352; 32 ip, 12 er , 3.37 ERA.  The Drive and Kangaroos are back to being in a near dead-heat, their fates seemingly tied for the last year or so. Kangaroos as a whole are doing somewhat better than the Drive so far in June, with a lower ERA and a higher-octane offense. The “Mr. Hyde” side of Shane Greene has had his day (4.3 ip 4 er) so it’s time for the Dr. Jekyll side to show up, which would help make up for a shortage of innings.

Portland: W 1, L 4; 20 – 50 (!). .248, .315, .381; 18.7 ip, 22 er. Wow. The team ERA for non-replacement pitchers so far in June is 10.61.  The “ace” this month has been Mike Wright, whose ERA is an even 9.00 (5 ip, 5 er).  Chris Young and Jimmy Nelson only went 5 ip, too, but they allowed 6 er.  Chris Heston only allowed 5 er, but he only went 3.7 ip. So, yes, Mike Wright is the ace.  Or actually, the ace has been the unnamed replacement pitcher who has logged 17.3 ip with only 13.6 earned runs.

This is one of the most heart-rending scenes I ever recall in the EFL.  It’s like every pitcher they have is Fernando Rodney (who, by the way, turned a 0 – 0 pitcher’s duel into a 0 – 1 M’s loss by serving up a homer to Kangaroo Logan Forsythe, the first batter he faced).  It hurts so bad to think of a starting rotations and a bullpen filled with MDP’s.

But look on the bright side. You have 4 young players OPSing ovr 1.000 this month.  And your team has yet to hit into a double play. Unless they did that on Friday, of course.