League Updates

The Perils of Poikilothermia

A week ago Ryan and I reached an historic agreement.  I’m not talking about the ELF Defense Pact divvying up first place between us — I am beginning to wonder if Ryan is ever going to keep his part of that deal.

No, we agreed that we would be happy if Leonys Martin turned into a hitter who could compile a .750 OPS over a season.

This was an historic agreement for many reasons.  First, because Martin is a Tornado.  We are not particularly Tornado fans.  But there we were, saying we would be happy if a Tornado played well.

Second, because neither of us cared much about Martin six months ago.  But then Jerry Dipoto made a slightly odd trade to get an all-glove, no hit outfielder.  And now we do care.  We don’t exactly love Leonys like God loves him, but it’s a step in that direction, isn’t it?

But the biggest reason our agreement has turned out to be historic is this:  Martin immediately transformed himself.

Last year he batted .219, .264, .313.  At the end of April he was batting .200, .288, .429 — better than any previous season’s line.  People were beginning to wonder if he’d found something, and maybe he could keep his OPS over .700.  But then he spent the first half of May going 9 for 49 with one homer and three walks, dropping his season totals to .200, .271, .365. So by the time we got to watch Martin in person in his next game, on Tuesday, May 17 in Baltimore (during the M’s 10-0 rout of the Orioles), I was beginning to doubt Martin really had turned any corners.  We talked about a .750 OPS wistfully, without much real hope.

Martin went 1 for 4 in the 10-0 blowout. The unremarkable performance barely changed his season line.  Here’s a chart of Leonys’ hitting numbers, beginning with the game where we sent him our wistful best wishes (2016 batting lines in parentheses):

Tues, May 17:  1 for 4 (.202, .271, .361)  (.632 OPS)

Wed, May 18:  1 for 4, hr.  (.203, .270, .382)

Thu, May 19:   2 for 3, hr, w (.214, .284, .413)

Fri, May 20:  2 for 2, 2b, 2 w (.227, .303, .430)

Sat, May 21: 1 for 2, hr, 2 w (.231, .315, .454)

Sun, May 22: 4 for 5  (.252, .331, .467)

Mon, May 23:  2 for 4 (.259, .335, .468)

Tue, May 24:  1 for 5, hr (.259, .337, .483) (.820 OPS)

Also, that last homer was his 9th of the season.  His previous best in a season was 8.

Also, that homer came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the M’s down 4 – 5, Nori Aoki on second base,  2 strikes on the batter. The blast turned a loss into a win.

Ryan Madson threw the pitch Leonys crushed.  Madson does not look happy in the video.  But I believe pretty much everyone else is happy.  I know I am happy, and Ryan Mock — who in every respect other than, possibly, the EFL Defense Pact, is a man of his word — is no doubt happy, too.  And any time someone finds the key to this much human happiness, that’s historic.

EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Canberra Kangaroos 29 17 .630 232.7 175.4
Old Detroit Wolverines 28 17 .631 0.1 247.8 189.7
Haviland Dragons 28 17 .617 0.7 205.5 162.4
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 27 20 .574 2.5 243.3 208.6
Flint Hill Tornadoes 26 19 .572 2.8 202.6 176.9
Portland Rosebuds 27 21 .562 3 218.3 192.1
Peshastin Pears 23 25 .476 7.1 195.2 206.0
Kaline Drive 20 25 .442 8.6 210.4 239.4
Cottage Cheese 19 25 .438 8.7 192.7 218.0
D.C. Balk 12 34 .269 16.6 173.2 286.0
Canberra: L, 0 – 6. (.147, .211, .206;  11 ip, 6 er).  I take back every snide remark I made above about the Kangaroos questionable reliability to keep it’s promises under the EFL Defense Pact.  I have to admit they made almost every possible effort to cede first place yesterday. Jose Abreu didn’t get the memo (3 for 4 with 2 doubles).  Nor did Martin Perez (6 scoreless innings), but others were there to uncover for them. The first-place Kangaroos played like a last-place team for one day. The standings in general contracted, putting us all much closer together.  How wonderful.
Old Detroit:  W 2, L 1; 15 – 11. (.258, .343, .516; 5.7 ip, 1 er). The W’s pounced at the opportunity to grab first place, especially  Gregory Polanco (3 for 5 with a homer and a double) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (2 for 4 2 with a double).  Manny Machado even woke up long enough to blast a homer a take a walk.  If Francisco Liriano had just kept that one run off the board… but that’s hard to do when you walk 5 guys in 5.7 innings.
Haviland:  L, 3 – 5. (.229, .341 .257;  3.3 ip, 2 er).  These EFL blog posts should definitely count as scholarship in my upcoming faculty growth plan. Scholars study things, right?  Well, every day I look up stuff, which counts as studying things.  And scholars publish in peer-reviewed publications?  Every day I publish my findings in this here publication, which is reviewed by my peers.   The fact that they almost never post comments doesn’t mean they aren’t subjecting my work to their scathing critiques behind my back.
Today is a case in point. Like a good scholar, I noticed something unexpected: the Wolverines, who had been in third place yesterday, took enough advantage of the Kangaroos’ sudden bout of generosity to almost seize first place, gaining 1.2 games in a single day. The Dragons, who had been in second place, only managed to gain 0.4 games.  If they had leapt 1.2 games, they’d be in first right now by a teensy 0.1 game margin.  Dragons are meat-eating lizards who must hunt to survive, so they should have lightning reflexes.  Why were they so sluggish? (Ooooo — calling a lizard “sluggish” — ie, mollusk-like — has to be a searing insult…)
It has been cool, and reptiles are cold-blooded, and Dragons are reptilian.
Now I can bring you today’s first Scholarship Moment: the official term for cold-bloodedness is “poikilothermia.”  I had never heard of poikilothermia before today.
Poikilothermic animals grow sluggish as their body temperature drops, and yesterday was a fairly cool day in these parts.  So the warm-blooded — homeothermic — mammalian Wolverines could easily dart past the chilly reptilian poikilothermic Dragons…
But wait! (And here my scholarship kicks into its highest gear)  Dragons breathe fire!  Shouldn’t that internal furnace keep their blood nice and simmering hot, and prevent cool-weather sluggishness?  But in How to Train a Dragon, it seems dragons don’t have that fire in their bellies.  They have flammable gases there instead, which they belch, and then something lights the gases on the way out of their mouths.  So perhaps our Dragons really are poikilothermic. Or, like, 60 years old — an age we Wolverines have not yet attained — which would also account for their slow reactions.
Or maybe they just had a bad day at the plate, and a mediocre one on the mound.
Pittsburgh: W 1,  L 1; 6 – 3. (.154, .233, .308;  25.7  ip, 6 er) Last year was classic Alleghenys – a long, slow, inevitable rise from the depths of the standings toward first place, which was only just barely thwarted because the season was one or two games too short. Yesterday the A’s didn’t seem to lurch upward, covering their movements with a loss. But, look, they also gained 1.2 games yesterday even if it seemed less dramatic than the Wolverines’ wild scampering. None of their hitters drew attention to himself.  Eight Allegheny pitchers took the mound, including three starters, but by dividing the work load up in such small pieces, you don’t really notice they are compiling a 2.1 ERA in enough innings to support three EFL games — meaning the A’s have stored up good pitching they can release inobtrusively as needed. So here’s another Scholarship Moment: the A’s are really good at this.
Flint Hill:  W 3, L 0; 15 – 9. (.250,.351, .438;  12.3 ip, 3er). The Tornados stormed through the middle of the standings with 3 wins in a single day .  Martin led the offense, while Samardzija and Fister provided good pitching.
Portland:  L, 3 – 5.  (.262, .256, .286;  16.7 ip,  8 er).
Peshastin: L, 4 – 5.  (.226, .316 .387;  1 ip, 0 er)
Middling efforts achieve middling results. Or in this case, slightly – less – than -middling effort…
Kaline: W, 7 – 6.  (.315, .383, .389;  7.7 ip, 3 er).  That batting line is sneaky — above average although it doesn’t look like it.  And with a whopping 60 plate appearances yesterday, the Drive got two days’ worth of offense in a single day.
Cottage:  W, 12 – 2.  (.436, .522, .795 — Happy EMD!;  10.3 ip, 3 er)  Wow!  This was the best performance in the EFL (see also, D.C., below). Nomar Mazara went 3 for 3 with a homer and a walk. Jorge Soler went 2 for 3 with a homer and two walks. Mallex Smith went 1 for 2 with a triple and a walk. Four other Cheeses OPSed at least 1.000.  And Nathan Eovaldi led the Cheesy pitchers to a very solid result.
D.C.:  W, 7 – (-1).  (.300, .481, .500 — Happy EMD!;  10 ip, 2 er.)  Josh Tomlin improved his record to 7 – 0 on the season with seven strong innings. Welington Castillo, who’s been quiet lately, quietly accepted two walks in four plate appearances. The Balk overall played like a first-place team. In reality, they advanced from 39th to 38th place, and are breathing down the necks of the 38th-place Braves.
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Old Detroit Wolverines 28 17 .631
Boston Red Sox 28 17 .622 0.4
Baltimore Orioles 26 17 .605 1.4
Flint Hill Tornadoes 26 19 .572 2.7
New York Yankees 22 22 .500 5.9
Tampa Bay Rays 21 22 .488 6.4
Toronto Blue Jays 22 25 .468 7.4
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Canberra Kangaroos 29 17 .630
Washington Nationals 28 18 .609 1
New York Mets 26 19 .578 2.5
Philadelphia Phillies 25 21 .543 4
Miami Marlins 23 22 .511 5.5
Atlanta Braves 12 32 .273 16
D.C. Balk 12 34 .269 16.6
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago White Sox 27 20 .574
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 27 20 .574
Cleveland Indians 24 20 .545 1.5
Kansas City Royals 24 21 .533 2
Detroit Tigers 23 22 .511 3
Minnesota Twins 11 34 .244 15
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago Cubs 30 14 .682
Pittsburgh Pirates 25 19 .568 5
St. Louis Cardinals 24 22 .522 7
Cottage Cheese 19 25 .438 10.7
Milwaukee Brewers 19 26 .422 11.5
Cincinnati Reds 15 311 .046 156
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Haviland Dragons 28 17 .617
Seattle Mariners 27 18 .600 0.8
Texas Rangers 26 20 .565 2.3
Los Angeles Angels 21 25 .457 7.3
Kaline Drive 20 25 .442 7.8
Oakland A’s 20 27 .426 8.8
Houston Astros 18 28 .391 10.3
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
San Francisco Giants 29 19 .604
Portland Rosebuds 27 21 .562 2
Los Angeles Dodgers 24 23 .511 4.5
Colorado Rockies 21 23 .477 6
Peshastin Pears 23 25 .476 6.1
Arizona Diamondbacks 21 26 .447 7.5
San Diego Padres 19 28 .404 9.5

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