League Updates • Uncategorized

The W’s aren’t all that dumb after all.

August 9, 2016
23 Views

I am sitting in a seminar on how new technology is disrupting higher education. The leader just pointed out that we now have metrics on our popularity — how many friends we have, how many likes, even how many people have clicked on our posts.

As of a minute ago, my post from yesterday (Red Letter Day) had 14 views.  Four of those were mine — still, it was a pretty good day.

Thanks.

Dave’s Cheesian Rhapsody has 32 views.

Fortunately I am not a middle schooler, or even an undergraduate. I will be ok.  But I thought you ought to know I noticed.

Continuing on the topic of my self-image: I drafted Jeremy Hellickson last time expecting him to be traded by Aug 1.  He wasn’t, and now he probably won’t be.  I felt so dumb.

I was counting on Derek Norris getting traded so Austin Hedges could be promoted and give me a full catching crew. Norris is still a Padre and Hedges is still a whatever they are in El Paso, and probably will be until September. I felt even dumber.

But if I was dumb, then so are a lot of other people.

MLBTraderumors ran a survey of the most surprising non-trades of the trading deadline.  Here are the results:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total Votes: 7,717
EFL Standings for 2016
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 71 40 .639 — 596.6 446.0
Haviland Dragons 71 42 .632 0.6 558.0 426.4
Portland Rosebuds 70 42 .622 1.8 568.8 437.0
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 67 42 .612 3.3 585.7 468.0
Peshastin Pears 62 50 .550 9.8 535.4 476.1
Canberra Kangaroos 59 52 .534 11.7 518.3 477.4
Flint Hill Tornadoes 52 59 .472 18.6 467.7 491.0
Cottage Cheese 52 58 .468 19 532.1 562.4
Kaline Drive 51 62 .456 20.5 562.4 618.4
D.C. Balk 38 73 .342 33 450.5 632.4
Old Detroit: W, 8 – 4. (.238, .320, .571; 1 ip, 0 er).  Edwin Diaz is working out nicely as the new Mariner/Wolverine closer — or was, until I just jinxed him. Christian Yelich led the offense with a homer, double and single in six plate appearances.
Haviland:  “L”, 5 – 3.  (.222, .263, .389;  6 ip, 2 er).  Kevin Gausman seems to finally have figured it out.  Steven Souza, one of Ryan’s old buds from Hagerstown, had the best Dragon day at the plate with a double and a walk in 4 plate appearances.
Portland: “W”, 4 – 5. (.257, .278, .314;  19 ip, 8 er).  Speaking of old ‘Buds, Johnny Cueto (age 30) made a little mess (5 er in 5 ip), seriously marring the fine work put in by 26-year-old Tyler Anderson (7 er, 1 ip) and Michael Fulmer (23 years old, 7 ip, 2 er).
Pittsburgh:  DNP. (-5) – (-1).  (.150, .150, .200;  7.3 ip, 4 er).  Continuing on the motif of “old buds”, our old friend the Top Allegheny did his part to avoid the bad optics of a Wolverine/ Dragon/ Allegheny triumvirate atop the EFL by giving the Rosebuds room to right their ship without falling out of the top three.  Stephen Piscotty wasn’t in sync (2 for 5 with a double), but the rest of the Allegheny hitters went only 1 for 15, period.  Jake Odorizzi failed to get himself traded at the deadline, to the shock of 2.77% of the people, but he did manage a respectable 5.3 ip, 2 er.
Peshastin:  W, 5 – 3. (.355, 375, .645; 5.7 ip, 0 er).  The Pears had the best day of any EFL team Monday, on paper.  The W’s benefitted from allocation luck to help them edge out the P’s in terms of results.
Canberra: DNP, (-2) – (-1). (.172, .250, .276; 1.7 ip, 0 er). Seven Kangaroos batted. Logan Forsythe towered over his teammates: 3 for 4 with a homer and a walk.  The rest of them batted .080, .148, .080.  “Where have you gone, Bryce Harper? a lonely fan-nation turns its eyes to you, boo hoo hoo.”  (See? Dave’s not the only one who can write poetry.)
Flint Hill: L, 1 – 5.  (.125, .125, .250; 19.7 ip, 9 er). Tony Cingrani septuple chulked (0.67 ip, 5 er), and even though the rest of the pitching staff did great work, the team had already been demoralized.
Cottage: DNP, (-4) – 5. (.188, .235, ,188; 3 ip, 7 er).  This is so unfair.  The Cheese pitcher (Zach Eflin) did his best to help other people’s hitters prosper by chulking. But the Cheese hitters ran into far stingier pitching.  What went around didn’t come back around, at least not today.
Kaline: “L”, 8 – 7. (.333, .444, .487; 0 ip, 3 er).  Ouch!  Hunter Cervenka infinitely chulked, pretty much undoing the thin (18 plate appearances)  but mighty offense.
DC:  DNP,  (-1) – 0.  (.161, .212, .387;  1 ip, 1 er)   Corey Seager blasted two homers.  Not much else to write home about from D.C.  The Balk can at least take comfort that four other teams  also had severely undernourished offense.
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Old Detroit Wolverines 71 40 .639 —
Baltimore Orioles 63 48 .568 8
Toronto Blue Jays 64 49 .566 8
Boston Red Sox 60 50 .545 10.5
New York Yankees 56 55 .505 15
Flint Hill Tornadoes 52 59 .472 18.6
Tampa Bay Rays 45 66 .405 26
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Washington Nationals 66 45 .595 —
Canberra Kangaroos 59 52 .534 6.7
Miami Marlins 59 53 .527 7.5
New York Mets 57 54 .514 9
Philadelphia Phillies 52 62 .456 15.5
Atlanta Braves 42 70 .375 24.5
D.C. Balk 38 73 .342 28
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 67 42 .612 —
Cleveland Indians 62 47 .569 4.7
Detroit Tigers 61 51 .545 7.2
Chicago White Sox 53 58 .477 14.7
Kansas City Royals 53 58 .477 14.7
Minnesota Twins 46 66 .411 22.2
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago Cubs 69 41 .627 —
St. Louis Cardinals 59 53 .527 11
Pittsburgh Pirates 55 54 .505 13.5
Cottage Cheese 52 58 .468 17.5
Milwaukee Brewers 49 61 .445 20
Cincinnati Reds 45 66 .405 24.5
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Haviland Dragons 71 42 .632 —
Texas Rangers 66 47 .584 5.4
Seattle Mariners 58 53 .523 12.4
Houston Astros 57 55 .509 13.9
Kaline Drive 51 62 .456 19.9
Los Angeles Angels 49 62 .441 21.4
Oakland A’s 49 63 .438 21.9
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 70 42 .622 —
San Francisco Giants 64 48 .571 5.7
Los Angeles Dodgers 63 49 .563 6.7
Peshastin Pears 62 50 .550 8
Colorado Rockies 55 57 .491 14.7
San Diego Padres 48 63 .432 21.2
Arizona Diamondbacks 45 66 .405 24.2