Dog Days Doggedly Endured

EFL Standings for 2016

All three of the front-runnings teams stumbled, in reverse correlation to their position in the standings. The W’s mighty offense switched off like a … something and the W’s took one of the biggest falls in memory for a day off (because the Orioles slipped back into first place among the AL East teams). The Rosebuds executed a junior version of the W’s maneuver, applying their results to an actual game played, and cutting their deficit nearly in half. If the Dragons were trying to follow Old Detroit’s lead, too they botched the     job by hitting pretty well and pitching sort of ok. They jumped 0.9 games closer to the Wolverines, cutting their deficit by more than half, and frankly not showing much compassion to Old Detroit in its time of need.

Pittsburgh: L, 6 – 10. (.261, .292, .739; 15.7 ip, 11 er )  I actually don’t mind the Rosebuds and Dragons coming back into my backyard to play their little games, but I really don’t like what they’ve drug in with them this time.  There is no way to tolerate the Alleghenys this close to the top. Can’t we just once go through a season without worrying about whether the A’s are going to get another notch on the trophy, where they already have half the notches?  I know I said I’d help Branchless in Pittsburgh with his question when I got to the Pittsburgh section of this update, but now I’m not sure I want to.

Canberra: W, 14 – 5  (.429, 512, .829;  0.3 ip, 0 er).  What a day!  With Bryce Harper out of action, the ‘Roos put together a monster day anyway, led by Lucroy (3 for 4 with 2 hr), Kipnis (4 for 5 with 2 doubles) and Davis (2 for 3 with a homer and a walk.). Every single ‘Roo who batted reached base safely at least once.  As a result, the ‘Roos took over 5th place and scooted 1.6 games closer to first.

Peshastin: L, 5 – 11. (.278, .278, .528;  7.3 ip, 8 er). Buddy Baumann infinitely chulked (o ip, 3 er) to bury the Pears in sixth place. A sudden and unexpected reversal that was.  Perhaps it will be suddenly and less-unexpectedly (since we’re talking about it right now) reversed again.  We will have to wait and see.

Flint Hill: W 2, L (-2); 10 – (-3).  (.567, .581, .867; 10.3 ip, 3 er).  An amazing, wonderful day for the Tornados, rocketing them forward 2.9 games in the standings in a single day.  If every team has a rocket like that in its arsenal — and why wouldn’t they, if the Tornados did? — then the Rosebuds, Dragons AND Alleghenys are now within range of the top.  And the Kangaroos and Pears are only 4 days’ march from supplanting the W’s.  Fantastic.

Cottage: W, 4 – 2. (.244, .306, .511;  11.7 ip, 4 er).  If you didn’t notice already, you should notice now that there was yesterday an absurdly strong inverse correlation between position in the standings and how well your team did.  It wasn’t a perfect correlation — the Tornados and Kangaroos had the best days — but all the wins went to teams who started Friday in the second division of the league.  Cottage won its game behind strong pitching (some of which was Manaea simultaneously throttling the Mariners) and solid hitting led by Travis d’Arnaud’s 3 for 4 with a homer.

Kaline: W, 8 – 3. (.310, .412, .552 — Happy EMDay! — 1 ip, 0 er). Ichiro belted a pinch-hit double, Michael Saunders a homer, and Kris Bryant two doubles as part of going 3 for 5 to lead the Drive to a solid victory. I would say more, but I don’t want to ruin a little surprise the Drive are preparing for… well, for someone.

DC: “W,” 4 – 5.  (.244, .300, .400; 6 ip, 1 er).  The Balk don’t always get full value out of their innings because they lean heavily toward the relief side of the bullpen, and don’t always supply all the needed starter innings. So I expect in this case we would find that there were six replacement starter innings laid over these excellent relief innings, which would produce the 5 runs allowed.

So (Tom and others non-legiphiles can skip this part), here is the relevant rule:

Replacements for Disabled or Demoted Players: If during the month an EFL player is cut or sent to the minors by his MLB team, or goes on the disabled list, the EFL owner may, effective immediately,

a) Call up one player from his minor league team, and

b) Increase other players’ playing time at the position(s) covered by the disabled or demoted player.

The EFL team may not make any other adjustments, such as decreasing the percentage of playing time of any player at any defensive position. The playing time added to any position (including Other Hitter or a pitching role) must be between 1% and 3% per day remaining in the calendar month counting the day the owner announces the change(s) to the league. (The normal requirement that players be activated for a minimum of 33% of their actual PA or IP for the entire month is waived for changes announced under this rule.)   No player may be moved from starting pitcher to relief pitcher, or vice versa, as a mid-month replacement.

I invoked this very rule earlier this week when, in response to Mark Reynolds’ injury, I moved some of Profar’s time from OH to 2b (replacing Reynolds) and activated some of Sean Rodriguez’ time from bench to other hitter. The rule was written for just such cases.  The rule isn’t as clear that it contemplated replacing a dead pitcher with a hitter, or a hitter with a pitcher.  However, by the terms of the rule as written, these moves are not ruled out.

However — note that our hitters and pitchers are not in symmetrical positions.  According to the rule, pitchers who are already active can’t be moved from relief to starting, or vice versa. If you want to replace a pitcher, you have to do it under clause a) (calling someone up), not clause b) (shifting someone).  So, in effect, if you are replacing a pitcher you can’t make use of clause b).

Here are things you can apparently do:

1.) Replace a DL/demoted pitcher with either an inactive pitcher, who does not have to play the same role (reliever or starter) as the dead pitcher; or with an inactive hitter at any position(s) he plays.

2.)  Replace a demoted position player by either

* calling someone up directly into his position, or

* moving an OH into his position and calling someone else up to be an OH.

* moving an OH into his position and calling someone else up to be a pitcher.

Having said this, I can’t remember if anyone has ever replaced a pitcher with a hitter or vice versa.  So I reach out to my fellow rule-mavens: is this something we ever imagined someone could do?

Have we ever discussed and/or adopted a rule barring replacing pitchers with hitters, and vice versa?  I haven’t found that discussion or action, if it exists, but I have vague heat-induced mirages of memories along these lines. Oh, and if I myself have done such a sleight-of-hand replacement, please remind me. Gently.