Sympathy for the Mariners

EFL Standings for 2017

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Cottage: W, 9 – 4. (.286, .388, .524; 6.3 ip, 4 er). A classic easy win for a dominant team. Mike Trout went 2 for 3 with a double, a homer and two walks.  His May: .317, .508, .878.  Bryce Harper’s May? Only .281, .369, .526.   Both are over 1.000 OPS on the season. Oh, and did you know the Cheese have EIGHT starting pitchers with 20 or more innings this month?

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Kaline: L, 8 – 10. (.262, .311, .524;  5.7 ip, 6 er)  Kris Bryant went 3 for 3 with two homers and a walk.  But starter Chase Anderson coughed up 6 er in 4 ip to undo what Kris had done.  This hurt, because the Drive are thin in starting pitching, having only four starters with at  least 18 ip, so they are lugging around 13.4 replacement starter innings. Anderson’s May ERA is 7.71 — so that makes 32 replacement-level innings in toto. Just think where they could be with a little more competent r

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Haviland: W, 2 – (-2). (.154, .313, .308; 3.3 ip, 0 er).  Anthony Rizzo still hasn’t found his groove, but he hit a homer, walked, and got HBP in his 5 trips to the plate yesterday.  It wasn’t much, but but was enough to build a win out of 3.7 scoreless innings.  The D’s have plenty of starting pitching, too — 6 with 17.3 ip or more in May .

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Pittsburgh: W 2, L 0; 12 – 5. (.229, .250, .486;  22.3 ip, 6 er). Yan Gomes led the offense with a double, a homer and a hbp. Three solid starting pitching performances:  Marco Estrada (7.7 ip, 1 er); Adalberto Mejia (7 ip, 3 er) and Stephen Strasburg (7.7 ip, 2 er) nailed down the double-header sweep.  That was 60% of the Allegheny rotation, but it’s more than enough to keep the A’s from using any replacement pitching.

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Flint Hill: DNP, 2 – 0. (.250, .400, .536; no pitching). A robust rainout day offensive performance, led by Joc Pederson’s homer, walk and hbp, nudged the Tornadoes forward.  When play resumes today, the Tornadoes will have three pitchers at 22 ip in May, and two at 17 ip.  They have used no replacement pitching this month.

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Peshastin: “L”, 6 – 4. (.350, .381, .550; 8.3 ip, 3 er).  A solid performance leading to an awfully strict official loss.  Danny Salazar’s 5 ip, 3 er start was only sort of adequate. Other than Max Scherzer, the Pears have no one with 20 ip this month.   Salazar is second with 18 ip, followed by Carrasco at 16.7, Zach Eflin at 8.5,  and James Taillon at 5.  Clearly the team is suffering because of absentee leadership, since no one has been put in place to fill in for the injured Taillon — so 20.8 starting innings (and 11 relief innings) are being provided by replacements.

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Portland:  W, 4 – 3.  (.200, .243, .314; 1.3 ip, 0 er).  A lackluster day lucky to deliver a win. Johnny Cueto and Chris Sale anchor this staff, both with 28.0 ip.  The rest is cobbled together from German Marquez (19 ip), Julio Urias (17.7), Jose Berris (15.3),  and Jimmy Nelson (15.7).  It’s working — there are no replacement innings befouling the Rosebud pitching.

Canberra: “L”, 6 – 2.  (.280, .333, .520; 4.7 ip, 1 er). The Pear “Loss” was severe enough, but it’s nothing compared to the database’s brutal action here.  The ‘Roos improved their winning percentage by 0.008, kept pace with the Cheese, and still got stiffed with a loss. The bright side is, they must be on the verge of a win.  The ‘Roos have May innings from Taijuan Walker (who just went on the DL), 22.0 from Daniel Norris, 25.0 from Rick Porcello, and 19.3 from Martin Perez.  Blake Snell is the 5th starter with 15.7 innings pitched before he was sent to the Tampa Bay minors. So far the ‘Roos have escaped with only 2 replacement innings among their relief pitchers.

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Old Detroit: W 1, L (-1); 1 – (-9). (.292, .387, .333;  9.7 ip, 1 er). Even punchless, this was a good offensive day by Old Detroit 2017 standards.  Kyle Schwarber, for example, had 3 ab, 1 run, 1 hit, 1 rbi, and I thought “HOMER” — but it was only an infield single.  Still – it made for a win and an erased loss, mostly because Clayton Richard went 9 innings, allowing only 1 earned run, and Shane Greene backed him up with another 0.7 shut-out innings.  The W’s have four starters with 19.7 innings or more in May, all of them having worked hard to get their ERA’s below replacement level.  Richard’s wonderful performance had a dual impact since it replaced 4 of what had been 18.2 replacement starter innings.

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DC:  W (-1), L 2;  2 – 10. (.138, .235, .345;  11.3 ip, 10 er).   Joe Musgrove stank things up in DC with his 3 ip, 7 er start — exactly like Chris Heston!  The Balk are leaning heavily on Jeff Samardzija’s EFL leading 29.7 starter innings this month. Several other starters have pitched in, leaving the team with only 3.9 replacement innings among its starting pitchers.

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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017