The hottest hitter in baseball, and other topics

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Old Detroit Wolverines	80	47	.630	—	615.9	464.4
Portland Rosebuds	78	48	.621	1.3	661.1	508.5
Brookland Outs	72	52	.583	6.3	658.6	559.6
Canberra Kangaroos	67	58	.535	12.2	571.1	536.1
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	67	58	.533	12.4	653.8	617.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes	66	61	.519	14.2	575.4	551.8
Cottage Cheese	63	61	.507	15.6	614.8	605.0
Kaline Drive	63	63	.496	17	558.8	560.5
Haviland Dragons	62	64	.493	17.5	575.2	580.4
Peshastin Pears	57	69	.454	22.4	525.9	579.1
D.C. Balk	54	71	.429	25.5	533.5	616.7

Brookland: W, 8 – 3. (Real score: 7.0 – 2.7) (40 PA, .351, .400, .703 !!;  2.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) Khris Davis, Manny Machado, and Jonathan Schoop all homered, Schoop as a pinch hitter. Bill James rates Khris Davis as the hottest hitter in baseball right now, at 104 degrees. Other EFLers:

#5 Brandon Nimmo, HD, 100^o

#7 Michael Brantley, PA,  94^o

#9 Paul Goldschmidt, PR, 91^o

#12 Xander Bogaerts, CC, 90^o

#13  Manny Machado, BO, 89^o

70^o  is average.

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So the EFL has 6 of the 15 hottest hitters, for 40%.  Brookland has two of the hottest hitters, and the Wolverines have none.

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But, on the other hand, here is Bill James’ list of the top pitchers at the moment:

#1     Max Scherzer          OD

#2    Chris Sale                 PR

#3    Corey Kluber            CK

#9    Carlos Carrasco       DC

#10  Stephen Strasburg  PA

#15  Jake Arrieta              BO

#16  Luis Severino            CC

#18  Blake Snell                 CK

Out of the top 50, here is how our teams fare:

OD:  # 1, 22, 37, 45, 51 (yeah, ok, I cheated to get my 5th starter on here — Alex Wood.  If you don’t like it, write your own post.)

PR:   # 2, 32, 33, 42, 44, 48 — aw, come on, Mark. Six? You can’t even use 6 starters’ innings.  Leave some for someone else.

BO:  #15, 23, 46

CK:  # 3, 18, 24

PA:  #10, 40, 49

FH:  #34

CC:  #16, 47

KD: —

HD: —

PP:  —

DC: # 9, 39

We are 36.7% of MLB and we have 48% of the best 50 pitchers.  Yay us!

Canberra: “W”, 1 – 1.  (Real score: 0.7 – 0.9) (33 PA, .200, .242, .300; 12 ip, 3 er, 12 ip, 3 er 2.25 ERA).  Speaking of Blake Snell: he had another great start: 6 ip, 1 er, 11 K, 1 BB.  Steven Matz did ok, too: 5 ip, 2 er. He has risen from being ranked #87 to #18 in this season alone.

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Pittsburgh: W: 8 – 4. (Real score: 8.5 – 4.5) (38 PA. .343, .395, .600; 9.7 ip, 5 er, 4.66 ERA).  Dansby Swanson homered twice in four plate appearance, pacing the Allegheny attack. The Alleghenys and the Kangaroos have a nice little race going.  I hope it lasts all the way to Sept. 30, and doesn’t involve them catching the Wolverines.

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Flint Hill: “W”, (-1) – (-1). (Real score: (-0.9) – (-0.7)). (24 PA, .174, .167, .217; 12.3 ip, 1 er, 0.73 ERA).  Two notes about this:

1) The entire Tornado offense was three singles and a double, minus a SF, 4 strike outs, and two double plays.  Yes — a sacrifice fly is a negative result in the runs created per game formula. So is a strikeout, although it takes something like 30 strikeouts to subtract a run. All outs are bad, but a strikeout is about .03 runs worse than the average out. The double play almost entirely erases a single.  So with all the elements taken into account, the Tornados were trying to score a run with slightly less than a single and a double for the entire game.

2) If the universe is just, the Tornados should have a near 9.00 ERA day to offset its near 0.00 ERA day, just like the Wolverines did last week.  The W’s had more than 20 innings for both days, so the Tornados should have about a dozen for both days. If this doesn’t happen, then we’ll know the universe is out to get me.

Cottage:  L, 3 – 5. (Real Score: 2.7 – 5.2.) (45 PA, .225, .279, .325; 1.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Only two of the 10 Cheeses to bat failed to reach base safely.  Max Kepler went 0 for 4, which I think is uncharacteristic for him — but then, I haven’t really been paying attention.  Greg Bird went 0 for 6. With three strikeouts. Which I believe is the direction he is tending (and may he take the entire Yankee team with him.) I have evidence for this belief, since I read the latest Cheese Lament.

Kaline: “W”, 3 – 3. (Real score: 3.3 – 3.4.) (41 PA, .243, .317, .297; 6.3 ip, 2 er, 2.84 ERA). That 3.3 – 3.4 score is very close, so if it’s phony wins are an integrity issue, they are an exceptionally minor one for the Wizard. Sort of like when you drop a tiny scrap of paper and pretend not to notice so you don’t have to stop and pick it up.  Or maybe like not coming to a really complete stop at a stop sign in quiet residential block where there’s no traffic.  Or when your wife asks you how she looks and you say, truthfully,  “I really like that blouse” but don’t mention how the scarf looks like it was cut out of a shower curtain.

Haviland: W, 1 – (-2). (Real score: 0.8 – (-2.4).) (31 PA, .179, .226, .214; 13.7 ip, 2 er, 1.32 ERA).  John was all sheepish about drafting Pablo Lopez.  Well, Lopez just pitched 6 strong innings, allowing only 1 earned run.  So what was with the sheepishness?  Was he really sort of embarrassed? Or was he just trying to throw us off the track?  It would be nice to know how John handles the situation when Cindy is about to leave the house wearing a shower curtain fragment around her neck.  Is he scrupulously honest? Or does he get all strategic when the occasion seems to call for it? Or would he put on an misdirecting act to keep the peace (or get the pitching prospect)?

Peshastin:  “L”, 3 – 2.  (Real score: 2.9 – 2.1.) (33 PA, .212, .212, .303; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  The Pears simplified things yesterday. They cut walks, hbp, sb, cs, sf, and sh right out of their diet. (They did treat themselves to one GIDP, even though they know it’s bad for them.) Same thing on the pitching side: they told their pitchers they couldn’t allow more than one hit or one walk, and both of their pitchers stuck to the rules.  Brett Anderson went 7 innings with only 1 pitch and one walk.  Cam Bedrosian used up his hit allotment on the first batter he saw, and was immediately yanked from the game.  The Pears still won, but MLB punished Bedrosian anyway by ascribing to him a loss.  Giving someone an “L” when they didn’t really lose: that’s an EFL innovation!  So we ARE having an influence on major league baseball, after all!.

DC: L, 6 – 10. (Real score: 5.8 – 9.8) (44 PA, .300, .341, .500; 6 ip, 8 er, 12.00 ERA.) Dylan Bundy threw a wrench into DC’s secret plan to finish above .500, allowing 7 earned runs in only 4 innings, ruining what would have otherwise been another winning day for the Balk. Some notes:

1.)  Doesn’t 9.8 runs sound like a lot more runs than 10 does?  It does to me. Maybe people shouldn’t price things at $9.99.  Just go ahead and charge $10.00.  All those 9’s are just so intimidating.

2.)  No, Jamie, you cannot count the Balk’s bad pitching day as the payback owed to the fates for your unnaturally good ERA Tuesday.  Justice still awaits you.

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AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Boston Red Sox	88	39	.693	—
Old Detroit Wolverines	80	47	.630	7.9
New York Yankees	79	46	.632	8
Flint Hill Tornadoes	66	61	.519	22.1
Tampa Bay Rays	65	61	.516	22.5
Toronto Blue Jays	57	69	.452	30.5
Baltimore Orioles	37	89	.294	50.5

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Atlanta Braves	70	55	.560	—
Philadelphia Phillies	68	57	.544	2
Canberra Kangaroos	67	58	.535	3.1
Washington Nationals	63	63	.500	7.5
New York Mets	55	70	.440	15
D.C. Balk	54	71	.429	16.4
Miami Marlins	50	77	.394	21

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cleveland Indians	73	52	.584	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	67	58	.533	6.4
Minnesota Twins	60	65	.480	13
Detroit Tigers	52	74	.413	21.5
Chicago White Sox	47	78	.376	26
Kansas City Royals	38	88	.302	35.5

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Brookland Outs	72	52	.583	—
Chicago Cubs	71	53	.573	1.3
St. Louis Cardinals	70	57	.551	3.8
Milwaukee Brewers	70	58	.547	4.3
Cottage Cheese	63	61	.507	9.4
Pittsburgh Pirates	63	64	.496	10.8
Cincinnati Reds	56	70	.444	17.3

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	76	50	.603	—
Oakland A’s	76	50	.603	—
Seattle Mariners	72	55	.567	4.5
Los Angeles Angels	63	64	.496	13.5
Kaline Drive	63	63	.496	13.5
Haviland Dragons	62	64	.493	13.9
Texas Rangers	56	72	.438	21

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	78	48	.621	—
Arizona Diamondbacks	70	56	.556	8.2
Colorado Rockies	68	57	.544	9.7
Los Angeles Dodgers	67	60	.528	11.7
San Francisco Giants	62	65	.488	16.7
Peshastin Pears	57	69	.454	21
San Diego Padres	50	78	.391	29.2