League Updates

Taking the league in bite-size servings

Today I don’t have time to write a big post. So I’ve decided to break it up into six mini-posts.  Sort of like eschewing a piece of cake to avoid gaining weight, and sensibly substituting six mini-muffins.

.

EFL Standings for 2018
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 81 47 .633 622.6 466.2
Portland Rosebuds 79 48 .625 1.2 667.2 509.0
Brookland Outs 73 52 .580 7 661.4 564.6
Canberra Kangaroos 67 59 .532 13 575.0 543.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 66 60 .528 13.6 657.6 627.0
Flint Hill Tornadoes 66 62 .517 14.8 577.1 555.3
Cottage Cheese 63 62 .506 16.2 619.8 611.7
Kaline Drive 63 64 .499 17.2 564.7 563.5
Haviland Dragons 62 65 .491 18.1 578.5 586.0
Peshastin Pears 58 69 .456 22.6 533.3 585.1
D.C. Balk 53 73 .424 26.6 535.5 625.2
.
Old Detroit:  W, 7 – 2. (45 PA, .282, .378, .359; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  
Portland: W, 6 – 2. (44 PA, .289, .364, .474; 14.3 ip, 2 er, 1.26 ERA).
The Wolverines are scampering as fast as they can.  They had a real good day Wednesday. Walker Buehler dominated for 7 innings, and the hitters did a nice job getting on base and scoring runs. But the Rosebuds still gained 0.1 games on them. Clay Buchholz pitched exactly as effectively as Buehler, and Jon Gray and Keone Kela added 7.3 ip with only 2 earned runs. Paul Goldschmidt went 3 for 3 with a walk, a double, and a homer, to make the Rosebud offense a little better than the Wolverines’.
Brookland:  “W”, 6 – 6. (50 PA, .222, .300, .244; 18.7 ip, 8 er, 3.86 ERA).  The Outs
continue to hang out in no man’s land between the pair of frontrunners and the rather dense pack of 6 teams 13 – 18 games off the pace. A pair of 2 for 4’s were the offensive highlights for Brookland Wednesday. Freddy Peralta (7 ip, 0 er) and Carlos Rodon (6 ip, 2 er) were undone by Charlie Morton’s 5 ip, 6 er effort.
.
Canberra: L, 4 – 7. (42 PA, .237, .310, .395; 0.7 ip, 2 er, 27.00 ERA).
Pittsburgh: W (-1), L 2; 4 – 10. (54 PA, .255, .296, .412; 4 ip, 5 er, 11.25 ERA). 
David Bote hit another dramatic homer, but it didn’t look like it would be enough for the Kangaroos to stay ahead of the Alleghenys, especially not with Seranthony Dominguez pulling off a small nonuple chulk (3 er in 1/3 of an inning). But the Alleghenys had an even worse day, with Stephen Strasburg giving up 5 er in 4 ip and a slightly weaker offense coming at a 25% greater volume.
.
Flint Hill: L,  2 – 5 (20 PA, .211, .250, .263; 1 ip, 0 er).
Not much production for a day with a full slate of MLB games. The Tornados are up to 82 replacement plate appearances for August. Without those, the Kangaroos and Alleghenys might be behind the Tornados. Flint Hills would certainly merit being clumped with the K’s and the A’s in this update.
.
Cottage: L, 5 – 7. (40 PA, .189, .250, .541; 6.3 ip, 4 er, 5.68 ERA).  
Kaline: “L”, 6 – 3. (32 PA, .296, .344, .630; 10.3 ip, 4 er, 3.48 ERA). 
Haviland: L, 3 – 6. (25 PA, .250, .280, .333; 1.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). 
Each of these teams, battling against each other for 7th place and against the universe to finish over .500, took an official loss. Even so, each had some good news — but one of these teams had more good news than the others:
* Xander Bogaerts homered twice in 5 plate appearances, and Kepler, Pederson and Polanco all OPSed over 1.000 — but the rest of the team went 2 for 22 with no extra base hits and only one walk. 
* Alphabetically adjacent Ian Desmond, Todd Frazier, and Yulieski Gurriel each got two hits, including some extra bases, for a string of high OPSes (2.083, 2.000, and 1.350, respectively). Trevor Williams continued being a trevelation: 6 ip, 1 er. 
* Bryce Harper continued his recovery going 3 for 5 with a double. Taylor Williams didn’t allow any earned runs in his .6 ip. 
.
Peshastin: W, 7 – 6. (31 PA, .296, .387, .778; 10.3 ip, 5 er, 4.35 ERA). 
DC: W (-1), L 2; 2 – 9. (39 PA, .147, .256, .265; 10.7 ip, 9 er, 7.59 ERA). 
The Pears and Balk still haven’t made up their minds whom they want to be: late season resurging teams, building momentum for next year? Or rebuilding teams looking for the best possible draft pick?
* Wednesday the Pears were in Dr. Jekyll mode with 5 of 8 batters OPSing over 1.000 (Baez, Gallo, Haniger, Kiermaier, Travis) and Jack Flaherty outpitched Walker Buehler (only 1 hit v. 3 hits, 10 K v. 9).  Zach Eflin was out of sync: 3.3 ip, 4 er). 
* The Balk, on the other hand, were playing the Mr. Hyde role: Other than Joshua Riddle’s pinch hit homer, they went 4 for 33 with a double and five walks for a rest-of-the-team line of .121, .237, .152. Carlos Carrasco and Francisco Liriano combined for 9 innings and 9 earned runs. 
.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Boston Red Sox 89 39 .695
Old Detroit Wolverines 81 47 .633 8
New York Yankees 79 47 .627 9
Tampa Bay Rays 66 61 .520 22.5
Flint Hill Tornadoes 66 62 .517 22.8
Toronto Blue Jays 58 69 .457 30.5
Baltimore Orioles 37 90 .291 51.5
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 71 55 .563
Philadelphia Phillies 68 58 .540 3
Canberra Kangaroos 67 59 .532 3.9
Washington Nationals 64 63 .504 7.5
New York Mets 56 70 .444 15
D.C. Balk 53 73 .424 17.6
Miami Marlins 51 77 .398 21
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Cleveland Indians 73 53 .579
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 66 60 .528 6.5
Minnesota Twins 60 66 .476 13
Detroit Tigers 52 75 .409 21.5
Chicago White Sox 48 78 .381 25
Kansas City Royals 38 89 .299 35.5
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Brookland Outs 73 52 .580
Chicago Cubs 72 53 .576 0.6
St. Louis Cardinals 71 57 .555 3.1
Milwaukee Brewers 71 58 .550 3.6
Cottage Cheese 63 62 .506 9.3
Pittsburgh Pirates 63 65 .492 11.1
Cincinnati Reds 56 71 .441 17.6
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 77 50 .606
Oakland A’s 76 51 .598 1
Seattle Mariners 72 56 .563 5.5
Kaline Drive 63 64 .499 13.7
Los Angeles Angels 63 65 .492 14.5
Haviland Dragons 62 65 .491 14.6
Texas Rangers 57 72 .442 21
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 79 48 .625
Arizona Diamondbacks 71 56 .559 8.3
Colorado Rockies 69 57 .548 9.8
Los Angeles Dodgers 67 61 .523 12.8
San Francisco Giants 62 66 .484 17.8
Peshastin Pears 58 69 .456 21.4
San Diego Padres 50 79 .388 30.3