Blake blokes break batter blokes’ bats.

Canberra: “W”, (-1) – 1. (39 PA, .118, .231, .147; 9 ip, 0 er). Blake Snell struck out 13 in 7 innings of 2 hit pitching. Then Kyle Barraclough and Blake Parker each added another scoreless inning and a strikeout, making a tidy complete game with 15 strikeouts. What a lucky break to have those two Blake blokes (plus Kyle) put the brakes on opposing batter blokes while their own batter blokes broke down so badly.

• From a chat on MLBTraderumors
  • Pablo:

    Is Tim Beckham just an illusion?

    Steve Adams:
    You had 1420 prior plate appearances to tell you what kind of player he is. If you want to get your hopes up based on 31 PAs in 2019, be my guest, but he’s not sustaining anything like this. He has a .471 BABIP right now, and again… 31 PAs. He could go 0-for-10 or something and his line would crater.
  • Mr. EFL Answer Man:  Uh -oh.  Beckham went 0 for 3 last night.  Steve Adams has cursed him. Already Beckham’s line has dimpled. Another 0 for 7 and the dimple will be a crater.  His OPS is all the way down to 1.264, only a tiny bit above Jose Abreu’s 1.200,  and Rhys Hoskins’ 1.o16.
• Also from the same chat:
  • Tribe Time Now:

    The tribe has to understand they cant wait until they’re 6 games behind the twins to make a move. Friars need an ace (still) Kluber for Reyes, Cordero and the now injured Nix. Who says no?
    Steve Adams:

    Trading Kluber for a pair of outfielders who aren’t clear upgrades over what they have in house and a broken Jacob Nix sounds like an awful deal for Cleveland.
  • Mr. EFL Answer Man:  Sounds like a good concept to me.  If the K’s want to trade Mr. K, I’ll scrounge up a pair of mediocre outfielders and a broken player for him. And if you have any other trade questions, I recommend you connect with Tribe Time Now to get his advice.

Cottage: L, 6 – 7.  (44 PA, .317, .364, .366; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA)

• I think I heard someone whining yesterday about not doing comments on the day the Cheese were in first place.  I was impressed there were so many Cheese fans who cared about their team that much!  So I committed to look into the problem today.
• For one thing, you can always write comments on your own team if you are feeling neglected.
• How many comments have you written on other peoples’ teams?  Are the cosmic scales in balance? If not, in which direction does attention most need to go?
• Yeah, you’re right, you DO sort of write comments on every team every day, by compiling their stats on your database.  I repent and apologize. I am no longer on your case about that.
• I’ve just realized something: almost no one writes comments on MY team.  Doesn’t that break your heart? Maybe I’ll do a little extra for the Wolverines today, just to console them.
• Whatever —  the Cheese aren’t in first place today.  Were they ever? Does anyone have any proof?
• They do have more 1.000+ OPSing players than the apparently-league-leading Kangaroos: Alex Verdugo 1.500, Yoan Moncada 1.150, Jeff McNeill 1.137, Yandy Diaz 1.059.
• Plus they had an identical pitching line,  9 times more economical than the Kangaroos.
• Yoan and Yandy.  I think the Cheese should market those two, they sound so good together.

Old Detroit:  “W”, 3 – 4. (26 PA, .320, .346, .520;  11 ip, 4 er, 3.27 ERA)

• Trea Turner broke his finger and will be out weeks and weeks.
• Speaking of breaking things: Just when I needed some one to take on some OH duties, Lewis Brinson broke out, raising his season OPS by .279 points by going 3 for 4 with a double and a HBP.  That OPS is still only .668, but maybe he can keep increasing it?
• Dan Vogelbach broke out, too. He took advantage of Edwin Encarnacion’s late scratch to get a rare start (rare since Scott Servais apparently hates him). Vogey doubled, then homered to drive in and score Seattle’s second run, giving them their 2-1 victory.
• Madison Bumgarner broke something, as well: he hit the W’s other  homer, which is fun but he hit it where the W’s can’t access it.
• Bumgarner also broke out of an ambush. He got shelled for 5 runs in 6 innings… but they were all unearned, thanks to his own error.
• Eric Lauer broke down a little. He also got shelled for 4 runs in 5 innings. But all of his were earned. This included 2 homers: one to noted slugger (and EWIE) Ketel Marte.  The other to even more noted slugger Zack Greinke.  So MadBum’s homer was cancelled out. Good thing it didn’t count anyway.
• Alen Hanson broke out of jail. He had been banished to the minors with the Giants, but today he got traded to the Blue Jays where he might play.

Flint Hill: W, 9 – 1. (28 AB .321, .441, .536 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day! 8 ip, 1 er, 1.12 ERA). 

• Adalberto Mondesi went 3 for 5 with a homer, a double and a walk. I saw a headline about Royals fans getting excited about him.
• Trevor Cahill might be a bargain at $2,250,000. He went 6 ip, 1 er Tuesday.
• The Johnson Boys are lurking in the lower part of the upper part of the standings. My only consolation is they seem to be competing with each other maybe even a little more than the rest of us.  Let’s encourage this.

Portland: W, 3 – 3. (40 PA, .167, .250, .361; 13 ip, 4 er, 2.77 ERA)

•  Chris Sale has lost a lot of velocity so far.  I know this because I read it somewhere on the MLB site.  Still, be got through 6 innings with only 1 earned run. And still lost.  The Red Sox are 1 and 5.
• The Rosebud offense comprised 6 hits (1 single, a homer, and four doubles), 3 walks, and 1 HBP.

Bellingham: W 2, L 1; 15 – 17. (17 PA, .333, .389, .800; 9.3 ip, 3 er, 2.89 ERA). 

• When we get new ownerewwws I am always worried about whether they are getting the nuances of the game.  I’m not saying I do much to help them, but I do worry about them.
• But I worry less when they turn in days like yesterday.  To avoid being saddled with replacement player stats, your team needs at least 27.9 PA a game,  and 7 IP (5 by starters) a day.  The Cascades got all the innings they need, and they were on the whole very good innings despite Jeremy Hellickson’s ineffectiveness  (2 innings, 2 earned runs).  The Cascades came up with less than 2/3 of the PA they need — but oh were they great plate appearances, on the whole. You remember those 2 runs Hellickson coughed up? He coughed them up to his Cascades teammate Bryce Harper, courtesy of the gopher ball.
• So much better than delivering that fat pitch to, say, Anthony Rendon.
• (By that time Trea Turner was already at the hospital getting ex-rayed, so that opportunity for a little Wolverine/Cascades symbiosis was lost.)
• Some of you may not have realized that Wolverine/Cascades symbiosis is totally ok, since in real life the Cascades provide some of the most hospitable habitat in the world for wolverines.  It’s even more symbiotic than Cheese and Pears. It’d be like Fleas and Kangaroos, or Dragons and Sheep (or Maidens).

Peshastin: W, 1  – 1. (41 PA, .211, .262, .263; 6 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). 

• The third EFL team to parry poor plate performance with peri-perfect pitching.
• Zach Eflin was the stud: 5 scoreless innings.
• Marin Maldonado went 3 for 4 with singles. Joey Gallo matched him with two walks a a double in 4 trips.
• The Pears/Nationals outfield only managed 1 for 11. It wasn’t a good day in DC, but the Pears endured it better than the Nationals (or the deTurnerated Wolverines).

Pittsburgh: W 1, L 2; 13 – 21. (30 PA, .269, .367, .385;  3 ip, 3 er, 9.00 ERA)

•  On Tuesday morning Adam Warren warranted his place on the Allegheny roster because he had a 0 ERA in 2 ip.  He pitched 2 more innings Tuesday night, doubling his total, and allowed 3 ER on 3 solo homers, raising his ERA an infinite percentage, that is, to 6.75.
• On the other hand Warren also surrendered 3 harmless walks!  Think of the finesse required to walk two batters in two innings without any of them scoring on the three homers you also surrendered.
• On the other other hand, one of the homers Warren awarded was to that historic slugger… Zack Greinke!  Yes, Greinke hit TWO homers, both off EFL pitchers.
•  Warren’s wily wildness balanced Maikel Franco’s perfect patient power (3 walks, all intentional, to go with one homer.)

DC: L, 3 – 7. (29 PA, .185, .241, .407; 1.3 ip, 0 er).

• Matt Chapman was responsible for all the runs for both teams in the Oakland-Boston game. His solo homer was all the runs Portland’s Chris Sale allowed.  Great job, Matt!
• Ryan O’Hearn hit a solo home run, too, but it was one of 9 runs scored in the game so didn’t stand out as much as Chapman’s or Vogelbach’s.

Kaline: W, 7 – 3. (51 PA, .286, .314, .490; 6.7 ip. 2 er, 2.70 ERA).

• Hunter Renfroe has been having trouble getting playing time, with only 7 plate appearances before Tuesday.  In four plate appearances he belted two home runs Tuesday, both off Zach Greinke, which means he cancelled out Greinke’s feat, although Greinke got 4 RBIs to Renfroe’s 3. Greinke’s team won; but then, so did Renfroe’s — in the EFL, where Greinke no longer even gets to play.  So all in all, I guess it’s better to be Hunter than hunted.
• I think most people in the EFL have a soft spot in their heart for Marcus Stroman, who is the icon of the worst possible bad luck, an EFL owner’s nightmare: being injured, out for the season, AFTER the rookie draft but well before the season started.  So we all can cheer for his good start to 2019: 12.7 ip, 2 er so far, 5.7 ip and 2 er of that coming yesterday.

Haviland: L,  4 – 8. (26 PA, .273, .385, .318; 2 ip, 1 er, 4.50 ERA) .

• I am a big fan of OBP.  But even so, when my team has a bigger OBP than its slugging percentage, I feel cheap somehow, like my team is trying to pay for its groceries entirely with the deposit on a huge pile of empty pop cans.  It’s totally legal, and actually admirable, but it still feels like you’re taking advantage of a loophole.
• So since I feel that way, and I’m not all that special, then everyone else probably does, too.
• Ergo, we can assume the Dragon-in-Chief feels that way, too.
• Or would, had his team won. Now he’s probably frustrated that his team had such a watery day at the plate.  I know I would be.
• If only Kolten Wong had played yesterday.  That guy is still batting .500, .550, 1.056 to lead the Dragons with an OPS of 1.606.
• On Tuesday morning Trey Wingenter warranted his place on the Dragon roster because he had a 0 ERA in 2 ip.  He pitched 1 more inning Tuesday night, allowed 1 ER, raising his ERA an infinite percentage, that is, to 3.86.  Infinity is about half as big in Halfiland — which, of course, is possible, since if you divide infinity in half it’s still infinite.

Brookland: “W”, 5 – 9. (36 PA, .286, .306, .457; no pitching)

• Adam Jones went 2 for 4 with a double.  This raised his batting average to .379, and his OPS to 1.138.  I thought he was kind of washed up. Apparently not.
• I think (without looking it up) Cody Bellinger is leading the majors with 5 homers. He got his 5th last night.  He’s played only 6 games. He is still on pace for 145 homers this season.
• Manny Machado kind of stumbled around on a pop up to the catcher.  He also laid his bat down right next the catcher who was looking up trying to track the ball.  The catcher did not seem to be bothered, but he didn’t make a fairly easy catch on the pop up. The home plate umpire called Manny out for interfering with the catcher. Controversy ensued.
• Poor Manny.  He’s a little bit of a lost soul. Or has — and keeps reinforcing — that reputation, which isn’t much better.
• He was Adam Jones’ teammate in Baltimore, and is again now in Brookland. Maybe Adam can be Manny’s mentor a little bit.