False Narratives and .500

Portland: W2, L1 (22-16); (.297, .371, .487; 36.3 IP, 19 ER, 4.71 ERA) Portland earned 2 wins due to a strong weekend offensively. Which is good, because his highly paid SP Chris Sale turned in another stinker (and promptly told the media, “I am a liability!”) and his two All Star pitchers (Means and Berrios) both gave up multiple earned runs. If you remember, I had named Paul Goldschmidt as his player who needed to get going if the Rosebuds wanted to keep their distance atop the standings. Well, he hit .182 over the weekend, which is not quite good enough in the long term, though it appears to be at least good enough to pad his lead. 

Flint Hill: W2, L1 (21-19); (.270, .326, .557; 22.3 IP, 16 ER, 6.45 ER) The Tornadoes offense kept pace with the Rosebuds this weekend, which had left our hopes high for gaining ground. But some bad luck and bad strategy (why did the Mariners decide to start LeBlanc when I had so clearly told them he was doing so amazing as the headliner?) made us fall .5 games further behind the Roseburps. Three Tornado hitters (all All Stars) had incredible weekends (Bogaerts, Trout, and Meadows), OPSing over 1.200 and hitting 6 HRs between them. But it wasn’t enough…this time. 

Old Detroit: W2, L1 (19-11); (.275, .377, .504; 20 IP, 4 ER, 1.80 ERA) It is pretty amazing how similar the hitting lines were this weekend for the top three teams. Not to be outdone by the Tornadoes, the Wolverines had 6 players OPS over 1.000 with top honors going to Jorge Soler (1.883 OPS – 5 total hits on the weekend, with 2 HR and 2 2B). And then he had to go and top it off with a brilliant pitching weekend. The Wolverines deserve more words written about their weekend, but I don’t want to celebrate them any more than I have to. But I do wonder how many times he has said “pickles,” after only gaining .3 games on the Tornadoes despite such a strong weekend.

Pittsburgh: W2, L1 (11-2); (.259, .315, .491; 29.7 IP, 6 ER, 1.82 ERA) I’m afraid I may have awoken the gremlin, AKA Jose Altuve (isn’t that what he is, a small beast?). After I chided him last week, he hit .500, .500, 1.500 over 16ABs. Yikes. Sorry, everyone. And Allegany pitching was strong, led by the snubbed Strasburg (6IP, 0 ER). Great, just what we need – a Pittsburgh team that feels overlooked and underappreciated. WE APPRECIATE YOU JOSE. NO NEED TO PROVE HOW GOOD YOU ARE. WE ALREADY KNOW.

Haviland: W3, L0 (23-10); (.324, .385, .686; 17.7 IP, 5 ER, 2.55 ERA) Haviland had the best weekend of us all, which is fun for him (he can celebrate his team’s success however he wants) but otherwise means little (he only gained .5 games on the Rosebuds, and BP says teams with similar records to the Dragons will only win about 81 games this year). So he passed the Pears, so what? So he is within 1.4 games of passing the Alleghanys? Who cares. So he’s scoring almost 8 runs a game this month? NO ONE IS NOTICING. 

Peshastin: W1, L2 (7-9); (.224, .261, .384; 18 IP, 3 ER, 1.50 ERA) If you know Phil you know that he is a simple man, which is a compliment. He is a minimalist who is able to take pleasure in the simplest pleasures of life. And apparently his team decided this minimalist approach would be a fun way to play this weekend. Over three games they scored a total of 7 runs. But they only gave up 9 runs during the same span. No one did too much and no one did too little. They all did just enough (well, maybe Phil would take a little extravagance in the offensive categories), but overall they played like Phil lives – simple, understated, and content.

Canberra: W1, L2 (22-17); (.266, .379, .560; 14 IP, 6 ER, 3.86 ERA) The Kangaroos had a great offense this past weekend, scoring 22 runs on some great hitting from some young guys (Nick Senzel and Keston Huira) while getting normal contributions from Alex Bregman and Starling Marte (both OPSed over 1.100). And their pitching was good, but there just wasn’t enough of it to cover 3 whole games. The Kangaroos have been plagued by replacement pitching this month, which has kept their record a little less than what it could be, seeing as their offense has been top 3 in OPS. 

Kaline: W2, L1 (19-6); (.303, .373, .514; 34 IP, 13 ER, 3.44 ERA) The Drive had the second best weekend of anyone with only one or no Johns in their name. His offense was led by Aaron Judge (dangit, I seem to have awoken too many players, sorry, everyone! Or, you’re welcome?) who hit .636, .692. .636. He had 7 hits, ALL of them singles! When is that last time that happened to the man they laughingly juxtapose with Altuve? 

Cottage: W2, L1 (14-14); (.261, .329, 428; 24 IP, 10 ER, 3.75) The Cheese lamented (oh wait, the laments come at the end of the season) blogged about how they needed pitching in order to be a better team, and look! They got good pitching from all of their starters not named Duffy. I wonder what would happen if other people followed suit and, like the Cheese, blogged about their team for all of us to see? Would your fortunes turn around just as quickly? Only way to know is to test it out – go ahead! Write a blog for us – it’s fun to read others’ thoughts on their own teams. The Cheese also got great offensive performances from their two youngest players (Verdugo and Barreto) and their two oldest players (Ramos and Thames). A well-rounded performance! 

Bellingham: W1, L2 (9-5); (.208, .247, .377; 24.7 IP, 6 ER, 2.19 ERA) This past weekend was good for the Cascade pitching staff, even if a little lucky. While their FIP was over 5, their ERA was under 3. That means their defense played some incredible defense, and that is good, because the hitters decided to take a little break, though Acuña and Turner did their part (both OPSing over 1.000) to keep their team in the games. 

Brookland: W0, L3 (11-25); (.219, .296, .406; 18 IP, 14 ER, 7.00 ERA) Speaking of false narratives, someone tweeted at the San Diego Padres this past week in a mocking manner, asking if they felt good about all the money they had invested in Machado (implying that he wasn’t having a good year). The Padres official account tweeted back to this fan Machado’s stat line, with an insult of their own. It seems the Padres love their jogger 3B for the next decade, and aren’t afraid to defend declare their love for all to see. Oh, and Manny had a pretty good weekend, too. Must have been all the love he got from his team (OPS of 1.357). The rest of the Outs? Well, they got out more than they didn’t, and their pitchers had trouble getting outs more than giving up hits, the most egregious being Jordan Lyles (Manny’s teammate – maybe the Padres need to show him some love?) who gave up 7 ER in 2/3 of an inning for an ERA of…wait for it…94.50. 

DC: W1, L2 (14-24); (.293, .333, .457; 20.7 IP, 18 ER, 7.84 ERA) A great hitting weekend got derailed by a poor pitching weekend for the Balk. DC had 6 hitters OPS over 1.000, led by their three large white guys – Calhoun, Chapman, and McMahon. But two of their pitchers had awful weekends, sending their ERA higher than the Balkans. Take out those two guys (Bundy and Williams) and the rest of the staff only gave up 3 ERs all weekend.