League Updates

“Thank you Felix!”

I turned on the Mariners game in the 4th inning Thursday evening, to listen to Felix Hernandez make what everyone is assuming is his last start as a Mariner.  I panicked when I remembered he was pitching, because there have been some games lately where he wouldn’t have made it to the fourth inning.

He was still in the game, but he was behind 3 – 0.

(Meg Rowley faces life without her guy.)

I did not want to share this moment with Rick Rizzs, who seems to be a genuinely nice guy but I am a genuinely judgmental one, so it doesn’t work out between us.   I listened to the A’s radio announcers instead, who are very good and very professional and super very respectful toward Felix Hernandez.

Felix sailed through the 4th inning, the Mariners did their usual flailing, and then Felix took the mound in the 5th.  Shed Long bobbled a grounder, opening the door, and soon Felix had the bases loaded and two outs.  Of course a win was not in the cards for Felix’s  last outing — he hasn’t won since April 1 — but I didn’t want the game to be an embarrassment, either.

A flash flood of dread surged over me as Chad Pinder drilled a ball to left center.

“Dylan Moore is racing back” called the A’s announcer, as I remember it.  “The ball is over his head and he makes a leaping incredible CATCH!!!”

Scott Servais sent Felix out to get the first batter in the top of the 6th. With his 106th pitch he got Robbie Grossman to hit a routine fly to center. The last man to face Felix, maybe. The last man he got out.

Servais came with the hook. Felix clung to the ball for a bit, stretching his Mariners career out a couple more seconds. He hugged his infielders, tears in his eyes (and Kyle Seager’s too), then left to a standing ovation, with several salutes to a HUGE King’s Court (23 sections of seats, 10,000 fans, about half of the entire attendance).  As Aaron Goldsmith put it, “It’s like nothing we will ever see again.”

Through most of the next half inning, the fans chanted “Thank you Felix!”

The M’s lost, of course, dropping them 30 games behind the second-place A’s.  Felix ended in all likelihood his last season 1 – 8, with his season ERA pared a little to 6.40, his career mark rising microscopically to 3.42.  He said after the game he wasn’t ready to retire, but apparently everyone has agreed he’s not going to pitch in Seattle anymore.

Ryan and I talked later and agreed it would be better if he did retire.  But on further reflection, I don’t know.  I think he’s just two good seasons from the Hall of Fame: 31 wins to 200; 271 innings and 476 strikeouts to 3000.  I don’t think he’ll get in without at least two of those three markers.  Felix thinks he’s still got it.  And Felix is a stubborn man.

About 8 years from now would be a perfect time for us to take Enzo to Cooperstown, don’t you think, Ryan?

I read a Mets fan’s blog Thursday afternoon, speculating on what his team should do.  He believes the Mets need to find a couple of new pitchers.  And the one he hopes slots in as the Amazin’s fifth starter?  Felix Hernandez.

Please. Not the Mets. But even so — even if it is the Yankees — I’ll root for him.

 

EFL Standings for 2019
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Portland Rosebuds 103 56 .649 1002.3 735.9
Flint Hill Tornadoes 102 57 .644 0.9 985.9 729.4
Old Detroit Wolverines 93 66 .584 10.4 926.1 778.3
Peshastin Pears 88 71 .554 15.1 837.1 754.0
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 86 73 .539 17.5 827.3 748.4
Haviland Dragons 82 77 .514 21.5 891.8 860.8
Canberra Kangaroos 80 79 .501 23.5 888.7 890.7
Kaline Drive 78 81 .493 24.8 766.1 778.5
Cottage Cheese 75 84 .474 27.9 889.6 936.8
Bellingham Cascades 66 93 .415 37.3 714.1 858.8
D.C. Balk 65 94 .407 38.6 690.1 840.1
Brookland Outs 64 95 .403 39.1 742.1 898.3
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Portland: W, 7 – 4. (30 PA, .333, .467, .458; 1.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). 
Flint Hill: W (-1), L 1; 0 – 3. (23 PA, .263, .391, .421;  7.7 ip, 6 er, 7.04 ERA)
The sleeping Rosebuds have been kissed by the wind from the Tornados, and life is flowing from Flint Hill to Portland.  The Tornados seem to be receding, their funnels pulling back up toward the clouds, even as the Rosebuds produce another round of late-summer blossoms.  Not only has Portland restored a 0.9 – game lead, but they have stormed past the 1,000 runs scored mark for the season! Maybe rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated after all.
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Old Detroit:  DNP, 0 – 0. (22 PA, .227, .227 .273;  2 ip, 1 er, 4.50 ERA). 
Take out the 0 for 7 recorded by minor leaguers Brinson and Diaz, and the relevant team line improves to 5 for 15 with a double: .333, .333, .400.  Much better. But still not good enough, as has been the story all season for the W’s.
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Peshastin: L, 5 – 5. (21 PA, .235, .381, .529; 1 ip, 0 er, o.oo ERA)
Today is one of those days when I intended to only write about the teams doing something interesting. But every day by the time I get to the Pears I have already shattered my resolution  completely. So I have to write about them even if they aren’t racing anyone for anything, and have had no really outstanding performances (Kole Calhoun going 1 for 2 with two walks and a homer — maybe that’s outstanding, so maybe I’ll go ahead and mention it).  So the lesson is: if you want attention, do something worth attending to.
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Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 2. (21 PA, .143, .333, .429;  7 ip, 1 er, 11.50 ERA)
         Do the Alleghenys still have ambitions of catching Peshastin? They are 2.6 games back with 3 to go.  On one hand such a gain is always possible in the EFL — even much larger ones are theoretically possible.  Anyone who started September with more games left to play than they were behind the Rosebuds is still technically in the EFL pennant race until the last day of the season. But it’s also harder to gain 2.6 games in 3 days because you not only have to win entire games, your prey has to lose entire games. We tend to gain and lose fractions of games every day whereas MLB rounds wins up and losses down to whole integers, and then starts over and does the same thing the next day.  So if Pittsburgh wins 4 to 2 each day, it’s really going about .625 – .375 in the EFL, whereas it’s going 1 – 0 in MLB. MLB forgets what’s happened Thursday when Friday’s games are played, but the Alleghenys still owe the league 0.375 of a win Friday, and have to pay up.  So another 4-2 win might be recorded as a win, but only by leaving Pittsburgh owing pretty much an entire win to the league.  So the by the time you’ve won 4 – 2 three days in a row, you are going to get that recorded as 2 wins and a loss.
        The consolation comes in this: it’s just as hard to lose 3 games in a row with 2 – 4 losses, so everything evens out in the end.  But this is why our league does not get such dramatic movement in the standings as the MLB sees.
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Haviland: W, 5 – 4. (19 PA, .235,.263, .412;  1.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA)
        Should we do something about this sluggishness in our standings? We could, with Dave’s new system once it’s done.  We could compile and store our results day by day, rounding the result to a whole integer every day we play.  The plan now is to still fix results at the end of each month, but we could consider introducing the same potential to outplay (or underplay) our Pythagorean outcomes.  We don’t have to be a daily management league to do this.  We would just become an even more intense daily depression (or exultation) league. We could go full bi-polar!
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Canberra:  W 1, L (-1); (-4) – (-11). (43 PA, .189, .302, .378; 14 ip, 1 er, 0.64 ERA).
Of the four Kangaroo pitchers, only Joey Lucchesi allowed an earned run. Of the nine Kangaroo hitters, only Mauricio Dubon had a really good day (3 for 4 with a double and a homer, driving in a run the rest of the order had to erase twice.  Which they did in 33 plate appearances.  The result: the ‘Roos jumped back above .500. Baaarely.
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Kaline: L, 1 – 5. (37 PA, .194, .216, .333; no pitching).
Meanwhile Cottage coasted. Their kind-hearted Head Cheese let them take it easy.  After all, school’s almost out, all the exams are done, why not let them watch video all day? A team called “Drive” can’t coast and expect to do well.  So, the result: the Drive are now 2.6 games under .500 with 3 games to go.  Yikes.
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Cottage: DNP, 0 – (-3).  (14 PA, .286, .286, .429; 11 ip, 2 er)
The Cheese are all by themselves. (meeting in 15 minutes. have to be brief.)
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Bellingham: L, 2 – 8. (5 PA, .000, .200, .000;  4 ip, 3 er 6.75 ERA)
Yikes. The Cascades almost disappeared!  Bryce Harper went 0 for 4. Stephen Vogt walked in his only plate appearance.  And Rajai Davis didn’t even have a plate appearance.  He pinch ran and got caught stealing. Wade Miley appeared a little more than was welcome… The season is 162 games long.  You told your players about this, right, Andre?
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DC:  W, 5 – (-4)  (39 PA, .351, .385, .676; 9.7 ip, 4 er, 3.72)
In the land of the disappearing rosters, the championship-quality team is king. And all of a sudden the Balk are playing top notch ball. They ZOOMED past the Outs on Thursday — a 1.1 game swing in a single day — and are now only 1.3 games behind the Cascades.  They discovered the truly last-minute surge to escape the cellar last year, and may be improving on it this year: a last minute surge to gain TWO places in the standings?!  My excitement, however, is tempered: Matt Chapman cost King Felix a loss with his homer on the way to a 1.933 OPS day.
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Brookland: DNP, (-1) – (-2). (5 PA, .000,.000, .000; 5 ip,  3 er, 5.40 ERA)
A rough day for the Outs. They almost no-show on offense, and get no-hit, but it only costs them 0.9 runs scored on the month –  a bad sign. They get 5 innings of 5.40 ERA pitching, and that reduces their runs allowed by 2 — another bad sign.  They outscore their foes — or get negatively outscored by their foes, which comes to the same thing — and the Balk still blast past them big time.  Perhaps Brooks consoles himself with dreams of the first EFL pick in the draft…
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Flint Hill Tornadoes 102 57 .644
New York Yankees 102 57 .642 0.4
Tampa Bay Rays 95 64 .597 7.4
Old Detroit Wolverines 93 66 .584 9.6
Boston Red Sox 83 76 .522 19.4
Toronto Blue Jays 65 94 .409 37.4
Baltimore Orioles 52 107 .327 50.4
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 97 62 .610
Washington Nationals 90 69 .566 7
New York Mets 83 76 .522 14
Canberra Kangaroos 80 79 .501 17.3
Philadelphia Phillies 79 80 .497 18
D.C. Balk 65 94 .407 32.3
Miami Marlins 56 103 .352 41
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Minnesota Twins 99 60 .623
Cleveland Indians 93 66 .585 6
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 86 73 .539 13.3
Chicago White Sox 70 88 .443 28.5
Bellingham Cascades 66 93 .415 33.1
Kansas City Royals 58 101 .365 41
Detroit Tigers 46 112 .291 52.5
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
St. Louis Cardinals 90 69 .566
Milwaukee Brewers 89 70 .560 1
Chicago Cubs 82 77 .516 8
Cottage Cheese 75 84 .474 14.6
Cincinnati Reds 73 86 .459 17
Pittsburgh Pirates 68 91 .428 22
Brookland Outs 64 95 .403 25.9
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Houston Astros 104 55 .654
Oakland A’s 96 63 .604 8
Haviland Dragons 82 77 .514 22.3
Kaline Drive 78 81 .493 25.6
Texas Rangers 76 83 .478 28
Los Angeles Angels 72 87 .453 32
Seattle Mariners 66 923 .067 453
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Portland Rosebuds 103 56 .649
Los Angeles Dodgers 103 56 .648 0.2
Peshastin Pears 88 71 .554 15.1
Arizona Diamondbacks 82 77 .516 21.2
San Francisco Giants 77 82 .484 26.2
San Diego Padres 70 89 .440 33.2
Colorado Rockies 68 91 .428 35.2