At the free agent draft, when it came to potential super-start shortstops we had three choices, ranked here by the price paid for the player: Door #1 was Corey Seager; Door # 2 was Trea Turner; and Door # 3 was Carlos Correa.
Which was the right door to choose?
| TEAM | W | L | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Haviland Dragons | 2 | 0 | 0.896 | — | 14.2 | 4.8 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 2 | 0 | 0.87 | 0.1 | 20.5 | 7.9 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 1 | 0 | 0.815 | 0.5 | 7.6 | 3.6 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 1 | 0 | 0.717 | 0.6 | 9 | 5.6 |
| Kaline Drive | 1 | 1 | 0.608 | 0.6 | 8.3 | 6.7 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 1 | 0 | 0.621 | 0.7 | 8 | 6.2 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 1 | 0 | 0.582 | 0.7 | 7.6 | 6.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 0 | 1 | 0.403 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
| D.C. Balk | 0 | 1 | 0.089 | 1.2 | 3.8 | 12.3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 0 | 1 | 0.047 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 8.7 |
| Peshastin Pears | 0 | 2 | 0.076 | 1.6 | 5 | 17.3 |
(Reminder: we are still under the influence of our untamed pitching penalties. Management is working on a fix at least in time for next month to give us something like a 10-day grace period at the beginning of the month, which should be enough for most teams to avoid ever seeing a penalty. I also think it may be possible to slow-drip the imposition of the penalties so they grow gradually as the month passes.)
Haviland: W, 4- 2. (19 PA, .294, .368, .471; 12 ip, 3 er, 2.25 ERA). Pablo Lopez and Michael Kopech kept the season shutout going for 7 more innings, but Jesus Luzardo broke the spell with 3 er in 5 ip. All five Dragon hitters got one hit. Ramon Laureano’s was a triple, and Jake Cronenworth’s was a double. (By the way, Door #4, Jose Iglesias of the Dragons, is batting .125, .125, .125 so far.)
Portland: W, 10 – 3. (10 PA, .429, .600, .571; 3.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Corey Seager went 3 for 4 with a double and a walk, running his batting average to .625 and his OPS to 1.477. It looks like the right door may have been Door # 1, but we will check in on #2 and #3 later.
Flint Hill: DNP, (-2) – (-3) (19 PA, .235, .316, .471; 5.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Blake Snell made his Tornado 2021 debut a 4.7 inning shutout, as the Flinties try to keep up with the fam. Mookie Betts helped with a 2 for 6 day, including a double, but there are several non-Johnsons lurking to pick off the straggler from the fammy pack.
Pittsburgh: DNP, (-1) – (-2) (20 PA, .333, .500, .333; 6 ip, 3 er, 4.50 ERA). Nathan Eovaldi did his part (5.3 ip, 1 er) but Chas Roe’s Allegheny debut resulted in a triple chulk (0.7 ip, 2 er). Jose Altuve went 3 for 5 with 2 walks to carry the entire Allegheny offense and put the A’s within a game of the T’s.
Kaline: W, 4 – 2. (17 PA, .286, .353, .500; 8 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Clearly a part of the Johnson tribe — you can tell by the Johnson Family’s characteristic 0.00 ERA — the Drive responded to the Tornadic cry of alarm by barrelling up the standings to join their kinsmen in their time of need. John Means turned in the best pitching performance in MLB yesterday: 7 ip, 0 er, 1 hit, 5 SO, no walks. Yuli Gurriel did just as well: 3 AB, 3 H, 1 HR, 2 walks — carrying the Drive offense single-handedly even more so than Altuve did for the Alleghenys.
Old Detroit: DNP, 1 – 0 (23 PA, .300, .304, .500; no pitching). Spared playing a game somehow (I think because the database decided 1-0 Baltimore was in first place rather than 2 – 0 Tampa Bay, probably due to breaking the winning percentage tie alphabetically?), the Wolverines tweaked their record for the better, slightly. Will Smith (3 for 4 with 2 doubles) and Gavin Lux (2 for 5 with a triple) did a two-man version of carrying the team on their backs. I guess I am going to be rooting for the Dodgers more than I anticipated this year. (Door #3, going by price, was Carlos Correa, who went 0 for 5 yesterday, lowering his season line to .125, .300, .125. Maybe anothre couple million on Seager would have been money well spent?)
Canberra: W 1, L (-1), 3 – 0. (21 PA, .471, .524, 1.000; no pitching). The tribal instinct is not confined to Johnsons, apparently. The Kangaroos followed the Oldies by mimicking the Wolverine pattern — no pitching, pretty good hitting — except they substituted “very” for “pretty.” Manuel Margo led the way with a homer and a triple in his 4 plate appearances, while Mike Trout followed meekly with two walks, a double and a single in 5 plate appearances.
Bellingham: DNP, 0 – 0. (5 PA, .200, .200, .800; 1 ip, 0 er). The Cascades had an off day, too, so Jake McGee threw on the side for a scoreless inning, and Tim Anderson took five turns in the batting cage. Line-score literacy quiz: what did Anderson accomplish in his 5 swings in the cage?
DC: DNP, (-1) – 0. (28 PA, .200, .286, .440; no pitching) Only by the grace of God did DC not play yesterday, so it dodged another penalty dump for not having any pitching. Ryan McMahon is some kind of budding superstar — who knew? — judging by his 2 for 4 with a homer, leaving him with a season OPS of 1.400.
Cottage: DNP, 1 – 0. (26 PA, .292, .308, .458; 3 ip, 3 er, 9.00 ERA). The Cheese escaped the cellar despite Heaney’s sub-replacement debut Cheese performance. Cottie catchers Pedro Severino and Francisco Mejia had to do everything — catch that sorry Heaney performance, and supply most of the Cheese offense, combining to go 3 for 6 with a walk. Shohei Ohtani also homered, his only hit in 5 plate appearances. (Door #2, Trea Turner, DNP again yesterday thanks to COVID. His season line is still .000, .000, .000. As of this writing, it’s even possible Turner himself may have contracted COVID. I think most signs point another direction, but the Nats are apparently activating Luis Garcia, who plays ss and 2b…)
Peshastin: L, 3 – 13. (17 PA, .250, .294, .438; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) The Pears are doing this to themselves, mostly. They’ve had 5 pitchers appear, providing 10.3 ip at a 6.12 ERA. Their accrued pitching penalties do elevate their team ERA to 7.64, but that extra 1.5 runs allowed per game, 3 runs over two games, would still leave them .33 games behind the Cheese and 37 behind the Balk. On the other hand, Jazz Chisholm looked very good yesterday, going 2 for 4 with a triple and a walk, raising his season OPS to 1.095.