“Amplitude” is an earlier day’s “utilization”: an ugly long word people like to use instead of a simple short one to try to lend weight to their observations. “Utility” is probably a better word than “usefulness”, for both brevity and beauty. But that justifies neither using “utilizing”, nor the use of “utilization.”
My father introduced me early to “amplitude” while explaining the difference between the AM and FM radio bands. I don’t remember asking him about that. It was part of my dad’s ambition since I was a twinkling in his eye to make me into a fellow ham-radio devotee. Knowing the difference between amplitude modulation and frequency modulation is somehow crucial to amateur radio success. I used to know it well enough to pass my dad’s occasional pop quiz, but I don’t remember ever understanding it. I certainly don’t now.
I never got my ham radio license. However, my brother-in-law Aaron did. He also calls my mom more often than I do. I think it’s just because he is nicer than me. I don’t think he has been conniving to supplant me as a son.
Fortunately for you, today’s post does not require you to understand anything about radio, amateur or otherwise. You just need to know that “amplitude”, while it literally means “plentifulness” (by contrast with which it might get its excuse for existence), in practice means “bigness.”
Here’s today’s lesson translated into non-amateur radio language: you need to carefully time how big you go.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 17 | 4 | .790 | — | 124.1 | 64.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 15 | 6 | .705 | 1.8 | 87.8 | 56.7 |
| Haviland Dragons | 14 | 6 | .683 | 2.4 | 82.4 | 56.2 |
| D.C. Balk | 10 | 5 | .676 | 3.4 | 75.2 | 52.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 12 | 8 | .613 | 3.8 | 86.3 | 68.6 |
| Kaline Drive | 12 | 8 | .598 | 4.1 | 97.9 | 80.3 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 10 | 8 | .545 | 5.3 | 75.5 | 68.9 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 8 | 7 | .521 | 5.8 | 82.2 | 78.8 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 9 | 9 | .505 | 6 | 91.4 | 90.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 10 | 10 | .484 | 6.4 | 88.9 | 91.9 |
| Cottage Cheese | 8 | 11 | .427 | 7.5 | 108.3 | 125.5 |
Old Detroit: “W”, 1 – 3. (33 PA, .111, .242, .222; 7 IP, 2 ER, 2.57 ERA). The Wolverines hit so poorly — only Austin Riley’s homer and a walk can be deemed a “highlight” — they got outscored by a factor of 3 to 1. But Mike Minor managed 5.7 ip with only 2 earned runs, and David Phelps rounded out the 7 ip we require each day without allowing any more damage. Being outscored 3 – 1 does far less damage than, say, 30 – 10. And far more damage than 0.00003 – 0.00001. This is the power of great pitching and good defense: they limit the risk each day.
Flint Hill: W, 4 – 2. (34 PA, .179, .324, .286; 13 ip, 3 er, 2.08 ERA). The Tornadoes hit about the same amount and nearly as badly. And pitched slightly better, but a lot more. In other words, they practiced good amplitude modulation: doubling down on their good pitching, while maintaining practically the same amplitude of poor hitting. You can’t really call any Tornado hitter’s performance a highlight, unless you are ready to consider 2 walks in 4 plate appearance worthy of highlighting. But Garman Marquez’ 2 er in 6 ip is highlight-worthy and Yu Darvish’s 1 er in 7 ip is even more so.
Haviland: W, 6 – 6. (32 PA, .321, .406, .500; 7.7 ip, 5 er, 5.84 ERA). The Dragons, on the other hand, were forced to go big when their pitchers, saddled with Tyler Glasnow’s disastrous 4-run first inning, couldn’t keep their daily ERA under 3. The hitters responded well — that’s an Edgar Martinez Day they had, featuring JT Realmuto’s 3 for 4 with a homer and a stolen base — so the Dragon’s avoided a loss. But when your winning percentage going into the day was .696, a tie game vandalizes it. Haviland’s dropped .013 while Old Detroit’s dropped only .012 because the D’s went big (12 total runs) while the W’s went small (actually slightly less than 4 total runs), leaving Haviland about 0.1 games further behind.
DC: “L”, 6 – 5. (42 PA, .270, .372, .405; 7 ip, 4 er, 5.14 ERA). The Balk took a route very similar to the Dragons’, but gained 0.1 games because the Dissies amplified ( far better word than “embiggened”) their good offense by producing 31% more of it. Nico Hoerner (3 for 4 with two doubles and a walk) and Xander Bogaerts (2 for 4 with a homer) anchored the offense. Martin Perez and Dylan Cease produced nearly identical clunkers (splitting 7 innings as neatly as possible, each contributing 2 earned runs) to anchor the Balk to their position 3.4 game out of first.
Also, the Balk have been practicing amplitude modulation in the number of games they play — only 15 so far — by cleverly positioning themselves in the division the Mets are leading. So the Balk have no replacement pitching or batting, while the Dragons have 16 replacement PAs and 0.4 replacement innings.
—
We should take a moment here to empathize with the poor Wolverines and Tornados, who are stuck in the hyperactive AL East, the only division to have reached 21 games. It’s been aaaages since those benighted teams have had a day off. The stoic Wolverines are lugging around a complete 9-inning game of replacement pitching, and an entire plate appearance. And the flinty Flinties are bearing up under a league-leading 65 replacement plate appearances. Yet neither team as EVER complained about having to supply personnel for more games than anyone else in the league! But that’s why we have a Commissioner: to give voice to the voiceless.
—
Peshastin: W, 8 – 1. (37 PA, .294, .351, .618; 13.7 ip, 3 er, 1.97 ERA). The Pears leapt 0.8 games and two places in the standings by going BIG on offense and BIG on innings and small on ERA, all at the same time. This is, of course, what we all aim for every day, but should stand out more now that you have learned about amplitude modulation. Ozzie Albies homered and doubled, and Yoan Moncada homered and singled twice, to lead the offense. Huascar Ynoa (6 ip, 2 er) and Alex Wood (7 ip, 1 er) were the pitching stalwarts.
Kaline: 7 – 1. (53 PA, .289, .396, .444; 12.7 ip, 3 er, 2.13 ERA). Ditto the Drive! The offense was smaller than Peshastin’s in OPS, but over 40% larger in amplitude, than the Pears’. There was one less inning from the pitching, so the Drive “only” covered 0.7 games of the ground toward first place. Yuli Guerriel (2 for 4 with a homer), Kwan Hyun Kim (5.7 ip, 1 er), and JT Brubaker (7 ip, 2 er) were the standouts.
Bellingham: L, 2- 6. (36 PA, .182, .250, .303; 3.3 ip, 3 er, 8.18). The Cascades could have fallen further had they pitched more of those putrid innings. No, “putrid” is totally unfair to Jake McGee and Ljay Newsome, who combined for 3 scoreless innings. All the putrefaction was Brett Anderson’s fault, who barely escaped the first Royal Chulk label of the season by going 0.33 innings while surrendering 3.0 earned runs. Had Rhys Hoskins not hit his homer, we might be labelling the Cascade offense wit h its own suitably offensive label. As it was, the B’s slid 0.6 games in the standings.
Canberra: L, 4 – 14. (35 PA, .250, .314, .375; 10.7 ip, 12 er, 10.09 ERA). I am so sorry, Ryan, not to have been the father to you my father was to me. I don’t think I ever explained to you the difference between frequency modulation and amplitude modulation. I sent you out into the world defenseless against the urge to try to fix bad pitching with MORE bad pitching. So when Casey Mize struggled through 4.7 innings, giving up 6 earned runs, you didn’t know it wouldn’t help to have Dane Dunning back him up with 2.7 ip and 5 more earned runs. I hope you found consolation in Javier Baez’ 3 for 5 with a homer.
All you fathers with children still at home: don’t delay! Don’t make the same mistake I made. Sit your children down today and have the talk. Make sure they understand the importance of amplitude modulation!
Pittsburgh: L, 7 – 10. (29 PA, .321, .345, .536. 9.7 ip, 9 er, 8.35 ERA). I haven’t said it enough, I guess: be careful with amplitude! Enhance you amplitude aptitude! You cannot win if you go big on offense (even to the extreme of a Garrett Hampson home run!) only to also go big on ERA (Luke Weaver and Sonny Gray doing the damage this time.) Pittsburgh suddenly is teetering near the .500 cliff.
Portland: L, 7 – 11. (43 PA, .256 .326, .615; 2.3 ip, 4 er, 15.65 ERA). Ditto. Although the ‘Buds good offense was arguably bigger in quality, it was definitely bigger in quantity than the Alleghenys. Four Rosebuds homered (Benintendi, Astudillo, Solak, and Cron). On the other hand, the pitching was worse in quality, but much smaller in quantity. The effect was about the same: slipping approximately a half-game further from first place — except, in the Portlies’ case, that put them back under .500.
Cottage: W, 13 – 2. (52 PA, .375, .423, .625; 6.3 ip, 1 er, 1.43 ERA). Finally, here at the end of the post, at the bottom of the league, we find the EFL team with the best results of the entire day. They sent hordes of men to the plate like they were Driven. That horde led the EFL in all three slash line stats, and far outscored everyone else. That’s a double BIG scoop of amplitude — the most and the best on offense. Alex (“Betts who?”) Verdugo tormented the Mariners with his 3 for 5 hitting, while Brandon Nimmo tortured someone else with his 3 for 5 with a homer and a double.
These are still the Cheese, leading the league with 44.4 replacement innings, but also among the league leaders with 73 surplus plate appearances. That’s 6 games of EFL pitching they need to make up, with over 2 games of EFL hitting going down the drain. Amplitude modulation disorders all over the place — but yesterday they put it together. They almost got all 7 innings they needed from the one pitcher who showed up: good old Oldie Andrew Heaney (6.3 ip, 1 er).
The Cheese jumped 0.6 games closer to first, and 1.1 games closer to 10th, cutting the latter margin in half. They also bounded .041 closer to .500 — two more such leaps and they’ll be over .500.
I have come around to the idea of all the EFL teams finishing April over .500. It’s wrong on several levels, but to do it once would be a memorable achievement. Go Cheese! And Rosebuds! And Alleghenys! And all others who draw near to .500.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 17 | 4 | .790 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 15 | 6 | .705 | 1.8 |
| Boston Red Sox | 13 | 8 | .619 | 3.6 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 10 | 10 | .500 | 6.1 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 9 | 10 | .474 | 6.6 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 8 | 11 | .421 | 7.6 |
| New York Yankees | 8 | 11 | .421 | 7.6 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 10 | 5 | .676 | — |
| New York Mets | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2.1 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 8 | 7 | .521 | 2.3 |
| Atlanta Braves | 9 | 10 | .474 | 3.1 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 9 | 10 | .474 | 3.1 |
| Miami Marlins | 8 | 11 | .421 | 4.1 |
| Washington Nationals | 7 | 10 | .412 | 4.1 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kansas City Royals | 11 | 7 | .611 | — |
| Bellingham Cascades | 10 | 8 | .545 | 1.2 |
| Chicago White Sox | 10 | 9 | .526 | 1.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 9 | 9 | .505 | 1.9 |
| Cleveland Indians | 8 | 10 | .444 | 3 |
| Minnesota Twins | 7 | 11 | .389 | 4 |
| Detroit Tigers | 7 | 13 | .350 | 5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 11 | 8 | .579 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 10 | 9 | .526 | 1 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 9 | 10 | .474 | 2 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 9 | 10 | .474 | 2 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 9 | 11 | .450 | 2.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 8 | 11 | .427 | 2.9 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 14 | 6 | .683 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 13 | 7 | .650 | 0.7 |
| Seattle Mariners | 12 | 8 | .600 | 1.7 |
| Kaline Drive | 12 | 8 | .598 | 1.7 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 9 | 9 | .500 | 3.7 |
| Houston Astros | 9 | 10 | .474 | 4.2 |
| Texas Rangers | 9 | 11 | .450 | 4.7 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 14 | 6 | .700 | — |
| San Francisco Giants | 13 | 7 | .650 | 1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 12 | 8 | .613 | 1.7 |
| San Diego Padres | 12 | 10 | .545 | 3 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 10 | 10 | .484 | 4.3 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 9 | 11 | .450 | 5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 7 | 12 | .368 | 6.5 |