Jake Odorizzi became the latest high-priced pitcher to break Saturday, after getting the first Angel batter out for the Astros. We’ll talk more about him when we get to the Kangaroo portion of this update. What I want to focus on now is what happened next: Dusty Baker called on a 28-year old guy named Kent Emanuel to make his major league debut in emergency relief.
Emanuel finished the game, going 8 2/3 innings in relief. He got the win, although it was a squeaker: 16 – 2. The last guy to pitch 8 2/3 innings in relief in his major league debut and get the win was John Montefusco, who went on to have a decent career: 22.7 fWAR over 11 useful seasons (plus two at the end of his career when he produced negative WAR in limited innings). Half of Montefusco’s career fWAR came in his second and third years.
I point this out because Emanuel will be a debutant in our upcoming April/May managers meeting, for which you no doubt have already done this Doodle.
(If by some weird chance you haven’t already done the Doodle, please do it now.)
Emanuel is already 28, whereas Montefusco was more like 24 (when he debuted; he’s 70 now) , so I can’t promise 11 seasons of value. But for this draft you only need one. And with our pitchers enduring like mayflies, an Emanuel arriving out of the blue to toss 8 2/3 very good innings could be a savior.
I suspect we all could use a Kent Emanuel… a sobering thought on a day when an innocent team probably set the record for the most losses in one day in EFL history.
(Yes, I buried the lede. Out of compassion.)
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 17 | 5 | .770 | — | 130.6 | 71.4 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 15 | 7 | .704 | 1.5 | 92.0 | 59.7 |
| D.C. Balk | 14 | 6 | .693 | 2.1 | 104.8 | 69.8 |
| Haviland Dragons | 14 | 7 | .681 | 2.1 | 85.8 | 58.7 |
| Peshastin Pears | 12 | 9 | .592 | 4 | 89.3 | 74.0 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 11 | 8 | .563 | 4.7 | 80.9 | 71.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 12 | 9 | .551 | 4.9 | 97.8 | 88.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 9 | 10 | .486 | 6.2 | 94.7 | 97.4 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 10 | 11 | .483 | 6.3 | 93.9 | 97.3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 9 | 11 | .469 | 6.6 | 107.6 | 114.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 9 | 11 | .426 | 7.4 | 112.6 | 130.6 |
Old Detroit: L, 6 – 7. (44 PA, .279, .295, .442; 5.3 ip, 4 er, 6.79 ERA). Marcus Stroman was my secret pitching weapon, sporting a season ERA of 0.89 going into yesterday’s game. His middle initial is “E.” so I think I can be forgiven if I imagined the Wolverines already had their Emanuel on the roster. But Stroman struggled, got crosswise in his mind with the umps, got no help from James McCann who seemed to hurt more than help with his framing, and collapsed for 4 earned runs in 4 innings. Carlos Correa led the clean-up crew going 3 for 6 with a homer leading off the game, and Rafael Devers hit two doubles off the Green Monster. But it wasn’t enough: the “E” in Stroman’s name is just “Earl.”
Flint Hill: “L”, 4 – 3. (21 PA, .278, .281, .333; 6.3 ip, 2 er, 2.86 ERA). The Tornados paid better attention than the W’s did to yesterday’s lesson on frequency modulation — the batting was fair, but not great, so their flinty manager kept a lid on how much of it there was. The pitching he probably could have been more generous with. Keston Hee Wing Natsuo Hiura led the offense with a 3 for 4 day featuring the T’s lone extra base hit (a double). I don’t know what “Hee Wing Natsuo” means, but if it means “God with us” then it’s the equal of an Emanuel.
DC: W 4, L 1; 30 – 18. (36 PA, .333, .444, .567 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; no pitching). I am pretty sure “Edgar” means “Emanuel” in some Spanish dialect, probably Puerto Rican. We have plenty of candidates for Emanueldom on the Balk roster:
* Myles James Noble Straw: 2 doubles in 5 at bats.
* Joseph Nicholas Gallo: 2 for 4.
* Ryan Patrick McMahon: A homer in four AB.
* Nicholas Mackie Hoerner: A double and two walks in 4 AB.
All fine days, but not anything CLOSE to the scale of a Kent Emanuel.
What really saved the Balk? Look at the NL East, where the Balk play. The non-EFL teams are a sorry lot. The best of them, so far, are the Mets (8 – 8) and the Phillies (10 – 10). Those two teams are tied in every way. They share a .500 winning percentage, and a .500 losing percentage, and are both 0.0 games behind. Which one is in first place?
In one of the great mysteries of the EFL, I have no idea how the database decides these things. One might think it would default to whoever was ahead in the previous day’s standings. Or maybe they would be taken in alphabetical order. Either way, the Mets would be in first and the Balk would have played only one game.
But with 5 games in a single day, the Balk won 4. Also in the package: a 1.3 games boost in the race, and claiming 3rd place in the standings.
Can we name the gremlin in Dave’s computer “Emanuel”? If so, the Kent version of Emanuel may have his match in our cyber-Emanuel.
But the computer picked the Phillies to be the standard bearers for the MLB portion of the division. This fluke, this random thing, this whim, perhaps this act of God (but see below) made if possible for the Balk to set an all-time EFL record for wins in a single day!
Haviland: “L”, 3 – 3. (34 PA, .148, .324, .148; 6 ip, 1 er, 1.50 ERA) Pablo Jose Lopez dominated for 6 innings to salvage a day when the mighty Dragons only managed 4 singles (half by Ramon no-middle-name Laureano) albeit with 6 walks and a HBP. If there’s an Emanuel lurking in there, one wonders why the result was so middling.
Peshastin: L, 3 – 5. (25 PA, .280, .280, .520; 6 ip, 3 er, 4.50 ERA) The Dragons apparently ate up all the walks in the neighborhood, because the Pears could find none. This undercut the value of homers by the two Peshastin Willi(e)s, Willie Shawn Lamont Calhoun and Willi Rafael Castro. No Emanuels of any sort in sight.
Bellingham: W, 5 – 2. (26 PA, .292, .308, .708; 9 ip, 2 er, 2.00 ERA). Kevin John Gauman had the best-rated starting pitching performance of the day, according to Baseball Reference: 8 ip, 2 hits, 1 hr, 1 BB, 11 Ks. He was almost matched on the offensive side by Rhys Dean Hoskins’ two homers. Those two are no doubt being celebrated all over Bellingham for lifting the Cascades into 6th place in the EFL, second in the AL Central.
Kaline: L, 0 – 8. (46 PA, .122, .217, .244; no pitching). A dismal day on Whidbey Island… I’m guessing the rain clouds rolled in there like they did here; maybe worse! I’m guessing the Wizard had to summon all his long-range perspective to avoid discouragement. Perhaps he drew a little Conforto from Michael Thomas’ homer. Perhaps he Judged it a positive sign when Aaron James (and Yuli no-middle-name Gurriel) each doubled and walked. If the Wizard was as lowly as me, he might even draw some solace from this: his day was not the worst in the EFL.
Pittsburgh: L, 3 – 7. ( 22 PA, .158, .273, .316; 5 ip, 4 er, 7.20 ERA). On a day when Nathan E. Eovaldi was indistinguishable from a replacement pitcher, and so were the hitters, where does the hope come from in Allegheny land? No – the middle E in Eovaldi’s name is Edward. From Garret Reese Hampson’s triple on the day following a homer? From the consolation, on a day when the A’s fell below .500, that they are first among the subterranean EFLers?
Portland: L, 5 – 5. (50 PA, .238, .360, .262; 4.7 ip, 2 er, 3.83) Too little pitching. If only Adbert Marcelo Alzolay were Adbert Wee Hing Alzolay, and had someone to back him up on the mound! If only Solak, Carlson, Cron and Seager ( a combined 10 for 20 with one double) weren’t saddled with 8 teammates going a collective 0 for 22.
Canberra: W 1, L 4; 25 – 36. (31 PA, .200, .226, .433; 2.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). The Kangaroo day started with Jake Odorizzi’s tragic injury, 5 pitches into the game. It ended with the league’s record for losses in a single day. The Balk’s boon was the ‘Roos bane.
What did the Kangaroos do to deserve this? Where was their Emanuel?
I think we can say with confidence that the ‘Roos did nothing to deserve this fate. As the Captain Kangaroo sits like Job in the ashes of Kangaroo Field, we can sit with him.
And when the time comes, we can point to signs of hope. Like this: Canberra is the only team in the league with an Emanuel already on the roster: Emmanuel no-middle-name-because-why-would-he-need-one Clase.
Emmanuel survived the disaster. So did Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman (both with 2 hits, including a homer). So did heroes like James Stephen Karinchak and Ryan Scott Thompson, who at least salvaged 2.3 scoreless innings to go with Odorizzi’s one out. Also, there is the example of the Cascades, whose Brett Anderson couldn’t escape his own disabling car wreck on Friday evening until he’d given up 3 runs in his 1/3 of an inning. The Bellies won the very next day.
Cottage: “W”, 4 – 5. (53 PA, .265, .302, .408; 3 ip, 0 er , 0.00 ERA). The Cheese have moved from tragedy to parody. I’ve been saying all month they have too much hitting and not enough pitching. So Saturday they played 14 hitters, 11 of whom got hits and 12 of whom reached base safely. They even managed to hit for a skinny cycle (1 hr, 1 3b, 2 2b) cumulatively, with almost two-games-worth of PA. But they walked only thrice, and dodged all the pitches, so it ended up being only a 4 run outburst.
On the pitching side, the Cheese got 3 scoreless and hitless innings from Robert Gsellman, who put a serious dent in the replacement innings that otherwise would have swamped Cottage.
In other words, their 3 lonely innings from one gritty lone Cheese did almost as much good for the team as did the 12 innings (36 outs) of middling offense from 14 amply-supported hitters.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 17 | 5 | .770 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 15 | 7 | .704 | 1.5 |
| Boston Red Sox | 13 | 9 | .591 | 3.9 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 11 | 10 | .524 | 5.4 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 9 | 11 | .450 | 6.9 |
| New York Yankees | 9 | 11 | .450 | 6.9 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 8 | 12 | .400 | 7.9 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 14 | 6 | .693 | — |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 10 | 10 | .500 | 3.9 |
| New York Mets | 8 | 8 | .500 | 3.9 |
| Atlanta Braves | 9 | 10 | .474 | 4.4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 9 | 11 | .469 | 4.5 |
| Miami Marlins | 9 | 11 | .450 | 4.9 |
| Washington Nationals | 8 | 10 | .444 | 4.9 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kansas City Royals | 12 | 7 | .632 | — |
| Bellingham Cascades | 11 | 8 | .563 | 1.3 |
| Chicago White Sox | 11 | 9 | .550 | 1.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 9 | 10 | .486 | 2.8 |
| Cleveland Indians | 8 | 11 | .421 | 4 |
| Minnesota Twins | 7 | 12 | .368 | 5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 7 | 14 | .333 | 6 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 12 | 8 | .600 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 10 | 10 | .500 | 2 |
| Chicago Cubs | 10 | 10 | .500 | 2 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 10 | 11 | .476 | 2.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 9 | 11 | .450 | 3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 9 | 11 | .426 | 3.5 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 14 | 7 | .681 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 14 | 7 | .667 | 0.3 |
| Seattle Mariners | 13 | 8 | .619 | 1.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 12 | 9 | .551 | 2.7 |
| Houston Astros | 10 | 10 | .500 | 3.8 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 9 | 10 | .474 | 4.3 |
| Texas Rangers | 9 | 12 | .429 | 5.3 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 15 | 6 | .714 | — |
| San Francisco Giants | 13 | 8 | .619 | 2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 12 | 9 | .592 | 2.6 |
| San Diego Padres | 12 | 11 | .522 | 4 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 10 | 11 | .483 | 4.9 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 9 | 11 | .450 | 5.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 7 | 13 | .350 | 7.5 |