The best month in recent Wolverine history comes to an end, with four teams hounding us, baying right at our heels, nipping at us, terrifying us.
The league flirted with everyone being above average. We missed, but still had probably the best league monthly record ever: 168 – 118, for a .582 winning percentage. Over 162 games we would go 94 – 68, invoking the competitive balance expansion draft rule — which I hear on good authority the Commissioner would love to do just once, despite all his pontificating about keeping the EFL in competitive balance with the MLB.
So — it was a great opening month! A job well done by all. I can’t imagine any dissent… at least, not coming from within earshot.
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 20 | 7 | .726 | — | 162.7 | 100.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 19 | 8 | .698 | 0.7 | 111.8 | 73.5 |
| D.C. Balk | 18 | 8 | .697 | 1 | 133.0 | 87.8 |
| Peshastin Pears | 18 | 8 | .685 | 1.3 | 117.9 | 80.0 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 18 | 9 | .667 | 1.6 | 105.1 | 74.2 |
| Kaline Drive | 15 | 12 | .572 | 4.2 | 126.4 | 109.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 13 | 11 | .532 | 5.3 | 98.1 | 92.0 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 13 | 13 | .502 | 6 | 131.0 | 130.5 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 12 | 14 | .472 | 6.8 | 137.2 | 145.1 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 11 | 13 | .444 | 7.4 | 102.7 | 114.9 |
| Cottage Cheese | 11 | 15 | .411 | 8.4 | 148.8 | 178.3 |
Old Detroit: W, 6 – 2. (49 PA, .289, .347, .422; 5 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA.) Marcus Stroman broke the Oldies’ string of terrible starting pitching, even though he could only endure for 5 innings. He allowed two runs, but cleverly timed them after a Pete Alonso error (thank you, D.C.!) so they were unearned. With Nathan Pearson off the IL and getting in shape in the minors, and Ke’Bryan Hayes coming back some day, maybe the Wolverines won’t get chewed up in May by the ravenous pack at their heels.
Haviland: W, 6 – 4. (33 PA, .300, .364, .367; 10 ip, 4 er, 3.60 ERA). The Dragons nearly matched the W’s day, but not timing their runs allowed to come after Balk errors hurt them. They won, and passed D.C., but slipped 0.2 games further from first place. Of their nine hitters, only Jose Iglesias failed to reach safely at least once in the game. Of the 9 hits, only 2 were for extra bases (doubles). Pablo Lopez was brilliant over 7 scoreless innings. Tarik Skubal was generous, giving up a homer per inning on the way way to 4 earned runs in 3 innings.
DC: L, 3 – 7. (38 PA, .219, .316, .375; 1 ip, 0 er , 0.00 ERA). The Balk started the last day of the month only 0.2 games from first, which I am sure was a heady experience for a team that has patiently and steadily improved — and almost left the league at one point. How sad that would have been! But, as of Friday morning, the once-nearly-embalmed-Balk were just a small step from ending the month in first place!
Alas. Only 1 inning of live pitching cost DC 6 innings of replacement pitching, almost doubling the load they had been carrying. The relatively weak showing at the plate — Xander Bogaerts’ homer and Asdrubal Cabrera’s single, double, and two stolen bases being the only highlights — wasn’t enough to secure the win the Balk needed to bring down the W’s.
Peshastin: W 2, L (-1); 12-2. (36 PA, .394, .444, .788; 8 ip, 2 er, 2.26 ERA). The Pears had the big day the Balk needed. It wasn’t enough to launch the Pears into first when they started the day 1.9 games out, but it was plenty to make the top-five race a lot closer. The Pears passed the Tornados and gained a half-game on the Wolverines, despite the W’s win.
Eight of the nine Pear hitters got hits. Four of them hit homers — Albies, Haniger, and the two Murphy catchers (Sean and Tom). Yimi Garcia had a rough time, facing two batters, both of whom scored when one of them homered. But Genesis Cabrera covered for Yimi with two scoreless innings in relief of Freddy Peralta’s 6 ip, 1 er.
Flint Hill: W, 6 – 2. (30 PA, .250, .300, .607; 6.3 ip, 1 er , 1.43 ERA). The Tornados can be forgiven if the sight of the Pears racing past them surprised and dismayed them. They had a powerful day at the plate, too, with 3 of their seven hitters homering, too (Clint Frazier, Teoscar Hernandez, and Bo Bichette). Yu Darvish shut down the opposition for 6.3 innings. The Tornado’s were no doubt counting on catching up some ground in the race.
They DID catch up some ground: 0.2 games’ worth. I go to the trouble of pointing this out because was I worried the Flinties might have missed this achievement, with their heads swirling at the impact of being passed so emphatically by fruit.
Kaline: W, 6 – 0. (48 PA, .256, .333, .488; 15 ip, 6 earned runs, 3.60 ERA). The Drive were burdened with almost replacement innings going into the month’s final day. But they found a way to send 5 pitchers out there, covering a whopping 15 innings, 8 of them erasing replacement innings. Tack on two Aaron Judge home runs, and one by Mitch Moreland, and you have a perfect day of baseball.
The Drive didn’t close the gap between them and the top tier of teams, but they did bring themselves 0.3 games closer to first place.
Bellingham: W, 5 – 4. (32 PA, .300, .344, .333; no pitching). The Cascades are one of those wise and fortunate teams that had all the pitching they needed in April, so not having any on the last day of the month didn’t hurt them. The Bellingham bane is replacement hitting, which Bellingham got more of than anyone else (82 PA of replacement; the Flinties were in second with 78). Bellingham survived the flood of poor hitting by hitting well when they were sending their major league players to the plate.
For example, Ronald Acuna and Rhys Hoskins both ended the month with 8 homers, in a 5-way tie for the EFL league lead.
| HOME RUNS | |||
| Name | Team | AB | HR |
| Byron Buxton | OD | 68 | 8 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | BC | 88 | 8 |
| Shohei Ohtani | CC | 92 | 8 |
| Ryan McMahon | DC | 99 | 8 |
| Rhys Hoskins | BC | 104 | 8 |
Portland: L, 4 – 8. (45 PA, .256, .289, .442; 7.7 ip 6 er, 7.01 ERA). Tyler O’Neill blasted a homer and added two singles and a stolen base, but even that was insufficiently brilliant to carry the Rosebuds to a win on the day. Not when Sean Newcomb stepped off the IL to triple chulk: 0.7 ip, 2 er. Nevertheless, the Rosebuds finished the month as one of only two teams who incurred no replacement appearances, neither in pitching nor in hitting.
The Rosebuds have everything. Plus they have Nick Solak, who I thought was supposed to be an Ichiro-like singles hitter. Solak is tucked in right behind the league leaders in home runs with 7.
Since they have no needs, I’m assuming the Portlies will be making no bids on Monday evening.
Canberra: “L”, 8 – 6. (40 PA, .323, .450, .548; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) . The Kangaroo offense put on a show to end the month on a high note. Alex Bregman and Jackie Bradley, Jr homered, the team coaxed 5 walks (three each by Kyle Tucker and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.). Clase and Karinchak continued their dominance as relievers — but they were relieving for replacement pitchers. So all that offense only managed to turn a real loss into a paper loss — still an upward move for the last day of the month.
The Kangaroos were bit hard by injuries in April, especially to their pitchers, leaving them with six games’ worth (42.7 ip) of replacement pitching. If the Mets had somehow managed to stay in first place, all but one game of that dead weight would have been cast aside, along with the 19 plate appearances replacements made.
Pittsburgh: L, 3 – 3. ( 35 PA, .086, .111, .114; 12.7 ip, 5 er, 3.54 ERA). If it weren’t for the top healthy 2020 Rookie Draft pick Luis Robert, the Alleghenys would have gone 1 for 29 Friday with no extra base hits. A single single by Dominic Smith and a Max Muncy walk would have been all that stood between them and being the victims of a perfect game. Roberts’ single and double in 4 AB was more than half of the entire team’s offense.
There was enough spare offense slopping around the Allegheny stat sheet, and enough good pitching, to eke out essentially a tie to end the month. The Alleghenys join the Rosebuds as the only two teams to avoid all replacement players.
Cottage: L, 3 – 10. (40 PA, .150, .292, .425; 3.3 ip, 4 er 10.91, ERA). I don’t know what to say to console the Cheese. Andrew Heaney didn’t really help them Friday with his poor 3.3 innings of pitching. While the Cheese avoided any replacement plate appearances, they amassed 71.8 innings of replacement pitching, more than 10 games’ worth in a 26-game schedule. That they managed to win 11 of those 26 games is impressive. As is Shohei Ohtani, co-league leader in home runs, and tied with Sonny Gray for the league lead in strikeouts per nine innings among starting pitchers.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 20 | 7 | .726 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 18 | 9 | .667 | 1.6 |
| Boston Red Sox | 17 | 10 | .630 | 2.6 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 12 | 12 | .500 | 6.1 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 13 | 14 | .481 | 6.6 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 12 | 14 | .462 | 7.1 |
| New York Yankees | 12 | 14 | .462 | 7.1 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 18 | 8 | .697 | — |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 13 | 13 | .500 | 5.1 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 12 | 14 | .472 | 5.8 |
| Atlanta Braves | 12 | 14 | .462 | 6.1 |
| Washington Nationals | 10 | 12 | .455 | 6.1 |
| New York Mets | 9 | 11 | .450 | 6.1 |
| Miami Marlins | 11 | 14 | .440 | 6.6 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kansas City Royals | 15 | 9 | .625 | — |
| Chicago White Sox | 14 | 11 | .560 | 1.5 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 13 | 11 | .532 | 2.2 |
| Cleveland Indians | 12 | 12 | .500 | 3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 11 | 13 | .444 | 4.3 |
| Minnesota Twins | 9 | 15 | .375 | 6 |
| Detroit Tigers | 8 | 19 | .296 | 8.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 16 | 10 | .615 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 14 | 12 | .538 | 2 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 12 | 13 | .480 | 3.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 12 | 13 | .480 | 3.5 |
| Chicago Cubs | 11 | 15 | .423 | 5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 11 | 15 | .411 | 5.3 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 19 | 8 | .698 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 16 | 11 | .593 | 2.9 |
| Kaline Drive | 15 | 12 | .572 | 3.4 |
| Seattle Mariners | 15 | 12 | .556 | 3.9 |
| Houston Astros | 14 | 12 | .538 | 4.4 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 12 | 12 | .500 | 5.4 |
| Texas Rangers | 11 | 16 | .407 | 7.9 |
I wrote, edited, and posted this on Saturday afternoon. But when I looked for it today, it wasn’t there. I may have forgotten to categorize it as a a league update.
I apologize for this. The standings were available, but all the insightful commentary leading inevitably to the conclusion you should pay the Wolverines at least $5,000,000 for the rights to Joey Wentz went unpublished. Now it’s getting late! No time to read through the fine print. Jump on it before someone beats you to Joey Wentz.