I was as puzzled as anyone when the Dodgers signed Albert Pujols. Here’s the best team in baseball, with stars on the bench because they can’t all get into the lineup at once, signing a guy who couldn’t find playing time on a team in last place. Why?
Pujols told the press yesterday he thinks he still has “a lot of gasoline in the tank.” Do the Dodgers believe him? Is moving across town to the real LA team going to break him out of a brief slump? Or is he mistaking a different kind of gas for gasoline?
Here are Pujols’ OPSes over his LA Angels career: .859, .767, .790, .787, .780, .672, .700, .734, .665, .617, .622
I mean, it’s only 10.25 seasons pretty steadily in one direction. He could bounce back any time. Like last night! He went 1 for 4 against the Diamondbacks, and drove in a key run in the Dodgers’ 1-run win.
Which makes his OPS for his Dodgers career currently… .500.
There has to be something else going on. Perhaps it has something to do with today’s secret password. Let me know if you find it.
EFL Standings for 2021
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
RS |
RA |
Peshastin Pears |
30 |
11 |
.726 |
— |
191.5 |
117.1 |
Flint Hill Tornadoes |
29 |
13 |
.682 |
1.6 |
189.2 |
128.1 |
Haviland Dragons |
28 |
14 |
.667 |
2.3 |
196.5 |
141.3 |
Old Detroit Wolverines |
28 |
14 |
.665 |
2.3 |
233.6 |
163.3 |
D.C. Balk |
24 |
11 |
.692 |
2.5 |
186.0 |
124.3 |
Kaline Drive |
27 |
15 |
.648 |
3.1 |
203.2 |
149.5 |
Canberra Kangaroos |
19 |
16 |
.530 |
8.2 |
192.2 |
181.2 |
Cottage Cheese |
21 |
20 |
.524 |
8.3 |
235.1 |
231.9 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
21 |
19 |
.516 |
8.6 |
201.7 |
191.9 |
Portland Rosebuds |
20 |
21 |
.495 |
9.5 |
210.0 |
212.2 |
Bellingham Cascades |
17 |
23 |
.419 |
12.5 |
159.4 |
198.3 |
Peshastin: W, 6 – 2. (26 PA, .304,. .385, .652; no pitching.) The Pears certainly have something going on. They are NOT intimidated by hyper-violent illustrations depicting a pear being blown to bits by a metal arrow. They have now gone 8 days without recording a loss, since they were 23 – 11 on the morning of May 10, in third place, 0.6 games behind the Tornados and essentially tied with the Wolverines.
But none of it seems to be connected to Pujols. The Pears won again yesterday with great hitting. Willie Calhoun went 2 for 4 with a homer and a double. Yoan Moncada went 2 for 4 with a double and two walks. Which had the better day? Calhoun’s line: .500, .500, 1.500, 2.000. Moncada’s line: .500, .667, .750, 1.317.
Flint Hill: W 1, L (-1); 4 – (-4). (20 PA, .333, .400, .667; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) The Tornados also had a great day. Yu Darvish put together the day’s best pitching performance in MLB (according to Baseball Reference). Those 10 strikeouts in those 7 scoreless innings do add some luster, especially with no walks. Anthony Rendon went 3 for 4, while Tyler Naquin went 2 for 4 with a homer, to lead the outstanding Tornado offense, leaping over the Dragons and sneaking 0.4 games closer to the Pears.
Haviland: DNP, 1 – 0. (23 PA, .227, .261, .227; no pitching). The Dragons took the day off, a little too literally, with no pithing and very spotty hitting. Jake Cronenworth went 2 for 3 with a HBP to account for half of the Dragon baserunners. Haviland lost a half game’s ground to the Pears with this lax performance.
Old Detroit: W 1, L (-1); 5 – (-4). (28 PA, .400, .464, .760; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). I want you to consider these OPSes:
Pujols’ OPSes 2001 – 2011: 1.013, .955, .1.106, 1.072, 1.039, 1.102, .997, 1.114, 1.101, 1.011, .906.
Trout’s OPSes 2001 – 2011: 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, .672.
Trout claimed the other day that Pujols had been his mentor for his “entire career.” But that was clearly NOT true. In 2011, when Trout debuted, Pujols was still playing in St. Louis. The Angels signed Pujols on December 8, 2011. Here is what happened after that:
Pujols for LAA, 2012 – 2021: .859, .767, .790, .787, .780, .672, .700, .734, .665, .617, .622
Trout for LAA, 2012 – 2021: .963, .988, .939, .991, .991, 1.071, 1.088, 1.083, .993, 1.090
As Trout increased, Pujols decreased. That’s more than mentoring. It’s kind of creepy, as if Trout was a vampire.
This is a lot of writing about a Kangaroo in a Wolverine update, but I can explain. Pujols debuted for the Dodgers. The Wolverines have three Dodgers: Walker Buehler, Will Smith, and Gavin Lux. They all played last night.
Buehler’s ERA going into last night’s game was something like 3.85. His ERA in last night’s game: 0.00 in 7 innings, the second best (barely) to Yu Darvish. Buehler’s season ERA is now 2.98. Pujols plays, and Buehler shaves almost 0.90 off his ERA in a single game.
Will Smith’s OPS going into last night’s game was .798. Pujols plays, and Smith goes 2 for 4 with a homer and a double for a daily OPS of 2.000. His OPS is now .834, a .036 increase.
Gavin Lux’s OPS going into last night’s game: .592. Pujols plays, and Lux goes 2 for 3 with a double and a walk for a daily OPS of 1.750. His OPS now is .627, a .031 increase.
The whole Wolverine team has its best day of the year, the day Pujols debuts in Dodger blue, gaining 0.6 games on the Pears despite Peshastin’s fine day. Jurickson Profar — another former top prospect, who was out with an injury — suddenly reappeared in the Wolverine lineup and went 2 for 4 — and he doesn’t even play in LA! (Although San Diego is only 100 miles away).
I get it now. The Dodgers watched what Pujols gave to Trout, and decided to get that for at least three of their own young formerly highly-rated prospects. And it paid off, starting on the first day Pujols was on the job. Pujols can OPS .500 every day, if his presence on the team results in players recording daily OPS nearly triple their season OPS, or shaving a run off their season ERA in a single day.
And the W’s can come along for the ride. I think I could be a Pujols fan if he keeps this up.
DC: L, 5 – 5. (17 PA, .133, .235, .133; 1.7 ip, 2 er, 10.59 ERA) Matt Wisler triple-chulked to ruin Garrett Crochet’s scoreless inning. The Balky offense only managed two singles and two walks on the day. The Balk got by on stored-up stats, using the Mets’ lead in the NL East to mask a poor day on the field. But with the Pears surging, a team treading water loses 0.4 games in the standings.
Kaline: DNP, 3 – (-1). (31 PA, .367, .387, .800; 6 ip, 1 er, 1.50 ERA). The Drive were also insulated from any Pujols effects yesterday, not having any Dodgers or Angels take the field. But they used their day off effectively, blistering 4 homers (Wilmer Flores, Willson Contreras, Jonathan Schoop, and Yermin Mercedes) and getting the day’s fourth best starting pitching performance from Max Fried, who accounted for all 6 of the Drive innings.
Canberra: W, 7 – 2. (14 PA, .333, .439, 1.000; 9.7 ip, 1 er, 0.93 ERA). Casey Mize pulled off the THIRD best start in MLB last night, completing 7.7 innings with only one earned run. That gives the EFL the #s 1, 2, 3, and 4 starts of the day yesterday. Yay EFL!
Caleb Smith added 2 more shutout innings to make it a great day in Canberra. (Alas, “great day” and “Canberra” don’t rhyme, not even in Australian — pronounced ” ‘Strine”). Mauricio Dubon — such a ‘Strine name — led the way offensively with a homer, a double, and a walk in 4 plate appearances. Thus the ‘Roos rose 0.1 games in the standings, and stayed ahead (barely) of the Cheese.
As for the Pujols Effect? Mike Trout went 0 for 1 (0.000000 OPS) and left the game with a right calf strain. Without Pujols’ “mentorship” is Trout anything special?
Cottage: DNP, 3 – (-5). (10 PA, .286, .500, 1.143; 4 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). It was a great off day at the Cottage. Khalil Lee debuted on the MLB stat line, but not on the field for the Cheese (preserving for now his 2099 contract status), but that’s ok because he went 0 for 1. The other two Cheesy hitters did nothing good except hit a combined 2 homers and take a combined 5 walks to create that extremely showy slash line. Meanwhile Taijuan Walker pitched only 3 scoreless innings, good enough to be the 7th best start of the day per Baseball Reference, before leaving after experiencing ominous “left side tightness.”
I should acknowledge some evidence that might call into question whether Albert Pujols can really be counted on to transfuse young potential stars with his baseball essence: the case of Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani struggled for two years with injuries, etc., not a great look for the Pujols gasoline-fueled emPowerment theory. And last night, with Pujols debuting for the Dodgers, Shohei hit his 13th homer on a shoulder-high 94-mph fastball. To lead the league. His ERA at the moment is 2.10 with 40 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.
This may be more about Shohei than it is about Pujols. Shohei is his own phenomenon.
One final Cheesy note: the Cheese are done in blue for two very good reasons:
1. Cheese isn’t green, either, and the Kangaroos do use green in their color scheme. So we needed a color that wasn’t already taken.
2. When the Cheese joined the league there was a period of experimentation. Cottage Cheese is white, invariably so (one hopes). But here is what white looks like on the page:
Yes, I typed an actual sentence here. Now you know the secret password: “super expensive gasoline.”
So white would not do. Dave solved the problem by coming up with this as his team’s logo:
Note the prominent use of Dodger blue. Dave is a Dodger fan. We — at least we older EFLers — are all familiar with the cottage cheese that comes in the Dodger blue tub. Since no one else was using Dodger blue, we adopted it for the Cheese.
I don’t know why Dave chose to accoutre his stats page with green and yellow. Yellow would be a nauseous color for cottage cheese, and no better than white for use in updates. Green was taken, and the Pears are first in line to take it over if Canberra ever changes its team colors to Kangaroo tan and ‘Strine sand.
Pittsburgh: W, 6 – 2. (22 PA, .278, .409, .389; 11 ip, 3 er, 2.45 ERA.) Logan Webb twirled 6 scoreless innings, allowing only 4 hits and a walk, to account for the 5th best start of the day according to BR. (If you’re keeping score, that gives the EFL starts # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Come on Jordan Lyles (#6)!) That made Sonny Gray’s 3 er in 5 innings more palatable. Also helping was that excellent OBP, driven by 4 walks and 6 hits. Andrew Vaughn and Garrett Hampson both hit a double and a single…except Vaughn took 6 plate appearances to do it while Hampson only required 3. Max Muncy, displaced from 1b to 2b to accommodate Pujols, went 0 for 3 (with a walk) — but Max doesn’t really qualify as a young ex-top prospect, so there was no reason to expect a positive Pujols effect.
The Alleghenys rode their fine day to a spot just a smidge behind the ‘Roos and Cheese in the standings, distinctly above .500.
Portland: L, 2 – 8. (16 PA, .063, .063, .063; 12 ip, 9 er, 6.75 ERA). The Rosebuds had arguably the worst day in the EFL. Are there any Pujolsian fingerprints on their suffering? Seemingly not — no Angels or Dodgers took the field for the Portlies. Jorge Polanco got the lone hit. None of the pitchers did very well, with Adbert Alzolay escaping with the least damage (3 er in 5 ip). Portland dropped two places in the standings, and fell a full game further behind the Pears.
Bellingham: L, 3- 9. (17 PA, .235, .235, .235; no pitching). The main competition to Portland for worst day in the league came from Bellingham. Not having any pitching clearly hurt, but so did an offense entirely composed of singles. At least the C’s got 4 singles instead of just 1, in the same number of AB as the Rosebuds had, to get enough runs to round off to a respectable “3” on this report.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
Flint Hill Tornadoes |
29 |
13 |
.682 |
— |
Old Detroit Wolverines |
28 |
14 |
.665 |
0.7 |
Boston Red Sox |
25 |
17 |
.595 |
3.6 |
Toronto Blue Jays |
22 |
17 |
.564 |
5.1 |
New York Yankees |
22 |
18 |
.550 |
5.6 |
Tampa Bay Rays |
23 |
19 |
.548 |
5.6 |
Baltimore Orioles |
17 |
23 |
.425 |
10.6 |
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
D.C. Balk |
24 |
11 |
.692 |
— |
New York Mets |
19 |
16 |
.543 |
5.2 |
Canberra Kangaroos |
19 |
16 |
.530 |
5.7 |
Philadelphia Phillies |
21 |
20 |
.512 |
6.2 |
Atlanta Braves |
19 |
22 |
.463 |
8.2 |
Miami Marlins |
18 |
22 |
.450 |
8.7 |
Washington Nationals |
16 |
21 |
.432 |
9.2 |
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
Chicago White Sox |
25 |
15 |
.625 |
— |
Cleveland Indians |
21 |
18 |
.538 |
3.5 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys |
21 |
19 |
.516 |
4.4 |
Kansas City Royals |
18 |
22 |
.450 |
7 |
Bellingham Cascades |
17 |
23 |
.419 |
8.2 |
Detroit Tigers |
15 |
26 |
.366 |
10.5 |
Minnesota Twins |
13 |
26 |
.333 |
11.5 |
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
St. Louis Cardinals |
23 |
18 |
.561 |
— |
Cottage Cheese |
21 |
20 |
.524 |
1.5 |
Milwaukee Brewers |
21 |
20 |
.512 |
2 |
Chicago Cubs |
20 |
20 |
.500 |
2.5 |
Cincinnati Reds |
19 |
20 |
.487 |
3 |
Pittsburgh Pirates |
17 |
23 |
.425 |
5.5 |
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
Haviland Dragons |
28 |
14 |
.667 |
— |
Kaline Drive |
27 |
15 |
.648 |
0.8 |
Oakland A’s |
25 |
17 |
.595 |
3 |
Houston Astros |
24 |
17 |
.585 |
3.5 |
Seattle Mariners |
21 |
21 |
.500 |
7 |
Los Angeles Angels |
18 |
22 |
.450 |
9 |
Texas Rangers |
19 |
24 |
.442 |
9.5 |
TEAM |
WINS |
LOSSES |
PCT. |
GB |
Peshastin Pears |
30 |
11 |
.726 |
— |
San Francisco Giants |
25 |
16 |
.610 |
4.8 |
San Diego Padres |
25 |
17 |
.595 |
5.3 |
Los Angeles Dodgers |
23 |
18 |
.561 |
6.8 |
Portland Rosebuds |
20 |
21 |
.495 |
9.5 |
Arizona Diamondbacks |
18 |
24 |
.429 |
12.3 |
Colorado Rockies |
15 |
27 |
.357 |
15.3 |
True, with super expensive gasoline he would be less inclined to drive far for his next team. However, if he still has a lot left, he could make it to at least a few other MLB ballparks, no? Depending on what he drives, Arizona, Oakland, SF, San Diego would all be options, presumably. But maybe he wants to save some in case the Dodgers also get tired of his .500 OPS…next stop, Oakland?
I figured I could count on you, Jamie, to read the entire post. There have been so many times when reading your post gives me the only thread of an idea I have for my next post. Not this time, but even here I draw a bit from yesterday’s post.
But will anyone not living in dread of having nothing to say tomorrow read as carefully as you did?