League Updates

It was a quiet day

Hardly anything happened yesterday, perhaps less than any other day in which games were played in MLB. In fact, in Canberra, it couldn’t have been less eventful.

Also, I am attending the Friends Association of Higher Education conference this week, all by Zoom.  The conference began the day today with worship at the convenient hour of 6 AM — a little east coast systemic bias against people in the Pacific time zone.  At the moment I am listening to a presentation on Quaker work during WWII, considering the tensions between those (including Howard Kershner and the American Friends Service Committee leadership) who wanted to emphasize humanitarian feeding projects (requiring some communication with Vichy French officials) and those who were willing to risk that work to help Jewish children and intellectuals escape the death camps.   (It turned out to be a pretty good session, although the discussion never really took off.  Perhaps I should have been paying more attention.)

 

EFL Standings for 2021
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 43 18 .711 359.0 228.9
Peshastin Pears 41 18 .692 1.5 289.4 191.4
Kaline Drive 40 21 .659 3.1 321.3 229.4
Haviland Dragons 39 22 .646 4 275.7 206.1
Flint Hill Tornadoes 39 22 .635 4.6 292.2 216.6
D.C. Balk 34 18 .646 5.2 261.6 193.1
Canberra Kangaroos 31 21 .592 8 284.3 238.4
Cottage Cheese 31 28 .527 11.3 317.1 310.9
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 29 30 .499 12.9 294.2 293.3
Portland Rosebuds 29 30 .484 13.8 296.4 305.8
Bellingham Cascades 27 32 .460 15.2 232.0 253.7
 
Old Detroit:  DNP,  0 – 0.   (9 PA, .167, .444, .167; no pitching). Rafael Devers and Jurickson Profar showed up yesterday. Devers got a hit, while Profar walked twice.  This minimal OBP-based approach cost the W’s 0.3 runs.  It’s hard to say this opened a door to pursuers.  It was more like a tiny crack. 
 
 
Peshastin:  DNP, 0 – 0.  (8 PA, .250, .400, .250;  1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Pear hitting didn’t move the needle perceptibly on Peshastin’s runs scored total.  But Curtis’ clean inning shaved half a run off the Pesties’ runs allowed.  The Pears pressed themselves into the crack the Oldies left open, and gained 0.1 games on Old Detroit. 
 
 
Kaline: DNP, (-5) – (-2). (12 PA, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00;  2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  The Drive batted for 4 innings, with Hunter Renfroe, Willson Contreras, and Bobby Dalbec going out in order each time. This charade was enough to cost Kaline 5 runs scored on the season.   Three Driven pitchers combined for those 2 shutout innings, paring 0.2 runs from Kaline’s runs allowed, before everyone gave up on the project, limiting Kaline’s loss in the standings to 0.1 games.  
 
 
Haviland:  DNP, 0 – 0.  (10 PA, .333, .400, .333;  no pitching)  Ten solid at-bats, producing 3 singles and a double (and a Joc Pederson GDP), added 0.2 runs to the Dragons’ season collection.  This didn’t move the needle perceptibly in the standings, but it no doubt left Haviland a few hundredths of a game closer to first place.      
 
 
Flint Hill:  DNP, (-1) – 0.  (8 PA, .286, .375, .286; 1.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA)  Anthony Rendon and Enrique Hernandez singled (and Hernandez also walked) in four trips to the plate each. Hirokazu Sawamura’s produced a clean 1.3 ip,  but is only 33% active, so the Tornados’ efforts didn’t produce a visible improvement in the standings. 
 
 
DC:  DNP,  1 – 0.  (9 PA, .375, .444, .375;  1.3 ip, 1 er, 6.92 ERA).  Xander Bogaerts and Jorge Alfaro each reached base safely twice, enough to add 0.8 runs to the season total.  Chris Rodriguez stumbled a little on the mound adding 0.4 runs to the total allowed.  The combination sliced 0.1 games from the Balks’ distance from first place. 
 
 
Canberra:  DNP,  0 – 0 precisely.   (0 PA, 0 ip, 0 anything)  I don’t recall ever posting an EFL update before in which a team did absolutely nothing, but here it is: no Kangaroo batters or pitchers appeared Monday.  This was a super-efficient approach, and producing a 0.1 game gain in the standings. 
 
 
Cottage:  DNP,  2 – 1.  (8 PA, .400, .625, .600;  5 ip, 3 er, 5.40 ERA).  Ryan Weathers was one of only two EFL pitchers to produce 5 innings. Had they been better innings, the Cheese could have gained a bunch in the standings yesterday, because  Shohei Ohtani (3 walks in 4 PA) and Alex Verdugo (2 for 4 with a double) hit well enough to add 2 runs to the season total.  As it was, the Cheese gained 0.1 games on the Wolverines.
 
 
Pittsburgh:  DNP, 2 – (-1). (8 PA, .333, .500, .833;  1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).    Jorge Soler homered, and Kevin Plawecki singled and walked, giving the Allegheny’s a solid 2-run boost in season runs scored.  Meanwhile, the intriguingly-named Anthony Bender spun a clean inning.  This produced the biggest gain of the day in the standings (0.3 games) and brought the A’s to the brink of .500 again. 
 
 
Portland:  DNP, (-2) – (-1).   (4 PA, .000, .000, .000;  8.7 ip, 6 er, 6.21 ERA)  The  Rosebuds’ truncated day wasn’t truncated enough to avoid losing ground Monday.  Andrew Benintendi went 0 for 4, and Dylan Bundy’s good 5.7 ip, 2 er outing was ruined by Adbert Alzolay’s 3 ip, 4 er struggle.  The Rosebuds ended up 0.1 games further back.  
 
 
Bellingham:  DNP, 0 – 0. (6 PA, .200, .333, .400;  no pitching) Here’s another case of remarkable efficiency, almost as quiet in Bellingham as in Canberra:  the Cascades gained 0.1 games with this minimal effort, mostly Chris Dickerson going 1 for 5 with a double. Perhaps it was Ha-Seong Kim’s walk in his only plate appearance that made the difference. 
 
 
 
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Old Detroit Wolverines 43 18 .711
Flint Hill Tornadoes 39 22 .635 4.6
Tampa Bay Rays 38 23 .623 5.3
Boston Red Sox 37 23 .617 5.8
Toronto Blue Jays 30 27 .526 11.3
New York Yankees 31 29 .517 11.8
Baltimore Orioles 21 38 .356 21.3
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
D.C. Balk 34 18 .646
Canberra Kangaroos 31 21 .592 2.8
New York Mets 29 23 .558 4.6
Atlanta Braves 28 29 .491 8.1
Philadelphia Phillies 28 30 .483 8.6
Washington Nationals 24 32 .429 11.6
Miami Marlins 25 34 .424 12.1
 
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago White Sox 36 23 .610
Cleveland Indians 31 26 .544 4
Kansas City Royals 29 29 .500 6.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 29 30 .499 6.6
Bellingham Cascades 27 32 .460 8.9
Detroit Tigers 24 35 .407 12
Minnesota Twins 24 35 .407 12
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Milwaukee Brewers 33 26 .559
Chicago Cubs 33 27 .550 0.5
Cottage Cheese 31 28 .527 1.9
St. Louis Cardinals 31 30 .508 3
Cincinnati Reds 28 29 .491 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 23 35 .397 9.5
 
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Kaline Drive 40 21 .659
Haviland Dragons 39 22 .646 0.8
Oakland A’s 35 26 .574 5.2
Houston Astros 33 26 .559 6.2
Seattle Mariners 30 31 .492 10.2
Los Angeles Angels 28 32 .467 11.7
Texas Rangers 23 38 .377 17.2
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Peshastin Pears 41 18 .692
San Francisco Giants 37 22 .627 3.8
San Diego Padres 37 25 .597 5.3
Los Angeles Dodgers 34 25 .576 6.8
Portland Rosebuds 29 30 .484 12.3
Colorado Rockies 24 36 .400 17.3
Arizona Diamondbacks 20 41 .328 21.8