League Updates Uncategorized

Demoralizing moralizing

I am prone to moralizing.  I tend to load trivial things with moral implications, like when my sons bring dishes out of their rooms after several days, covered with dried condiments and food scraps, and leave them in the sink for me to scrape,  I mutter to myself about moral decay and the fall of civilizations. 

Today I am going to do penance for all my moralizing by engaging in some demoralizing.  Except I am not the demoralizing agent today.  I am just going to report what the universe did to us. 

 

EFL Standings for 2021
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Old Detroit Wolverines 45 20 .698 373.9 245.0
Peshastin Pears 43 20 .681 1.5 304.4 208.7
Haviland Dragons 43 23 .659 2.4 314.5 227.6
Kaline Drive 43 23 .653 2.8 347.9 253.2
D.C. Balk 38 18 .671 3.3 298.4 209.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes 41 24 .632 4.3 303.4 234.5
Canberra Kangaroos 33 23 .587 8 303.2 256.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 33 31 .522 11.5 312.3 298.5
Cottage Cheese 33 31 .518 11.7 343.9 343.0
Portland Rosebuds 29 34 .456 15.6 315.6 348.1
Bellingham Cascades 28 36 .444 16.5 248.4 279.2
 
 
Old Detroit: L, 2 – 7.   (34 PA, .250, .294, .469;  7 ip, 5 er, 6.52 ERA)  The W’s took an honest, beatdown loss yesterday.  Jameson Taillon set the tone with maybe the worst Royal Chulk of the season: 0.3 ip, 4 earned runs, a duodectuple chulk.  
 
The Woeverines aren’t as woeful as in other years: Marcus Stroman and Craig Kimbrel finished the rest of Old Detroit’s seven innings with only 1 additional run allowed.   But then the universe demonstrated she has more than one demoralizing pitch, this one especially cruel:  Nate Lowe had by far the best Woeverine day at the plate, going 3 for 5 with a homer and a double… while playing for the AAA Toledo Mudweasels.  
 
Taillon’s collapse happened very early in the day — it was already on record when I first checked the day’s games. It set the tone, but the day was full of aftertones.  One was my recognition of a pattern in Wolverine fortunes. The Oldies roared into the lead in April, then swooned for the first half of May, falling all the way into 5th place.  Then came another burst to the lead, and now for the last few days they are swooning again.  It’s like a multi-stage rocket whose designers thought it would be a good idea to let the rocket fall almost all the way back to earth before the next stage’s engines ignite.  Which I guess is fine as long as this is a six-stage rocket.  But at this point there’s no guarantee there is even a third stage. 
 
 
Peshastin:  “W”, 2 – 2.  (44 PA, .139, .295, .222;   3 ip, 1 er, 3.00 ERA).  The database awarded the Pears a win, but in reality they lost 2 – 2.3 .  Still, on balance, it shouldn’t feel too bad to gain a half game on first place and and get credit for a shaky win. 
 
On the other hand, missing a chance to gain even more ground is frustrating.  And that harmless run Kendall Graveman surrendered in the 8th inning of yesterday’s Seattle/Cleveland game was an ominous portent.  
 
 
 
Haviland: L, 4 – 5.  (53 PA, .229, .302, .417;  6.7 ip, 2 er, 2.59 ERA.)  Those stats look like a win to me — not a resounding one, but maybe something like 4 – 3.  But of those 6.7 innings, 3 of the scoreless ones were twirled by UTRIP Chad Green and his sidekick Jose Alvarado.   Green is 100% benched — apparently his indispensability was not apparent to the Dragons — and Alvarez is 60% benched.  If John feels about Green and Alvarado the way I do about Nate Lowe, he is dismayed.  Plus, there’s always the discouragement of missing a chance to make up more than 0.4 games on first place. 
 
 
 
Kaline:  L, 2 – 8. (65 PA, .214, .308, .268;  7 ip, 6 er, 7.71 ERA). Any day when your actual pitchers pitch worse than your replacements is a demoralizing day.  But when the main culprit is Rafael Montero (he’s our featured image atop this post), who had the Mariners one strike away from a 4 – 1 win, and later one-strike away from a 4 – 2 win, and then farted it all away both times… that’s demoralizing.   
 
It is no comfort to know the Drive didn’t lose any ground to the W’s, despite having what appears to be a slightly worse score.  No comfort because it was right there, ready to be seized: a gain of potentially an entire game in the standings.  How do I know?
 
 
 
DC:  W 2, L (-1): 11 – 4.  (21 PA, .474, .524, .737;   19 ip, 8 er,  3.79 ERA). … I know because the Balk did just that, and a little bit more!  Just when I was beginning to think the Wolverines had escaped their rocket engine failure without losing too much in the standings, along come the Balk, with an amazing (if thin) batting line and a robust (and very good) day on the mound.  Bryce Harper and Matt Chapman led that offensive outburst, each going 3 for 5 with a double (and Chapman tossing in a home run).   
 
Sure, maybe Balk fans aren’t demoralized by gaining 1.1 games in the standings in one day.  But how about the rest of the league?  If your team is stumbling and tossing away major opportunities in the standings, but there is this ONE team that knows all the answers and shows everyone up… Think about it: which is better, having a bad day with everyone else, or having a bad day with everyone else but those Dissies?  
 
 
 
Flint Hill:  “L”, 7 – 7.   (54 PA, .255, .333, .426; 12 ip, 8 er, 6.00 ERA).  So frustrating!  The Wolverines basically invite the entire league to come a whole lot closer, and your hitters respond with a pretty good day (including the dynamic shortstop due of Bichette and Anderson going a combined 5 for 10 with a double and a homer) — and then your pitchers blow it!  German Marquez coughs up 8 earned runs in 5 ip! 
 
Chin up, Flinties.  You actually won your game 7.5 – 7.4, only the second team so far outscore its foes.  And you gained  0.4 games on Old Detroit,  although you did lose 0.7 games to DC. 
 
 
 
Canberra:  L, 2 – 7.  (40 PA, .147, .256, .353;  12.3 ip, 8 er, 5.85 ERA).  Your team features this season’s best hitter — Vladdy Jr — who walks twice and homers.   Your relief pitcher (James Karinchak) shows the other team’s closer (Rafael Montero) how to get through an inning unscathed without breaking a sweat, completing his MLB team’s staggering comeback win.  These are feats unmatched in the EFL, especially by the team that somehow faked its way into first place (for the moment).  And yet all you can do is match the W’s awful score because:  
 
    a) Rich Hill and Caleb Smith combine to surrender 8 runs in 9 innings,      and
    b) The non-Vladdy segment of your lineup only goes .125, .200, .250. 
 
I mean, those are nice round decimals and all (4 for 32, 7 for 35, 8 for 32), neat and tidy, but that’s not what wins games.  And also, Karinchak did that to the Mariners, for whom you find yourself saying, from time to time (and I quote): “Why do I root for this stupid team?” Is there a more poignant expression of demoralization than that? 
 
I hope the Captain Kangaroo can take solace in this small shoot of hope:  despite apparently having the same final score, the Kangaroos apparently gained 0.1 games on the Wolverines. That only needs to happen 79 more times, and the ‘Roos have 97 left to play!  Plenty of time.
 
 
 
Pittsburgh:  L, 0 – 5. (25 PA, .125, .160, .125;  3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Speaking of nice, round decimals: the Alleghenys went 3 for 24, got one HBP to make their OBP .160, and carefully avoided extra bases to produce another tidy (and losing) slash line.  I suppose debutant Trevor Larnach was the star of the game for the A’s, since he collected one of the singles AND the HBP.   On the pitching side I guess Anthony Bender’s 1.7 scoreless innings were slightly better than Nick Sandlin’s 1.3.  
 
Thus the Alleghenys also succumbed to Saturday’s EFL pandemic of losing. But there are some bright sides for the Pitties:  first, they kept up with the Wolverines, and second (and maybe better) they passed the Cotties! 
 
 
 
Cottage:  L, 2 – 10. (30 PA, .214, .267, .321;  8.7 ip, 6 er, 6.21 ERA)  Whoo boy, there was a lot of crummy pitching in the EFL yesterday.   I wonder if this has anything to do with our boys trying to return to pitching without so much sticky stuff on their hands.  Steven Matz had no trouble with that:  5.7 ip, 1 er — but he was pitching for the AAA Corvallis Curds.  The EFL-active pitcher, Alex Cobb,  struggled for whatever reason: 3 ip, 5 er.  
 
Trea Turner defended his status as an elite shortstop with 2 doubles in 7 plate appearances, although his caught stealing won’t help).  Marcus Semien kept pace with a homer in 5 PA.  Shohei Ohtani singled in his only plate appearance, and Alex Bohm went 2 for 5.  But everyone else went 0 for 15, sinking the Cottage to the worst loss of the day for the entire EFL, and a 0.2 – game slide further from the league leader. ‘
 
 
 
Portland:   “W”, 5 – 7.   (29 PA, .250, .276, .464;  1.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA)   Daniel Norris’ 1.3 scoreless innings weren’t enough to stave off surrendering 7  runs (actually only 6.6).  Lackluster Rosebud hitting would have been dingier had it not been for aspiring super-shortstop Jorge Polanco’s 3 for 5 with a homer. (Gary Sanchez pitched in with a 2-for-5-with-a-homer output.)  Thus the Rosebuds gained 0.4 games on the Wolverines, which would be enough to brighten anyone’s day, except that…
 
 
                                                                                                                                          Bellingham: “L”, 4 – 3 (35 PA, .241, .371, .414;  7 ip, 2 er, 2.41 era) … the Cascades gained 0.5 games on first place, and thus 0.1 on the Portlies.   It was a pretty good day by the Salish Sea, what with outscoring their foes and gaining on almost everyone ahead of them. Kevin Gausman’s start was so-so (4 ip, 2 er), but the C’s three relievers all pitched shutout innings.  DJ LeMahieu led the Belly offense with a homer and a double in 5 plate appearances, while Rhys Hoskins walked 3 times, also in  5 PA.  
 
 
 
 
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Old Detroit Wolverines 45 20 .698
Flint Hill Tornadoes 41 24 .632 4.3
Tampa Bay Rays 41 24 .631 4.4
Boston Red Sox 39 26 .600 6.4
Toronto Blue Jays 32 30 .516 11.9
New York Yankees 33 31 .516 11.9
Baltimore Orioles 22 41 .349 22.4
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
D.C. Balk 38 18 .671
Canberra Kangaroos 33 23 .587 4.7
New York Mets 32 24 .571 5.6
Philadelphia Phillies 31 31 .500 9.6
Atlanta Braves 29 33 .468 11.6
Miami Marlins 29 35 .453 12.6
Washington Nationals 25 35 .417 14.6
 
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago White Sox 40 24 .625
Cleveland Indians 34 27 .557 4.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 33 31 .522 6.6
Kansas City Royals 30 33 .476 9.5
Bellingham Cascades 28 36 .444 11.6
Detroit Tigers 26 38 .406 14
Minnesota Twins 26 38 .406 14
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Milwaukee Brewers 37 27 .578
Chicago Cubs 37 27 .578
Cottage Cheese 33 31 .518 3.9
St. Louis Cardinals 32 32 .500 5
Cincinnati Reds 31 31 .500 5
Pittsburgh Pirates 23 40 .365 13.5
 
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Haviland Dragons 43 23 .659
Kaline Drive 43 23 .653 0.4
Oakland A’s 39 27 .591 4.5
Houston Astros 36 28 .563 6.5
Los Angeles Angels 32 32 .500 10.5
Seattle Mariners 31 35 .470 12.5
Texas Rangers 25 40 .385 18
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Peshastin Pears 43 20 .681
San Francisco Giants 40 23 .635 2.9
Los Angeles Dodgers 38 26 .594 5.4
San Diego Padres 37 29 .561 7.4
Portland Rosebuds 29 34 .456 14.2
Colorado Rockies 25 40 .385 18.9
Arizona Diamondbacks 20 45 .308 23.9