Alas, poor Edgar!

Edgar Martinez is my all-time favorite player.  It’s hard to see him fall so low.

EFL Standings for 2016

Haviland: W, 9 – 2.  (.306, .432, .722 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day (sigh);  5.7 ip, 0 er) Doggone it. How are we supposed to keep up with this?  I can handle Goldschmidt blasting 2 homers and collecting 3 walks in 7 plate appearances — after all, they played 13 innings in the desert yesterday. But Stephen Souza also belting 2 homers?  Unfair!

Canberra:  W, 9 – 5. (.394, .389, .788; 3.3 ip, 2 er).  An offense nearly the equal of the Dragons — sort of like if the Kangaroos grew scales and stubby wings.  Bryce Harper pulled off a 5.000 OPS the day after Addison Russell, although Harper did it the easy way: homering as a pinch hitter, then walking in his other plate appearance.

Old Detroit:  “L”, 8 – 7. (.342, .419, .605 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; 18.3 ip, 10 er –– hey, you doltish pitchers: you’re not supposed to be handing out Edgar Martinez Days to other teams.) Brandon Drury got seven plate appearances in Arizona, too, and got three hits (2 doubles) to try to firm up his position in a crowded middle-infield picture there.    Francisco Liriano started that game for the Pirates but left after 6 innings pitched, 4 earned runs scored.

Portland:  W, 8 – 3.  (.326, .375, .442; 15.7 ip, 5 er).  This is a fine day at the plate, but compared to the monster offense days by teams above them, the Rosebuds looked kind of puny. Starling Marte’s 4 for 6 with two doubles and a walk is pretty good — this came in that 13-inning marathon in Arizona that involved so many of our players.

Cottage:  “W”, 3 – 4.  (.200, .314, .233;  8.3 ip, 2 er)  On a day when the Cheese failed to offend at the plate, Drew Smyly carried the ball for the “win” by twirling 7 strong innings (1 er).  The Cheese crept above .500.

Flint Hill:  W, 10 – 6. (.333, .442, .667  – Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; 15.7 ip, 7 er)  What’s this!  Another 5.000 daily OPS?! This time by Joc Pederson. Wow. If your team isn’t celebrating Edgar Martine Day AND getting a 5.000 OPS from someone, you just are not that special.  If it weren’t so easy to use email, 5.000 OPSes wouldn’t even be anything to write home about.  Pederson did his 5.000 in exactly the same way Addison Russell did his on Saturday: 1 homer and 3 walks.  Except Pederson waited until his second plate appearance to hit the homer.  Rather than risk his 5.000 OPS, Pederson gave way to a pinch hitter in the 9th… but his replacement also walked, so I guess his honor is intact.

Pittsburgh:  L, 2 – 3. (.222, .282, .306;  13.7 ip, 7 er).  Nothing shiny about any of these numbers.  Aaron Blair made his MLB debut, pitching 5.3 innings and allowing 3 earned runs.  Pittsburgh picked up Blair in the Shelby Miller Trade II.  (In Miller Trade I Pittsburgh got Miller AND Altuve for essentially Jackie Bradley, Jr. — so Pittsburgh won that trade TWICE). The A’s can either activate Blair this year, and have him play for them for a total of 5 years as a rookie;  or they can keep him in the minors (on the bench) until next year and start his 5-year clock running in 2017.

Peshastin: L, 3 – 9. ( .275, .326, .550; 5 ip, 5 er). I made a joke the other day about Pears and low-hanging fruit.  I repent from that joke.  I didn’t think it would be so personal and pointed. The news isn’t all bad — four Pears OPSed over 1.000 Sunday, led by JT Realmuto’s 4 for 4 with a double and a homer.  Yes, it’s only a 3.000 OPS on a day where we saw two 5.000 OPSes.  But it’s still honorable.

Kaline:  L, 7 – 7.  (.308, .400, .692 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day!;  2 ip, 2 er).  Wow — the 9th place team celebrates an Edgar Martinez Day.  How demoralizing. First –how does it make all the teams above you, all the way to second place, feel if they didn’t get an Edgar Martinez Day?  Second: when everyone (except the Kangaroos and maybe a couple others) can celebrate Edgar Martinez Day, the Day loses its specialness.  It’s cheapened. And I really do not like anything that cheapens Edgar Martinez or his Day.

D.C.:  W, 11 – 8. (.444, .531, .704 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day! No kidding. For the Expansion Team. With 4 whole wins.  We probably ought to just start sending condolence cards to teams who can’t manage a puny little thing like a .300, .400, .500 day at the plate. Maybe we should consider contracting those teams.  Or relegate them to some dusty little junior league where no fans ever attend their games.  Oh, yeah, the pitching: 7.3 ip, 5 er).  Wow!  It’s almost a winning streak — 2 out of 3.  Of course, we already know how this happened: Welington Castillo is en fuego:  3 for 5 with 2 walks and another homer in the Arizona Marathon yesterday.  Corey Seager also helped: he almost hit for a junior cycle (walk, single, double, triple).   But he left out the single.  On a day with two 5.000 OPSes and half the teams in the league hitting Edgar-Martinez-or-better, I’m sorry, Corey: it just doesn’t stand out.