I’ve got it bad

I used to wonder how owners with teams in the bottom reaches of the league kept their motivation.  If I was in their shoes would I still care? Would I get bored? Would I get over my little EFL disorder?

.

The Wolverines are in 8th place, and their play these first four days of September does not bode well for hopes of catching the Pears.  I probably can’t catch the Yankees, either, since they’ve been on a winning streak.

.

The season is lost. My goal of never finishing in the bottom half of the league is shattered. I don’t have my own draft pick, so there is no consolation in doing poorly. At least the W’s are above .500 — but the Commissioner in me gets grumpy when our 8th place team is above .500.

.

And yet, when I got my allocations done last night, I could not wait to see how my team was doing. I knew they were not doing well.  I knew I’d be 1 – 3 or maybe even 0 – 4 to start the month.  But I wanted to see for sure.  I could not WAIT for BP to update in the morning..

.

And it’s not just the Wolverines and their petty 8th-place ambitions. Flint Hill loaded up on pennant race rentals. They’ve got Manny now, and Sonny Gray, and the new Byron Buxton (who, ominously, is not a rental)… but is it enough?  Pittsburgh has Kluber and Strasburg and Bellinger and Altuve  — and JD Martinez — and the lead. (Stop it, Ron! Stop moping over Kluber and Machado and what might have been…)

.

I don’t mean to dismiss Haviland.  (Nor do I mean to dismiss the Cheese. Well, ok, maybe just a teensy, tentative bit. I get the impression I am in sync with the Head Cheese on this point.)  It’s been a decade since anyone could afford to dismiss Haviland. But their rentals — Puig, Cueto, Darvish — don’t seem quite as invincible.  Rizzo and Sanchez are still there, plus all the pitching that got Haviland into the thick of the pennant race to begin with.  But… I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it’s the Dragons’ year.

.

But of course I felt like it was going to be the Wolverines’ year on Opening Day. I spent April and May in total bewilderment. Despair didn’t start creeping in until Bumgarner went on his dirt bike ride.  As late as July 1, 15 games out, I was still plotting ways to get back into the race. I was doing denial, anger, bargaining and depression all at once.

.

I’m out the other side now, accepting (mostly) the collapse of the Wolverine’s juggernaut. Since Phil decided in early July to trade for Kluber rather than trade away Scherzer, I have been plotting, Cottage-style, the next Wolverine dynasty. Jeimer Candelario is going to take over third base for the Tigers.  He went 3 for 4 with a double and a walk last night. He’s batting .444, .500, .556 in September. Josh Bell is going to be a stud at first base. He went 3 for 5 with a homer.  My other 2017 first round pick, Willson Contreras, is going to loom large at catcher. He’ll bring his .274, .342, .519 bat back into action in mid-month.  They tell me Trea Turner is a stud, too. A couple of years like his 2016 (.973 OPS) at shortstop w ould be very exciting. I have solid players for all the other positions: Yelich and Wong and Polanco/Taylor and Pearce…Kyle Schwarber may even learn to lay off the low breaking pitch and quit striking out 3 or 4 times a game.

.

At the beginning of the season, Dan Vogelbach was my top minor league prospect. He’s still about as good as he was in April. But he’s been surpassed. Eloy Jimenez is 20 years old and batting .354, .391, .569 in AA, in the top 10 in all the recent prospect ratings I’ve seen. Jorge Soler is hitting .267, .387, .567 in AAA.

.

The Wolverine pitching staff isn’t studded with as many gems. Bumgarner is still there, but it’s not clear he’ll regain his dominance. Wood and Hill are around one more year… if their arms would quit falling apart. Heaney and DeSclafani and Matt Moore all could be good, but they have as many question marks as exclamation points. Dylan Cease and David Paulino might be pitching prospects if there were such things as pitching prospects.

.

I can’t tweak anything now. I can’t add any players, or make any trades, that will take effect before the season is over. Twenty-seven current Wolverines are eligible to be on the Wolverine roster next Opening Day. September is my chance to sort them out, to decide which ones to keep, which ones to dangle in next winter’s Rule 5 draft, and which ones to cut. This morning the next Wolverine regime begins.

.

So, my friends, I have some wonderful news from the doctors about my EFL disorder: I’ve got it bad. Real bad.  It might even be terminal.

.