Memo to the Commissioner

Memo to:  The Right Honorable EFL Commissioner

From:        Mr. EFL Answer Man

Re:             Competitive Balance Concerns

Date:         September 30, 2017

.

As you requested, sir, I have researched possible measures to restore competitive balance between the EFL and the MLB to avoid humiliating those poor wretches any further. And I have given special attention to possible punishments for Pittsburgh should the Alleghenys break the Mariners’ sacred record of 116 wins in a season. I will send you my full report on those options as soon as I apply some finishing touches.

Before you see that report I want to raise a few points in defense of the EFL owners. Any group of 10 ambitious people is likely to have a bad apple or two.  But before you settle on a package of “reforms” I want to raise a few points to consider that might help us temper our legitimate concerns with commendable empathy for our owners – or at least, most of them.

(By the way, sir, I commend your wisdom in abandoning “divine retribution”, “infinite justice”, and “draining the swamp” in favor of “reforms” to describe the changes you will be proposing. While each of your earlier terms does reflect some aspect of either your character, motives, or natural concern for the current state of the Wolverines, they all would have had unfortunate and avoidable public relations effects.)

       First, as to overall competitive balance with MLB teams:  The EFL will end up with 3 teams winning more than 100 games. MLB now has three teams with over 100 wins. This is unusual, but it has happened before.  In 1998, three MLB teams had 100 wins:

NYY:  114

ATL:   106

HOU: 102

In 2002 there were three again:

NYY:      103

OAK:     103

ATL:      101

In 2003, it happened again, with the Yankees and the Braves each winning 101 and the Giants taking 100 wins. In 1977, the Royals (102), Phillies (101), and Yankees (100) all topped 100 wins.

        That 1998 MLB result, before the birth of the EFL, looks reasonably similar to this year’s EFL result. True, the 1998 MLB season involved 30 teams while our EFL only has 10. But some allowance has to be made, sir, for the comparative intellectual abilities of EFL owners compared to MLB moguls. We may have more advanced degrees among our 10 owners (I count 15 at least) than among all 30 of the MLB’s principal owners!  (And don’t get me started on the likely comparison between the combined intellect of the GFU faculty and staff to that of the classic Greek philosophers who still demand so much attention in academe… let’s just say Aristotle, Plato and Socrates might have qualified to constitute a single small department in our institution, had they been in the same generation.) (Our owners would have dominated an Athenian Philosophers Fantasy League.)

         Our result this year will be reminiscent of the EFL result in 2010 when the Alleghenys won 108, the Dragons 105, and the Wolverines 104.  True, there was a pennant race almost down to the wire, but otherwise the EFL/MLB balance was worse that year. The Yankees at 103 wins were the only MLB team over 100 wins.  So the ratio of 100+ teams in 2010 was 3:1 in favor of the EFL. This year it will be 1:1.

         The ratio of total EFL to MLB wins in excess of 100 was 17:3 in 2009. This year, with two games to go, it is  21:3 – but it is unlikely to be so lopsided Monday morning.

         Second, as to the sorry state of our 2017 EFL pennant race:  this is not the worst ever.  In 2007, as you no doubt vividly remember, your Wolverines had to rally at the very end of the season to avoid losing by 20 games, in second place to the Alleghenys.  And consider MLB this year:  division leaders (not counting EFL teams) have leads of 21, 21, 17, 10, 6, and 2 games. The A’s lead in the EFL is well under the average.

          Once you include EFL teams, we decrease those MLB gaps in four divisions, by as much as 16 games. We increase the gap only in two divisions – and only one of those is a dramatic increase.

.

Now let me offer some notes on competitive balance and each of the EFL teams.