Going into this season I had the following goals:
- Rebalance our model so we wouldn’t dominate the MLB so much.
- Have the Wolverines in the pennant race.
- Make sure the league allows upward mobility for teams not in the Tri- or Du- umvirate.
- Have a rip-roaring pennant race.
- Have some new characters in the race this year
- Make sure the Outs were treated fairly as an expansion team.
A couple of notes about these goals:
A. I am being pretty frank here. Goal #2 is not like the others, and probably shouldn’t be so high if I was really a Christian fantasy commissioner.
B. I have no control over #4 and #5. One of the things I’ve learned a lot about lately is how dicey it is when you have important, cherished goals about things you don’t have any control over.
C. Is it possible to succeed too well? Sometimes I think so, about goal #6. Mostly on days when #6 gets in the way of #2.
Like today, a little. Although much less today than yesterday.
Just one more reason the Commissioner is happy.
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 30 | 21 | .582 | — | 235.4 | 199.3 |
| Brookland Outs | 31 | 23 | .569 | 0.5 | 273.0 | 238.8 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 30 | 23 | .566 | 0.7 | 242.5 | 211.9 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 30 | 23 | .565 | 0.8 | 219.7 | 193.2 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 28 | 25 | .521 | 3.1 | 226.6 | 217.1 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 25 | 25 | .496 | 6.1 | 266.0 | 271.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 26 | 28 | .486 | 4.9 | 277.8 | 284.9 |
| Kaline Drive | 26 | 28 | .485 | 5.0 | 228.8 | 234.9 |
| Haviland Dragons | 23 | 31 | .431 | 7.9 | 223.0 | 256.3 |
| Peshastin Pears | 22 | 31 | .422 | 8.4 | 220.4 | 259.8 |
| D.C. Balk | 21 | 30 | .407 | 9 | 201.0 | 243.6 |
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Canberra: W 1, L 1; 5 – 9. (.125, .239, .275; 1 ip, 0 er). The Kangaroos uncharacteristically sort of backed into first place. In fact, this has to be one of the least impressive taking-over-first-place days in history. The offense over two games consisted mostly of Jonathan Lucroy’s homer. One inning of effective relief. And that’s how you reach the top in the modern EFL, by the team which has reached the top of the EFL the most often this year.
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Brookland: “W”, 2 – 4. (.200, .310, .340; 2 ip, 1 er) Christian Arroyo went 2 for 2 with a double and 2 walks. Bellinger and Chirinos homered And that’s pretty much everything to write home about.
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Portland: W (-1), L 2; 3 – 12. (.258, .324, .419; 21.3 ip, 16 er). Anthony Rendon homered, doubled, and walked in four trips to the plate to lead a decent offense, but Portland pitchers performed pitifully, especially Kevin Gausman (2.7 ip, 7er).
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Old Detroit: W, 3 – 3. (.191, .296, .319; 8 ip, 2 er). Walker Buehler pitched brilliantly (7 ip, 1 er, 8 so, 0 bb), which was just enough for the W’s to eke out a real win by less than a run. This was the only real win recorded in the EFL — an extremely rare outcome. (Had Carlos Gonzalez been active this one day, his 4 for 4 with a homer might have elevated the W’s very close to first place!)
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Flint Hill: “W”, 5 – 7. (.344, .367, .563; 3.3 ip 1 er). It looks like the Tornados should have done better. But 2 out of their 3.7 ip were by players active at 0% (Blake Parker, Tanner Scott) and their best hitters on the day (Gattis: 1.667 OPS, Pirela: 1.750 OPS) are both less than 100% active.
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Pittsburgh: W 1, L (-1); 2 – (-7). (.333, .417, .429; 6 ip, 0 er). For the second day in a row, I first updated the Alleghenys with their entire year-to-date stats. So some versions of the standings you might have seen might show them in 8th place. In fact, I suspect that 2 runs scored is understated — I may not have hand-corrected the runs scored yesterday when I redid the Allegheny update. I will try to get it right tomorrow. At any rate, the Alleghenys have made a move in the standings, which is the tiny cloud on my sunny horizon. And their move is the only thing that kept the EFL from slipping under .500 for the season. So I’d say we’ve recalibrated things enough on the EFL/MLB competitiveness balance.
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Cottage: L, 2 – 9. (.208, .296, .250; 2 ip, 2 er). Lots of 2’s in the Cheese’s numbers! Unfortunately, those 2’s s rendered the offense as listless as replacements. And it’s a good thing the pitching was so thin, because it was worse than replacement.
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Kaline: L, 2 – 2. (.138, .286, .276; 4.7 ip, 0 er). Three relievers did a good job covering more than half a game, which is how the Drive nearly got a win with sub-replacement hitting. Ian Desmond homered and drove in two runs to achieve the virtual tie.
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Haviland: L, 2 – 6. (.200, .277, .375; 2 ip, 0 er) The offense was in the neighborhood of replacement level. The pitching was thin. The result was as expected for that comnbination of modest offense and skinny pitching.
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Peshastin: L, 5 – 7. (.229, .289, .457; 7 ip, 5 er). They hit well, those Pears, at least by Wolverine standards, led by middle infielders Javier Baez (2. for 5 with a homer) and Devon Travis (2 for 3 with a double and a walk). They pitched poorly, “led” by Robert Gsellman’s triple chulk (0.7 ip, 2 er).
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DC: W 1, L 1; 6 – 12. (.220, .256, .293; 2 ip, 3 er). This was the predominant EFL pattern Sunday: poor hitting and skinny pitching. At least the Balk only lost 0.1 game in the standings, since the same affliction is affecting the top of the table about as much as the bottom.
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Boston Red Sox | 36 | 17 | .679 | — |
| New York Yankees | 33 | 16 | .673 | 1 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 30 | 23 | .565 | 6.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 28 | 25 | .521 | 8.4 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 25 | 26 | .490 | 10 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 25 | 28 | .472 | 11 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 17 | 36 | .321 | 19 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 30 | 21 | .588 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 30 | 21 | .582 | 0.3 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 29 | 21 | .580 | 0.5 |
| Washington Nationals | 29 | 22 | .569 | 1 |
| New York Mets | 25 | 24 | .510 | 4 |
| D.C. Balk | 21 | 30 | .407 | 9.3 |
| Miami Marlins | 19 | 33 | .365 | 11.5 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cleveland Indians | 25 | 25 | .500 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 25 | 25 | .496 | 0.2 |
| Minnesota Twins | 21 | 26 | .447 | 2.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 22 | 29 | .431 | 3.5 |
| Chicago White Sox | 16 | 33 | .327 | 8.5 |
| Kansas City Royals | 17 | 35 | .327 | 9 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 34 | 20 | .630 | — |
| Brookland Outs | 31 | 23 | .569 | 3.3 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 28 | 22 | .560 | 4 |
| Chicago Cubs | 27 | 22 | .551 | 4.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 28 | 24 | .538 | 5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 26 | 28 | .486 | 7.7 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 19 | 35 | .352 | 15 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 34 | 20 | .630 | — |
| Seattle Mariners | 32 | 20 | .615 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 29 | 24 | .547 | 4.5 |
| Oakland A’s | 28 | 25 | .528 | 5.5 |
| Kaline Drive | 26 | 28 | .485 | 7.8 |
| Haviland Dragons | 23 | 31 | .431 | 10.7 |
| Texas Rangers | 22 | 33 | .400 | 12.5 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 30 | 23 | .566 | — |
| Colorado Rockies | 28 | 25 | .528 | 2 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 26 | 26 | .500 | 3.5 |
| San Francisco Giants | 25 | 28 | .472 | 5 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 24 | 28 | .462 | 5.5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 22 | 31 | .422 | 7.7 |
| San Diego Padres | 22 | 32 | .407 | 8.5 |