On half-way measures

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	50	31	.612	—	417.0	325.9
Old Detroit Wolverines	49	33	.592	1.6	362.8	300.7
Canberra Kangaroos	46	33	.577	3	362.4	310.5
Brookland Outs	46	34	.570	3.5	425.2	369.8
Cottage Cheese	42	38	.524	7.1	389.4	373.1
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	41	38	.524	7.2	421.0	405.8
Flint Hill Tornadoes	42	40	.515	7.9	338.4	328.1
Haviland Dragons	40	43	.484	10.4	352.2	364.7
Kaline Drive	39	44	.474	11.3	348.7	367.3
Peshastin Pears	37	44	.455	12.7	349.0	384.2
D.C. Balk	33	46	.419	15.5	329.8	389.2

Portland: W 1, L 1; 10 – 11. (23 PA, .227, .261, .534; 4.7 ip, 5 er). Other than Paul Goldschmidt (3 for 5, double) no one in Portland had a very good day on the diamond.  Jon Gray in particular didn’t do well (4 ip, 5 er).  But the Rosebuds’ lead was barely dented, because the Rosebuds have spent the last year (and more) patiently acquiring star players. Some they’ve traded for with EFL teams (Correa, Rendon, Realmuto), some they’ve traded for by acquiring pieces to make MLB trades (Ozuna), some they’ve snatched twice out of the grasp of their rivals (Torres). Some they’ve dangled as trade bait, but kept to see them flower (Teoscar Hernandez). The Rosebuds have been relentless, scouring their rivals’ rosters and sidling up to them when the time is ripe to snatch away another plum. They haven’t made huge gambles for a Trout,  Harper or Machado, but you cannot say they’ve settled for half-way measures.  They go all in, but they do it so slyly and gradually you might not notice until it’s tool late.

Old Detroit:  W 3, L 1; 24 – 20.  (42 PA, .361, .452, .639; 7.3 ip, 9 er). All month the Wolverines have been sitting on a secret treasure: the difference in games played between New York (currently 78) and Boston (currently 82). The Wolverine plan was to quietly have a great month with New York ahead, and then right at the end of the month get Boston to pass the Yankees and add 4 games all of a sudden to the Wolverine record — and win 3 of them — to zip past the gobsmacked Rosebuds and show those young upstarts that veteran wiles will still win every time!  The plan worked beautifully.  The W’s built a June record well north of .600 with plenty of extra AB and IPs to handle a quadruple header. And the Red Sox began catching back up with the Yankees at just the right moment.  Even the details were aligned with care: Austin Hedges coming off the DL to provide crucial replacement-avoiding plate appearances at catcher, and Walker Buehler returning to bolster the pitching.

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Yesterday was the day.  The Red Sox won to definitively disentangle themselves from the idle Yankees. Wolverine hitters had a perfectly-timed Edgar Martinez Day.  Walker Buehler took the mound for the first time in weeks, relieving the still fragile (?) Clayton Kershaw.  And then it all blew up. Buehler only got 3 outs while surrendering 5 earned runs for a nasty, nasty quintuple chulk.  Our big surge to take over the lead turned into a tiny ripple to gain 0.3 games.  So here’s the lesson: a full measure of clever plotting can be undone by an equally full measure of awful performances. The result on paper looks like you stayed home watching puppy videos on the internet.  But instead you’ve been awash in vivid experiences. So it’s still better than half measures.

Canberra:  DNP, (-1) – (-1). (41 PA;.297, .357, .405; 0.7 ip, 0 er). Rhys Hoskins is not a half-measure kind of guy.  He stands 6′ 4″.  He weighs 225 pounds. Of his 293 plate appearances this year, 133 have resulted in true outcomes — more than 45%. He went 3 for 4 yesterday with a homer and a double (and a caught-stealing, his third of the year in seven attempts). Seranthony Dominguez is not a half-measure kind of guy, either. His fast ball averages 98.1 mph and regularly checks in above 100. Yesterday he struck out the two batters he faced — the first one on five sliders, the second one on six fastballs. Neither batter could make any contact.  As a result the Kangaroos stemmed their slide and held their ground in the pennant race.

Brookland:  “W”, 0 – 2.  (30 PA, .074, .167, .185; 6 ip, 0 er). Jake Odorizzi dominated yesterday, striking out 8 in 6 scoreless innings. On the other hand, the Outs were dominated yesterday — except for Manny Machado, who homered and walked in 4 plate appearances.  Other than that, the Outs went 1 for 24 with one walk: .042, .080, .042. Sort of the Wolverine approach:  half-baked results from offsetting full-measure performances.

Cottage:  W, 6 – 4. (.261, .433, .435; 11.3 ip, 4 er). The Cheese established their full-measure credentials when they doubled the then-existing EFL record for a player salary to acquire Mike Trout — and set the second-highest record later in the same draft to nail down Danny Duffy.  Trout has been Trout, but Duffy was only a duffer until this month. And now, of course, the Head Cheese has doubled-down on his full-measure reputation by trading Trout away! The game rewarded the Cheese today with their return to 5th place after having fallen from first (on May 1) to something like 8th a few days ago. That’s right: the last few days of the Trout era in Cottage pushed the Cheese into the seat formerly occupied by their Tornado trading partners.

Pittsburgh: DNP, 1 – 0. (21 PA, .368, .429, .632; 6.3 ip,  1 er).  Allegheny management, of all people, should have known better. If your rookie pitcher is going to turn in 6.3 gem-like innings, and your hitters are going to go super Edgar Martinez, do NOT hesitate!  Send out a full complement of hitters — not just 6 of them, one of whom is a pinch hitting Mark Reynolds helplessly facing Seranthony Dominguez.

Flint Hill: W 2, L 2; 15 – 16. (25 PA, .208, .240, .375; 3 ip, 0 er).  One might think this is a counter-example showing that it’s not always wise to go all in.  For one thing, when Mike Trout is about to join the team, will your existing players get complacent, content to wait around for their savior to arrive? For another thing, if your entire team is going to hit like replacements, what’s the risk in sending them all out there? Your team presumably defends better than replacements, right? So if you are going to get replacement plate appearances by holding back, why not send out real hitters to get those replacement at bats but provide better defense?

Haviland: L, 3 – 4.  (19 PA, .158, .304, .158; 0 pitching).  Judging by the Dragons’ effort yesterday, I’m not sure they’re ready to discuss even half-measures in Haviland. Only 19 PA of weak hitting, no pitching: that looks more like quarter-measures to me.  But let’s see what the Dragons do tomorrow before we commence dragg(on)ing them through the mud.

Kaline: “L”, 6 – 6. (19 PA, .353, .421, .647; 18.3  ip, 9 er).  A team named the Drive would hardly be expected to ever settle for half-measures, and they generally do not.  Drive management leans toward giving everyone playing time, both for team morale and to be  sure to avoid replacements.  This month the Wizard made two exceptions: 0% allocation for Dinelson Lamet, who is on the 60-day DL, and 33% for Brian Johnson, who has yet to establish consistent excellence. But here are the pitching lines for the Drive’s three starters yesterday:

Michael Fulmer:  8 ip, 4 er.

Junior Guerra:     6 ip, 4 er.

Brian Johnson:    4 ip, 1 er.

To be fair, Johnson may have been a little bit lucky. He only struck out two, walked one, and gave up three hits (including a homer) for a FIP of 6.10 (according to BP, whose FIP numbers seem odd sometimes).  Johnson’s FIP was worse than Fulmer’s or Guerra’s.

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On the offensive side, Jesse Winker showed some of the benefits of an all-in approach. He went 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk, a 2.417 OPS for the day topped only by Kangaroo Rhys Hoskins’ aforementioned 2.500 and Wolverine Max Muncy’s 2.467 (2 for 3 with a homer and TWO walks).

Peshastin:  W 1, L 1; 7 – 9. (.250, .276, .286; 1 ip, 0 er).  No one avoids half-measures better than Peshastin.  Phil is our chief practitioner of shock-and-awe bidding.  When his team is up, he’s way, way up. When his team — be it the Pears, or the Bruins, or the Mariners — is down, he can be morose. He is currently wholly committed to rebuilding his team for 2019- 2020. His all-in approach extends to his personal life, as well. He recently went out and bought a house for his son and daughter-in-law (they are paying him rent).  As undergrads at George Fox, I once shared a table with him and four women for lunch.  He asked one of the women to go out with him that evening. She declined. So he asked the woman next to her, and proceeded around the table despite repeated rejections until the last one accepted his offer. On another occasion we sat across from two women.  He asked the one across from him to go to a movie. She declined, saying she and the other woman had already planned to do something together.  Phil said (to the surprise of all everyone else at the table, including me), “That’s not a problem. Ron can take her and we can all go together.” Once he threw in the marginal prospect, the deal was sealed and we all had a nice time that evening.

No one in the EFL can top Phil at avoiding half-measures. Not one of us.  I was only gone to Costa Rica for a week.  While I was gone, Phil drafted a fiancee.

DC:  DNP, (-2) – 0. (32 PA, .250, .333, .357; 0 ip, 0 er).  (I’m sorry, Rob. If you wanted comments on your team, you needed to finish higher in the standings, so you wouldn’t clutter up the impact of the blockbuster last sentence to Phil’s update.)

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AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Boston Red Sox	55	27	.671	—
New York Yankees	52	26	.667	1
Old Detroit Wolverines	49	33	.592	6.5
Flint Hill Tornadoes	42	40	.515	12.8
Tampa Bay Rays	39	41	.488	15
Toronto Blue Jays	37	43	.463	17
Baltimore Orioles	23	57	.288	31

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Canberra Kangaroos	46	33	.577	—
Atlanta Braves	45	34	.570	0.6
Philadelphia Phillies	43	36	.544	2.6
Washington Nationals	41	38	.519	4.6
D.C. Balk	33	46	.419	12.5
New York Mets	32	46	.410	13.1
Miami Marlins	32	50	.390	15.1

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cleveland Indians	44	35	.557	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	41	38	.524	2.6
Minnesota Twins	35	42	.455	8
Detroit Tigers	36	46	.439	9.5
Chicago White Sox	28	52	.350	16.5
Kansas City Royals	25	55	.313	19.5

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Milwaukee Brewers	47	33	.588	—
Brookland Outs	46	34	.570	1.4
Chicago Cubs	44	35	.557	2.5
St. Louis Cardinals	42	37	.532	4.5
Cottage Cheese	42	38	.524	5.1
Pittsburgh Pirates	38	42	.475	9
Cincinnati Reds	34	47	.420	13.5

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	55	28	.663	—
Seattle Mariners	51	31	.622	3.5
Oakland A’s	44	38	.537	10.5
Los Angeles Angels	41	41	.500	13.5
Haviland Dragons	40	43	.484	14.9
Kaline Drive	39	44	.474	15.7
Texas Rangers	36	46	.439	18.5

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	50	31	.612	—
Arizona Diamondbacks	47	34	.580	2.6
Los Angeles Dodgers	43	37	.538	6.1
San Francisco Giants	42	40	.512	8.1
Colorado Rockies	39	42	.481	10.6
Peshastin Pears	37	44	.455	12.7
San Diego Padres	36	47	.434	14.6