Today I don’t have time to write a big post. So I’ve decided to break it up into six mini-posts. Sort of like eschewing a piece of cake to avoid gaining weight, and sensibly substituting six mini-muffins.
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EFL Standings for 2018
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 81 | 47 | .633 | — | 622.6 | 466.2 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 79 | 48 | .625 | 1.2 | 667.2 | 509.0 |
| Brookland Outs | 73 | 52 | .580 | 7 | 661.4 | 564.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 67 | 59 | .532 | 13 | 575.0 | 543.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 66 | 60 | .528 | 13.6 | 657.6 | 627.0 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 66 | 62 | .517 | 14.8 | 577.1 | 555.3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 63 | 62 | .506 | 16.2 | 619.8 | 611.7 |
| Kaline Drive | 63 | 64 | .499 | 17.2 | 564.7 | 563.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 62 | 65 | .491 | 18.1 | 578.5 | 586.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 58 | 69 | .456 | 22.6 | 533.3 | 585.1 |
| D.C. Balk | 53 | 73 | .424 | 26.6 | 535.5 | 625.2 |
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Old Detroit: W, 7 – 2. (45 PA, .282, .378, .359; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).
Portland: W, 6 – 2. (44 PA, .289, .364, .474; 14.3 ip, 2 er, 1.26 ERA).
The Wolverines are scampering as fast as they can. They had a real good day Wednesday. Walker Buehler dominated for 7 innings, and the hitters did a nice job getting on base and scoring runs. But the Rosebuds still gained 0.1 games on them. Clay Buchholz pitched exactly as effectively as Buehler, and Jon Gray and Keone Kela added 7.3 ip with only 2 earned runs. Paul Goldschmidt went 3 for 3 with a walk, a double, and a homer, to make the Rosebud offense a little better than the Wolverines’.
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Brookland: “W”, 6 – 6. (50 PA, .222, .300, .244; 18.7 ip, 8 er, 3.86 ERA). The Outs
continue to hang out in no man’s land between the pair of frontrunners and the rather dense pack of 6 teams 13 – 18 games off the pace. A pair of 2 for 4’s were the offensive highlights for Brookland Wednesday. Freddy Peralta (7 ip, 0 er) and Carlos Rodon (6 ip, 2 er) were undone by Charlie Morton’s 5 ip, 6 er effort.
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Canberra: L, 4 – 7. (42 PA, .237, .310, .395; 0.7 ip, 2 er, 27.00 ERA).
Pittsburgh: W (-1), L 2; 4 – 10. (54 PA, .255, .296, .412; 4 ip, 5 er, 11.25 ERA).
David Bote hit another dramatic homer, but it didn’t look like it would be enough for the Kangaroos to stay ahead of the Alleghenys, especially not with Seranthony Dominguez pulling off a small nonuple chulk (3 er in 1/3 of an inning). But the Alleghenys had an even worse day, with Stephen Strasburg giving up 5 er in 4 ip and a slightly weaker offense coming at a 25% greater volume.
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Flint Hill: L, 2 – 5 (20 PA, .211, .250, .263; 1 ip, 0 er).
Not much production for a day with a full slate of MLB games. The Tornados are up to 82 replacement plate appearances for August. Without those, the Kangaroos and Alleghenys might be behind the Tornados. Flint Hills would certainly merit being clumped with the K’s and the A’s in this update.
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Cottage: L, 5 – 7. (40 PA, .189, .250, .541; 6.3 ip, 4 er, 5.68 ERA).
Kaline: “L”, 6 – 3. (32 PA, .296, .344, .630; 10.3 ip, 4 er, 3.48 ERA).
Haviland: L, 3 – 6. (25 PA, .250, .280, .333; 1.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).
Each of these teams, battling against each other for 7th place and against the universe to finish over .500, took an official loss. Even so, each had some good news — but one of these teams had more good news than the others:
* Xander Bogaerts homered twice in 5 plate appearances, and Kepler, Pederson and Polanco all OPSed over 1.000 — but the rest of the team went 2 for 22 with no extra base hits and only one walk.
* Alphabetically adjacent Ian Desmond, Todd Frazier, and Yulieski Gurriel each got two hits, including some extra bases, for a string of high OPSes (2.083, 2.000, and 1.350, respectively). Trevor Williams continued being a trevelation: 6 ip, 1 er.
* Bryce Harper continued his recovery going 3 for 5 with a double. Taylor Williams didn’t allow any earned runs in his .6 ip.
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Peshastin: W, 7 – 6. (31 PA, .296, .387, .778; 10.3 ip, 5 er, 4.35 ERA).
DC: W (-1), L 2; 2 – 9. (39 PA, .147, .256, .265; 10.7 ip, 9 er, 7.59 ERA).
The Pears and Balk still haven’t made up their minds whom they want to be: late season resurging teams, building momentum for next year? Or rebuilding teams looking for the best possible draft pick?
* Wednesday the Pears were in Dr. Jekyll mode with 5 of 8 batters OPSing over 1.000 (Baez, Gallo, Haniger, Kiermaier, Travis) and Jack Flaherty outpitched Walker Buehler (only 1 hit v. 3 hits, 10 K v. 9). Zach Eflin was out of sync: 3.3 ip, 4 er).
* The Balk, on the other hand, were playing the Mr. Hyde role: Other than Joshua Riddle’s pinch hit homer, they went 4 for 33 with a double and five walks for a rest-of-the-team line of .121, .237, .152. Carlos Carrasco and Francisco Liriano combined for 9 innings and 9 earned runs.
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Boston Red Sox | 89 | 39 | .695 | — |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 81 | 47 | .633 | 8 |
| New York Yankees | 79 | 47 | .627 | 9 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 66 | 61 | .520 | 22.5 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 66 | 62 | .517 | 22.8 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 58 | 69 | .457 | 30.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 37 | 90 | .291 | 51.5 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 71 | 55 | .563 | — |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 68 | 58 | .540 | 3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 67 | 59 | .532 | 3.9 |
| Washington Nationals | 64 | 63 | .504 | 7.5 |
| New York Mets | 56 | 70 | .444 | 15 |
| D.C. Balk | 53 | 73 | .424 | 17.6 |
| Miami Marlins | 51 | 77 | .398 | 21 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cleveland Indians | 73 | 53 | .579 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 66 | 60 | .528 | 6.5 |
| Minnesota Twins | 60 | 66 | .476 | 13 |
| Detroit Tigers | 52 | 75 | .409 | 21.5 |
| Chicago White Sox | 48 | 78 | .381 | 25 |
| Kansas City Royals | 38 | 89 | .299 | 35.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Brookland Outs | 73 | 52 | .580 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 72 | 53 | .576 | 0.6 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 71 | 57 | .555 | 3.1 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 71 | 58 | .550 | 3.6 |
| Cottage Cheese | 63 | 62 | .506 | 9.3 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 63 | 65 | .492 | 11.1 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 56 | 71 | .441 | 17.6 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 77 | 50 | .606 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 76 | 51 | .598 | 1 |
| Seattle Mariners | 72 | 56 | .563 | 5.5 |
| Kaline Drive | 63 | 64 | .499 | 13.7 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 63 | 65 | .492 | 14.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 62 | 65 | .491 | 14.6 |
| Texas Rangers | 57 | 72 | .442 | 21 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 79 | 48 | .625 | — |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 71 | 56 | .559 | 8.3 |
| Colorado Rockies | 69 | 57 | .548 | 9.8 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 67 | 61 | .523 | 12.8 |
| San Francisco Giants | 62 | 66 | .484 | 17.8 |
| Peshastin Pears | 58 | 69 | .456 | 21.4 |
| San Diego Padres | 50 | 79 | .388 | 30.3 |