Sometimes rare things happen, and when they do, we should take note – don’t you think?
For instance, it is rare that our commissioner would not submit his allocations before the deadline he imposed. And yet, that is exactly what happened last night (along with his very nice mea culpa, which made way for another mea culpa from Peshastin, although not all of the mea culpas were issued that could have been issued).
Another rarity that you may or may not have noticed – the Rosebuds had both the AL and NL Rookie of the month from August – Aristides Aquino and Yordan Alvarez. That would explain a whole of about last month’s seemingly unbreachable chasm between first and second.
How about this for a rarity? Last week Mark Weinert said he used one of my posts from this very blog as a sermon illustration. Has that ever happened before, Ron? I ask you because until this year I believe you were the lone updater.
How about another rarity, at least when it comes to professional baseball: last night a minor league player for the Astros affiliate the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (I love minor league team names!) hit a ball all the way over the fence (and though this seems to be an easier feat this year, it is quite difficult to do) but instead of getting a HR he was called out. Why? He missed home plate. Can you believe it? If not, you can read about it here. I’ve seen that in Little League, but how rare to see it at a professional level!
What rarity happened for your team in the first few days of September? Let’s find out.
EFL Standings for 2019
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Portland Rosebuds | 92 | 50 | .649 | — | 904.0 | 663.6 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 88 | 53 | .622 | 3.9 | 874.9 | 674.2 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 84 | 57 | .593 | 8.1 | 830.4 | 683.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 77 | 62 | .553 | 13.8 | 745.2 | 663.9 |
| Peshastin Pears | 75 | 67 | .529 | 17.1 | 737.4 | 696.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 72 | 68 | .513 | 19.4 | 786.6 | 760.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 71 | 69 | .507 | 20.2 | 784.1 | 777.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 68 | 72 | .483 | 23.6 | 664.6 | 690.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 62 | 77 | .443 | 29.2 | 644.6 | 727.1 |
| Cottage Cheese | 61 | 78 | .436 | 30.1 | 774.5 | 866.8 |
| Brookland Outs | 60 | 79 | .432 | 30.6 | 689.5 | 793.2 |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 83 | .404 | 34.7 | 622.6 | 761.0 |
Portland: W2, L2; 34-24 (196 PA, .302, .357, .525; 25.7 ip, 11 er, 3.86 era) Perhaps the rarest thing about Portland’s September thus far is that they are .500 (well, if you look at the monthly stats you’ll see that one of their losses was a fake loss – they really are 3-1 this month). Their pitching line is also a rarity compared to the past couple of months, which saw their team ERA in the bottom half of the league. But maybe the rarest aspect of this month is the number of replacement IP they have thus far. How about this? Until last month when they had only 5 replacement IP, they had 0 replacement IPs in any given month. That is quite a incredible in today’s pitching landscape. This month, however, they already have 12 replacement IP. Will the trend continue?
Flint Hill: W4, L0; 31-9 (142 PA, .273, .380, .545; 47 ip, 17 er, 3.26 era) There is no doubt about the rarest happening for the Tornadoes thus far – their pitching is leading the league after 4 games. There has not been a single month this year where the Tornado pitchers have had an ERA below 4.00, and that has been THE reason the distance has remained between us and the Rosebuds. But look! A 2.03 ERA this month has caused the chasm to shrink (although we’ve been here before and we KNOW how this show ends…we think). This resurgence has been led by two new Tornadoes (Civale and Dugger) putting pressure on old Tornadoes (Paxton and Mikolas) to pitch like the veterans we know them to be. So far it seems to be working! We gained 1.1 games in 4 days, which will be the exact pace we need to keep in order to overtake the Rosebuds by month’s end.
Old Detroit: W3, L1; 33-24 (182 PA, .276, .352, .472; 44.3 ip, 26 er, 5.28) Continuing the trend begun with the top two teams, the rarest thing about the Wolverines this month is their pitching. For the past 4 months the Wolverine pitchers have been 1st or 2nd in team ERA, but are now sitting in 8th. And unlike the Rosebuds, it is not due to replacement IPs. That might be a worrisome trend, except for the offensive awakening happening on the Wolverines, led by Eloy Jimenez, Kyle Schwarber, and Jorge Soler to the tune of over 8 runs per game, which is only topped by the Rosebuds.
Pittsburgh: W1, L3; 15-34 (125 PA, .252, .312, .496; 13.7 ip, 13 er, 8.56 era) Without looking, which EFL team had the best record in August? If you guessed the Alleghanys, you are right! They finished 20-8 (.702 winning %) – very impressive. Then they went and sold their top slugger to the Tornadoes (thank you very much) and the team decided to make their rarity a complete inability to score any runs the following month. Ok, that is a slight exaggeration, but the Alleghany bats have gone silent, moving to ninth in the league this month in runs scored. But maybe even more rare is what they pitchers are doing. Their lackluster performance combined with a few replacement IPs has meant a league low 8.01 ERA.
Peshastin: W2, L2; 15-16 (133 PA, .220, .308, .373; 33.3 ip, 11 er, 2.97 era) Without looking, who had the best pitching in the month of August? If you guessed the Pears, you are right! They led the league with a 3.67 ERA on their way to 18 wins, their highest count this season. And it looks like once again they will challenge for the league lead in pitching this month, led by Zack Eflin and Jack Flaherty. But on order to keep moving up in the standings they will need a little more offense, which has been a bit of a rarity since May. Juan Soto alone is trying to will the Pears to prominence, but he will need some help!
Haviland: W2, L1; 18-15 (147 PA, .248, .342, .424; 13.3 ip, 6 er, 4.05 era) The Dragons achilles heel (do Dragons have achilles?) all season has been their pitching. But September might prove to be a rarity for them if things continue as they have begun. Though a 4.05 ERA is not necessarily stellar, carried through an entire month would make them either second or third in pitching if trends continue as they have gone all season. And that would be rare for the Dragons who have not finished a month above 6th yet this season. They have had their share of replacement IPs this far, but their actual pitchers have (besides newly acquired Duplantier) thrown well, though in short stints.
Canberra: W1, L2; 18-20 (169 PA, .288, .349, .497; 20 ip, 13 er, 5.85 era) The Kangaroos have the top two players in terms of BA this month, which is rare. In fact, they have 3 of the top 10 in the league, something only two other teams have done (Cottage and Haviland). The Roos have been led so far by Alex Bregman and Tim Anderson, both of them OPSing over 1.200 and racking up bases like they are about to disappear.
Kaline: W1, L2; 6-18 (183 PA, .176, .279, .226; 15.7 ip, 8 er, 4.60 era) It has been a rough start for Kaline in September. His usually steady team has hit a little bump in the road and not scored very many runs yet. I think this means they are saving them up to unleash them at a later point. The one rarity I can spot is that this normally HR happy team has only hit one in 3 games. In every month this season they have averaged more than one HR per game. Right now their pace will end up being half of their lowest month, and that is rare. I think this means we can expect some prolific output over the next few weeks from the Drive.
Bellingham: W1, L3; 10-24 (96 PA, .157, .219, .360; 15.7 ip, 6 er, 3.45 era) The Cascades are doing one thing better than anyone else in the league right now – can you guess what it is? WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). They have the top two pitchers in the league in WHIP right now (Caleb Ferguson and Alex Claudio). No other team has done that all season long, and that is a good stat in terms of keeping a team’s ERA down. And look! Their team ERA (minus replacement innings) is very good!
Cottage: W3, L2; 20-22 (146 PA, .250, .310, 417; 26.3 ip, 8 er, 2.73 era) Every one of us can remember the Cheese’s lament this year, so well done that it is seared into our memories. The main character in his epic poem? The pitching staff. But look! How rare it is to see his pitching staff leading the way. If not for replacement innings, his team ERA for the month is below 3. That means these players are beginning to figure it out, responding to their leader in positive ways. What more could you want? It is rare to find someone so capable of rallying his troops, which the head Cheese has done. Now he has to convince them throw a little more. Should be an easy task!
Brookland: W1, L4; 15-32 (67 PA, .200, .343, .345; 17.7 ip, 5 er, 2.55 era) The Outs give the 9th-12th place teams something to brag about, and it is somewhat rare to find this particular stat in the lower half of the league, but here it is: the 9th-12th place teams have a combined ERA of 3.03. How about that? If the volume were higher, we would have a clinic being put on for the teams a little further up in the standings.
DC: W2, L1; 17-13 (136 PA, .231, .338, .385; 20.7 ip, 8 er, 3.48 era) It is rare for a team who has its sights set on the #1 pick next year to begin their last month as the Balk have begun it. They are currently third in team ERA and 4th in winning percentage! This is a risky proposition for them, however it is hard to fault them because surely the young guys are trying to earn a spot next year, and what better time to do so than in the last month of this season?
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2014
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| New York Yankees | 92 | 49 | .652 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 88 | 53 | .622 | 4.2 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 84 | 57 | .593 | 8.5 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 82 | 59 | .582 | 10 |
| Boston Red Sox | 75 | 64 | .540 | 16 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 55 | 85 | .393 | 36.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 46 | 93 | .331 | 45 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 86 | 54 | .614 | — |
| Washington Nationals | 78 | 60 | .565 | 7 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 72 | 66 | .522 | 13 |
| New York Mets | 71 | 68 | .511 | 14.5 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 71 | 69 | .507 | 15 |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 83 | .404 | 29.5 |
| Miami Marlins | 49 | 89 | .355 | 36 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Minnesota Twins | 86 | 53 | .619 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 81 | 59 | .579 | 5.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 77 | 62 | .553 | 9.1 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 62 | 77 | .443 | 24.5 |
| Chicago White Sox | 61 | 78 | .439 | 25 |
| Kansas City Royals | 51 | 89 | .364 | 35.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 40 | 97 | .292 | 45 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 78 | 61 | .561 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 75 | 63 | .543 | 2.5 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 71 | 67 | .514 | 6.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 65 | 75 | .464 | 13.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 61 | 78 | .439 | 17 |
| Cottage Cheese | 61 | 78 | .436 | 17.4 |
| Brookland Outs | 60 | 79 | .432 | 17.9 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 90 | 50 | .643 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 80 | 58 | .580 | 9 |
| Haviland Dragons | 72 | 68 | .513 | 18.2 |
| Kaline Drive | 68 | 72 | .483 | 22.4 |
| Texas Rangers | 68 | 73 | .482 | 22.5 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 65 | 75 | .464 | 25 |
| Seattle Mariners | 58 | 82 | .414 | 32 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 92 | 50 | .649 | — |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 92 | 50 | .648 | 0.2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 75 | 67 | .529 | 17.1 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 73 | 67 | .521 | 18.2 |
| San Francisco Giants | 67 | 72 | .482 | 23.7 |
| San Diego Padres | 64 | 75 | .460 | 26.7 |
| Colorado Rockies | 59 | 82 | .418 | 32.7 |