Today begins the final stretch of the season. Every EFL team has either 7 or games 8 games remaining to be played, and everyone has something for which to play. “Oh, really,” you say? Yes, of course!
The Tornadoes, Dragons, Drive, and even the Pears have a legitimate shot at winning the title this year. Each of them have struggled at the plate (as you’ll see below) but have been pitching extremely well as the season winds down.
The Cheese, Balk, and Cascades are vying for the “BCCCDC” annual award, given to the team with the best record among those teams with similar abbreviations (trust me, it’s a thing).
The Wolverines and Roos are vying for the annual Mock the Mock award, given to the Mock who is able to mock the other Mock for their finish each season.
And the Alleghenys and Rosebuds are competing for the “Environmental Impact” award, given to the team named after a natural phenomenon whose impact on the EFL environment is most impactful.
Next Sunday we will crown a winner in each of these categories, and now you know – there IS something to play for this week!
EFL Standings for 2020
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 29 | 24 | .554 | — | 270.1 | 256.4 |
| Haviland Dragons | 28 | 24 | .536 | 1 | 248.6 | 229.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 28 | 24 | .534 | 1.1 | 225.1 | 205.9 |
| Peshastin Pears | 26 | 27 | .496 | 3 | 276.7 | 274.1 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 28 | .462 | 4.8 | 268.6 | 291.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 24 | 28 | .458 | 5 | 239.0 | 260.0 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 24 | 28 | .453 | 5.3 | 255.7 | 293.0 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 22 | 31 | .424 | 6.9 | 246.3 | 291.5 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 22 | 30 | .420 | 7 | 251.6 | 295.4 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 18 | 34 | .351 | 10.6 | 231.5 | 315.0 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 16 | 37 | .297 | 13.6 | 245.3 | 379.1 |
Flint Hill: L, 0-1 (45PA;8.7IP)
| AVG: 0.186 | OBP: 0.200 | SLG: 0.349 | OPS: 0.549 |
| ERA: 1.03 | WHIP: 0.575 |
Abysmal hitting led to a missed opportunity. Though the Tornado lead increased, it did not increase as much as it could or should have due to wretched hitting. Kevin Gausman threw 6 innings giving up 1 ER, and the bullpen allowed 0 runs over the remaining 3IP. Th Tornadoes did get HRs from Yasmani Grandal and Nomar Mazara (his first on the year), but no hitter earned more than 1 hit and not a single hitter earned a single BB. This is not the kind of offense that will lead to a championship!
Haviland: W, 1-(-3) (51PA; 26.6IP)
| AVG: 0.170 | OBP: 0.216 | SLG: 0.255 | OPS: 0.471 |
| ERA: 1.69 | WHIP: 0.977 |
Yesterday we may have had a PA record set by the Pears, and today we have had an IP record set by the Dragons. And, wow! Those are some incredible numbers. Five SP were sent to the mound, all of them going at least 4 innings and none of them giving up more than 2ER. The best performance came from Jesus Luzardo who went 6 innings giving up 0 runs. The issue for the Dragons? They didn’t need this many innings. They now have 23 surplus SP innings pitched. Will they be able to take advantage of them? We will see. The Dragon offensive line was another story, and like the Tornadoes it probably cost them in the standings. The Dragons had one batter, Brandon Lowe, collect 2 hits while all the others collected either one or zero hits. They also grounded into 3 double plays. Despite this, they managed to climb over the Drive and lead them by .1 games and a .002 margin in winning percentage.
Kaline: L, 1-5 (36PA; 15.3IP)
| AVG: 0.121 | OBP: 0.194 | SLG: 0.242 | OPS: 0.437 |
| ERA: 4.12 | WHIP: 1.765 |
The Drive slipped a little yesterday, falling into third place by just 2 thousandths of a percentage point. Like the Tornadoes and the Dragons, their hitting was not very good at all. They collected only 4 hits on the day, 2 of them by Kevin Pillar. Kyle Lewis, who has been a little quiet the past two weeks, hit a HR, showing that he is still wanting to be considered as a potential Rookie of the Year awardee. The pitching was decent, but not as good as the two teams above. Dallas Keuchel and Tristan McKenzie combing to go 8 innings and give up only 1 run, but Kwang Hyun Kim gave up 4 runs in 5.3 innings.
Peshastin: “L,” 3-3 (50PA; 7.7IP)
| AVG: 0.273 | OBP: 0.320 | SLG: 0.364 | OPS: 0.684 |
| ERA: 1.17 | WHIP: 1.039 |
The Pears set out to prove to the three leading EFL teams what a good day looks like, and they were almost successful! Their main issue, though, is that too many of their PAs went into the surplus storage bins and weren’t fully applied to today’s score. Clint Frazier continued his September hot streak, beating up on Red Sox pitching (sounds familiar, yes?) for three hits, including a HR. Ryan Mountcastle, probably called up too late to be in the ROY race, has nonetheless proved he is as good if not better than the other potential candidates, went 2 for 4. Justus Sheffield pitched an excellent game, giving up one run over 6IP, but the Pears dropped .1 games further behind the Tornadoes.
Cottage: L, 7-8 (46PA; no pitching)
| AVG: 0.250 | OBP: 0.348 | SLG: 0.475 | OPS: 0.823 |
The Cheese were landslide winners in the “best OPS on September 19th” competition. And it really wasn’t even close. Shohei Ohtani slugged a HR and added a single, and Randy Arozarena added in a SB to go along with his HR and a single. No pitchers showed up, which is what led to the Cheese loss.
DC: L, 2-4 (28PA; 11.4IP)
| AVG: 0.148 | OBP: 0.179 | SLG: 0.407 | OPS: 0.586 |
| ERA: 2.37 | WHIP: 0.877 |
Stop me if you’ve heard this before – the Balk had an excellent day on the mound and pretty awful day at the plate. This is the storyline, it seems, for EFL teams yesterday. The pitching was spread out over 6 different players, and only one of them gave up any rund (Ian Anderson, who gave up 3). In fact, the bullpen pitched 6.7 innings of one hit baseball. Nice work! The hitting was something different, though. Tim Anderson was amazing, going 2 for 5 with 2 HRs. I read yesterday that he is currently leading the entire MLB in BA, which he did last year, too. If he finishes this season in the same position, he will be the only SS in the history of MLB to lead the entire MLB in BA two years in a row. What an amazing player!
Bellingham: W, 3-2 (44PA; 7IP)
| AVG: 0.125 | OBP: 0.364 | SLG: 0.188 | OPS: 0.551 |
| ERA: 1.29 | WHIP: 1.000 |
Look! Another incredible day on the mound coupled with a horrible day at the plate. We EFL teams are nothing if not committed to sharing in each other’s lived experiences. Charlie Morton and Devin Williams combined for 7 innings of 1 run pitching. And on offense Justin Turner went 2 for 3 with a 2B and a BB, but that’s about it.
Old Detroit: W, 0-(-6) (51PA; 28.4IP)
| AVG: 0.167 | OBP: 0.196 | SLG: 0.229 | OPS: 0.425 |
| ERA: 2.54 | WHIP: 0.880 |
I mean, come on! I just need a template in which I could sub out player names and it would suffice to describe every EFL team’s performance yesterday. We thought the Dragons had possibly set the IP record on a single today, but no – the Wolverines bested them on the same day! 28 IP with 2.54 ERA is going to do wonders for your runs allowed, and it allowed the Wolverines to move past the Roos by .1 games in the standings. Mitch Keller delivered the best pitching line of the day, going 6IP with 0 ER. Lewis Brinson rewarded ODs faith (?), going 2 for 4 with a SB.
Canberra: W, 2-1 (42PA; 8.4IP)
| AVG: 0.158 | OBP: 0.238 | SLG: 0.263 | OPS: 0.501 |
| ERA: 2.14 | WHIP: 1.429 |
You guessed it! Another excellent day on the mound and an abysmal day at the plate. David Peterson went 6IP, gave up one ER and struck out 10 batters. Yoshi Tsutsugo continued his hot September, going 1 for 3 with a HR and a BB. But the Roos slipped just behind the Wolverines (which I am sure they will hear about in a text message or a Sunday afternoon phone call).
Pittsburgh: L, 3-5 (35PA; 8IP)
| AVG: 0.235 | OBP: 0.257 | SLG: 0.441 | OPS: 0.698 |
| ERA: 3.38 | WHIP: 1.000 |
It’s telling when a .698 OPS makes you think a team had a good day. And in terms of the EFL on September 19th, the Alleghenys did have a good day. Every hitter except for Max Muncy (who got 0) got exactly one hit on the day, and Dominic Smith’s went the furthest (a HR). The pitchers combined for 3 runs in 8 innings, which is pretty good.
Portland: “W,” 4-7 (33PA; 1.3IP)
| AVG: 0.281 | OBP: 0.303 | SLG: 0.406 | OPS: 0.709 |
| ERA: 0.00 | WHIP: 1.538 |
One of two offensive lines that was not offensive yesterday, the Rosebuds got 2 hits apiece from Nick Solak and Jorge Polanco. Tommy Pham also returned in what seems like record time from a broken hand, and collected one hit.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2020
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 35 | 18 | .660 | — |
| New York Yankees | 31 | 21 | .596 | 3.5 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 29 | 24 | .554 | 5.6 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 26 | 26 | .500 | 8.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 22 | 31 | .424 | 12.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 22 | 31 | .415 | 13 |
| Boston Red Sox | 19 | 34 | .358 | 16 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 30 | 22 | .577 | — |
| Miami Marlins | 27 | 24 | .529 | 2.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 27 | 25 | .519 | 3 |
| New York Mets | 24 | 28 | .462 | 6 |
| D.C. Balk | 24 | 28 | .458 | 6.2 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 22 | 30 | .420 | 8.2 |
| Washington Nationals | 19 | 31 | .380 | 10 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 34 | 18 | .654 | — |
| Minnesota Twins | 32 | 22 | .593 | 3 |
| Cleveland Indians | 28 | 24 | .538 | 6 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 24 | 28 | .453 | 10.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 22 | 29 | .431 | 11.5 |
| Kansas City Royals | 21 | 31 | .404 | 13 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 18 | 34 | .351 | 15.8 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 31 | 21 | .596 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 25 | 24 | .510 | 4.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 26 | 27 | .491 | 5.5 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 25 | 26 | .490 | 5.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 28 | .462 | 7 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 15 | 37 | .288 | 16 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Oakland A’s | 33 | 19 | .635 | — |
| Haviland Dragons | 28 | 24 | .536 | 5.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 28 | 24 | .534 | 5.2 |
| Houston Astros | 26 | 26 | .500 | 7 |
| Seattle Mariners | 23 | 29 | .442 | 10 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 23 | 30 | .434 | 10.5 |
| Texas Rangers | 18 | 34 | .346 | 15 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 38 | 15 | .717 | — |
| San Diego Padres | 33 | 20 | .623 | 5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 26 | 27 | .496 | 11.7 |
| San Francisco Giants | 25 | 26 | .490 | 12 |
| Colorado Rockies | 22 | 29 | .431 | 15 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 20 | 33 | .377 | 18 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 16 | 37 | .297 | 22.3 |
Actually there is no such thing as surplus IP. We use all of them, so EFL owners can throw as many pitchers out there as they want to.
Surplus PA, yes, that’s a thing. Your surplus PA can be viewed on your team stats page, for each position. Thanks to Jamie for reminding us about it.
Another EFL mystery solved. I know it doesn’t equal 1 run allowed by a pitcher means 1 run allowed by your team, and I imagine that has to do with defense, mostly? Good thing the computer does all the computing…
Hey, Ryan, i have an idea.
Jamie says the Pears are still in the pennant race even though they are three games out with three teams to pass.
We are LESS than 3 games behind the Cheese, the front BCCCDC team. Let’s pass ’em.