League Updates • Uncategorized

Left Behind

September 24, 2020
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I had a dream the other night…

(Wait! Is he going to tell us about a dream he’s had?)

[Looks like it. Amazing.]

(You mean “Outrageous!.”  Everyone knows no one wants to hear about other people’s dreams.)

[No kidding.  I’m going over to Facebook so I can look at those pictures of what my cousin had for lunch Monday.]

( I don’t blame you, but I need to read this to see if my team still has a pulse.)

[Suit yourself. See ya!]

 

… I was taking my family on a trip. I drove them up an insanely scary mountain road on a dark, rainy night, always on the brink of sliding over the cliff into a chasm so deep I couldn’t see the bottom.  We got to the destination safely – a touristy shopping area of some sort — but almost immediately various family members split off or ran ahead, and I was left behind.  I wasn’t alarmed at first.  But when I went around the corner some of them had just gone around, they weren’t there.  The rest of the dream was me searching for them, then running back through the mall checking every store … except the stores weren’t the same and the floorplan had changed…

 

[Hey, I’m back. My cousin’s 14 lunch photos weren’t that great. Is he on to the scores yet?]

(No)

 

… I suppose a dream therapist would say the dream means I have a fear of being left behind.

 

[Bingo!]

(What do you mean, “Bingo”?)

[He fears being left behind. What did I just do?]

(Ah.  You left him behind to go look at food pictures. I get it. But I don’t think he noticed.)

 

Maybe so,  because I had a surprisingly strong visceral reaction to yesterday’s standings.  You see, on Tuesday the Kangaroos and Wolverines were like this:

Canberra Kangaroos

22

32

.406

8.6

256

310

Old Detroit Wolverines

22

33

.406

8.7

254

310

 

That’s 8th and 9th place in the standings. It’s kind of a desperate place to be, not so different than a rainy muddy road along a cliff edge. But we were there together, separated by probably less than 0.1 games, identical winning percentages, identical runs allowed, identical graduate degrees, identical initials.  Even in runs scored, we were only separated by 2.  We were huddled in the rain, supporting each other, literally leaning on each other. 

But then came Wednesday’s standings…

 

Canberra Kangaroos

23

32

.418

8

263.8

310.4

D.C. Balk

23

32

.416

8.1

242.0

287.2

Old Detroit Wolverines

22

34

.393

9.5

252.0

315.1

 

… and suddenly I was there all by myself.  The ‘Roos were disappearing in the crowd; already someone was between us.  I could barely see Canberra.

 

I called out (on WhatsApp):

 

“Hey! Wait up! You’re suddenly 1.5 games ahead of me!

C’mon Ry, wait up!”

 

It took 16 minutes for my message to reach Ryan and his reply to come back, he was so far away.

 

                 “Sorry can’t hear you from way up here in the standings.”

 

[I don’t blame him.]

(Who?)

[Ryan. For going so far away it takes 8 minutes for a WhatsApp message to get there.]

(Don’t be ridiculous. Ryan didn’t go to Mars.  He just went to 7th place.)

 

If everything goes according to the formula of my dream, pretty soon I’ll stop recognizing the other teams around me in the standings.  My W’s will be in some other strange league, probably in last place, maybe an incalculable number of games out.

 

Maybe if I pinch myself I’ll wake up and find it’s only been a bad dream.  Otherwise it’s a little creepy:  my dream world leaking into my real-life fantasy league!  Will the barrier between fantasy and reality start to leak, too?   With the W’s stuck in 9th place?

 

Let’s see  what Wednesday did to keep fact separate from fantasy separate from nightmare.

 

EFL Standings for 2020
EFL
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB RS RA
Flint Hill Tornadoes 32 25 .554 — 284.6 270.3
Peshastin Pears 29 27 .517 2.1 295.2 280.1
Kaline Drive 28 27 .517 2.2 234.1 221.4
Haviland Dragons 28 27 .510 2.5 256.8 248.0
Cottage Cheese 27 29 .481 4.2 292.5 304.2
Bellingham Cascades 27 30 .467 5 288.8 320.6
Canberra Kangaroos 23 33 .415 7.9 268.7 318.6
D.C. Balk 23 33 .413 8 247.3 295.8
Old Detroit Wolverines 22 35 .377 10.1 254.1 326.6
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 20 37 .357 11.2 256.7 343.9
Portland Rosebuds 17 39 .297 14.4 251.7 385.6
 
 
Flint Hill: L, 2 – 6.
AVG: 0.194 OBP: 0.275 SLG: 0.333 OPS: 0.608 PA: 40
ERA: 4.60 WHIP: 1.022 IP: 13.7
  
 
Crummy hitting and mediocre pitching left the Tornados with a loss.  Despite their management’s urging the rest of the league not to give up, it seems either the players resonated more with Allegheny  management’s sentiments.  They mentally moved on to next season.   

Or maybe it’s all just Alex Claudio’s fault.  He triple chulked (2/3 of an inning, 2 er), which pushed the team’s daily ERA up from 3.39. 
 
But there’s no point in pointing fingers. The Tornado lead shrank by only 0.3 games.  With 4 games left in the season, the T’s have nothing to worry  about.  Probably. 
 
 
 
Peshastin:  W, 8 – (-1)
AVG: 0.297 OBP: 0.381 SLG: 0.459 OPS: 0.840 PA: 43
ERA: 2.08 WHIP: 0.615 IP: 13.0
 
… or maybe not!  We have a brand new team in second place!
  
In what might be the most thrilling moment for Pears fans since the first season in EFL history, Peshastin leapt from 4th to 2nd in a single day, slashing their games behind from 3.3 to 2.1!  Do that just  twice more and they’re in first!
 
How did the Pears go from soft and juicy to a threat to take down mighty Tornados?  Ryan Mountcastle going 3 for 4?  Zach Eflin pitching 8 innings, 3 er, backed by Ross Stripling’s 4 scoreless?  Joan Soto blasting another homer?  
 
Granted, those stats are all pretty juicy.  But I think the real prod came from Tuesday’s update, where the author pointed his finger straight at Pear management: 
 
Where is the inner terrier, Peshastin, the energetic little black dog who doggedly confronts intruders and other vermin?  Would a Peshastin Terriers team have rolled over as contentedly?  How many Peshastin EFL Championships did you give up for the sake of alliteration (and local chamber-of-commerce boosterism)? 
 
That post was accompanied by a photo of what I believe might be a terrier, and also a near-twin to a REAL dog currently residing at Pear headquarters. 
 
(Yikes!  A breach in the wall between reality and fantasy!)
 
Sometimes it takes blunt honesty from a friend to get clarity about what one has to do.  Tuesday morning the Pears were 3.4 games back. They won Tuesday night, gaining 0.1 games on a “winning” Flint Hill team.  And now they’ve won BIG and look where they are.  
 
They still have a long way to go in a very short time.  But  if the Pears pull off the mightiest last minute surge in EFL (or even MLB) history, they’ll probably just have to rename themselves the Terriers. 
 
 
 
Kaline: L, 3 – 5.  
AVG: 0.239 OBP: 0.271 SLG: 0.370 OPS: 0.640 PA: 48
ERA: 6.00 WHIP: 1.333 IP: 3.0
 
 
Today is Thursday, and Jamie isn’t writing this post so he can’t cast his evil spells on the Drive. So this should have been the day that favor smiled upon the Drive. 

And it did!  They lost, but not as badly as the Tornados, so they moved closed to the top.  But the charm, for some reason, didn’t reach full potency. Gaining 0.2  games with four days to go isn’t good enough.  And having previously unprepossessing Pears sprint past you unexpectedly has to be disheartening. 
 
But be heartened, oh Drive!  Kyle Lewis seems to be awaking from his slump (2 for 4 with a SB).  And you have two more games to play than the Tornados, or the Pears.  The Pears have proven what can be done.  You don’t need to match their pace — with those two extra games, you only need to come within 33% of what the Pears did.  And maybe  I can talk Jamie into letting me do another post this weekend…
 
 
 
Haviland: L, 5 – 8.
AVG: 0.236 OBP: 0.263 SLG: 0.364 OPS: 0.627 PA: 57
ERA: 4.29 WHIP: 1.224 IP: 14.7
 
 The Dragons’s day was similar to the Tornado’s, with the D’s just barely outperforming the T’s in both offense and defense.  BRandon Lowe and Ramon Laureano both had two hits, including a homer to lead the offense.  Tyler Glasnow and Trevor Williams split 11.7 innings and 3 earned runs as evenly as possible.  

Yet the Dragons gained only 0.1 games on the Tornados. I can spot two reasons Haviland’s gains weren’t greater:   
      1.  They had to be  startled when the Pears went zipping past.
      2.  Sixto Sanchez is in a slump. In his second straight sub-par session, he only completed 3 innings while giving up 4 walks and an equal number of earned runs.
 
I wonder if there’s any way Sanchez could fall to the W’s in next spring’s draft? 
 
 
 
Cottage: W, 8 – 3.  
AVG: 0.279 OBP: 0.340 SLG: 0.605 OPS: 0.945 PA: 47
ERA: 4.33 WHIP: 1.635 IP: 10.4
 
Three homers, two triples, and a double turned a solid offensive day into a very good one. Randy Arozarena had two of the homers, while Shohei Ohtani added the third. Joey Bart and Yoan Moncada contributed the triples to this potluck, while Alex Verdugo brought a double he picked up at Safeway.  Danny Duffy (5.7 ip, 1 er) pretty well picked up after Ryan Castellani (4.7 ip, 4 er).  


The Cheese gained 0.8 games on first place, but realistically — if that word means anything anymore — I suspect the good feelings the Head Cheese has this morning probably has more to do with the 0.6 games they added to their lead over the Cascades.


 
Bellingham: W 1, L 1; 12 – 14 
AVG: 0.320 OBP: 0.433 SLG: 0.400 OPS: 0.833 PA: 30
ERA: 3.91 WHIP: 1.304 IP: 2.3

The outstanding element in the Cascade offense Wednesday might be their five walks, enough to pad a solid .320 BA by over .100 points in OBP.   But that isn’t much a highlight for a doubleheader. Nor is a nice 3.91 ERA when it only represents 2.3 innings pitched.   
 
The formerly tight BCCCDC is all out of order and not at all tight anymore.  I’m so sorry. 
 
 
 
Canberra: L, 5 – 8. 
AVG: 0.308 OBP: 0.372 SLG: 0.513 OPS: 0.885 PA: 43
ERA: 9.00 WHIP: 1.000 IP: 1.0
 
Oh no.  My bad dream isn’t over. The Kangaroos, 0.1 games ahead of me on Monday,  are now 2.9 games up.  In just three days!! (Did I just hear a scream of terror coming from Flint Hills?)  
 
Five ‘Roos collected two hits each (A. Diaz’ two doubles, Vlad’s double and single, and six singles total from Jeffers, Margot and E. Escobar.  Not even a 9 era (over only one inning) could stop the ‘Roos from bounding further away from the Woeverines.
 
 
 
DC:  L, 5 – 8.
AVG: 0.268 OBP: 0.333 SLG: 0.561 OPS: 0.894 PA: 45
ERA: 16.88 WHIP: 3.750 IP: 1.6
 
 
Pretty nice offense — especially Danny Jansen’s 4 for 4 with TWO homers, which might be enough to silence his doubters, maybe?  But it was all undone by Chasen Shreve’s nonuple chulk — 0.3 ip, 3 er.  And even though it was less than 2 ip, that 16.88 ERA is hard to bear.   
 
Still, the Balk kept pace with the Kangaroos, so 7th place is still within  reach.                  

 
 
Old Detroit:  L, 2 – 11. 
AVG: 0.206 OBP: 0.270 SLG: 0.382 OPS: 0.653 PA: 37
ERA: 18.00 WHIP: 3.000 IP: 2.0
 
Well, the attempt to win the month hasn’t worked out.  With two straight disastrous days, the W’s are down to 9 – 12 on the month.  That’s still good for fourth place on the month, but even the Cheese are doing better than the W’s in September. 
 
Is there any bright side to the W’s day?  Well, Jurickson Profar went 2 for 3  with a double, and Anthony Benboom went 2 for 4 with a homer.  But if you add up their current allocations, you get 0%.  
 
On the other hand, Adrian Morejon tossed 1 inning and sloshed out 4 earned runs.  And he’s allocated 50%.  Which pretty much points the finger of blame in the direction of management.  
 
Or the dream world leaking into the fantasy world. 


 
Pittsburgh: W, 13 – 8. 
AVG: 0.325 OBP: 0.357 SLG: 0.625 OPS: 0.982 PA: 42
ERA: 4.16 WHIP: 1.445 IP: 17.3
 
… well, how about the Alleghenys drawing within 1.1 games of ninth place?  Not that ninth place sounds like it could be coveted, but to someone in 10th? 
 
If the A’s don’t covet the W’s place in the standings, why would they blast 3 homers plus a double and a triple? Why would Nate Eovaldi suddenly uncork 6 shutout innings to salvage a decent team ERA?  The Alleghenys have traumatized the Wolverines so many times at the top of the standings. Now they threaten to repeat the trauma at the bottom of the standings.  Can’t they give us a break? 


Portland: W, 6 – 0
AVG: 0.310 OBP: 0.394 SLG: 0.828 OPS: 1.222 PA: 33
ERA: 3.00 WHIP: 1.000 IP: 12.0
 
The Rosebuds, too?  Look at that OPS, led by dual homers from both Bryce Harper and Franchy Cordero.   Look at those 12 fine innings — well 6 crummy  ones from Michael Wacha (4 er) and 6 more outstanding ones from Nick Margevicius (0 er).  

What are they doing?  They’re on the brink of giving the #1 pick back to Pittsburgh!  I mean the Pirates.  I presume the Alleghenys are out of reach. 
 
 
 
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2020
AL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Tampa Bay Rays 37 20 .649 —
New York Yankees 32 24 .571 4.5
Flint Hill Tornadoes 32 25 .554 5.4
Toronto Blue Jays 29 27 .518 7.5
Baltimore Orioles 23 33 .411 13.5
Boston Red Sox 22 34 .393 14.5
Old Detroit Wolverines 22 35 .377 15.5
NL East
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Atlanta Braves 34 22 .607 —
Miami Marlins 28 28 .500 6
Philadelphia Phillies 28 29 .491 6.5
New York Mets 25 31 .446 9
Canberra Kangaroos 23 33 .415 10.8
D.C. Balk 23 33 .413 10.9
Washington Nationals 23 33 .411 11
 
AL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Minnesota Twins 35 22 .614 —
Chicago White Sox 34 22 .607 0.5
Cleveland Indians 32 24 .571 2.5
Bellingham Cascades 27 30 .467 8.4
Kansas City Royals 23 33 .411 11.5
Detroit Tigers 22 32 .407 11.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 20 37 .357 14.6
NL Central
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Chicago Cubs 32 24 .571 —
St. Louis Cardinals 27 26 .509 3.5
Cincinnati Reds 29 28 .509 3.5
Milwaukee Brewers 27 28 .491 4.5
Cottage Cheese 27 29 .481 5.1
Pittsburgh Pirates 17 39 .304 15
 
AL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Oakland A’s 34 21 .618 —
Kaline Drive 28 27 .517 5.6
Haviland Dragons 28 27 .510 5.9
Houston Astros 28 28 .500 6.5
Los Angeles Angels 26 31 .456 9
Seattle Mariners 25 31 .446 9.5
Texas Rangers 19 37 .339 15.5
NL West
TEAM WINS LOSSES PCT. GB
Los Angeles Dodgers 39 17 .696 —
San Diego Padres 34 22 .607 5
Peshastin Pears 29 27 .517 10
San Francisco Giants 28 27 .509 10.5
Colorado Rockies 24 31 .436 14.5
Arizona Diamondbacks 22 34 .393 17
Portland Rosebuds 17 39 .297 22.3
 
 
 

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