We burst out of the beginning-of-the-month tunnel, to find our league as a whole has been surging, at least from the point of view of plate tectonics. Consider:
- We were 8 games under .500 as a league on April 30. Now we are 2 games over .500.
- Three teams gained about 3 games on .500, 3 gained about 2 games, 1 gained about 1 game, 3 were about .500, and 2 lost about 2 games to .500.
- The young Johnsons have taken over. Young Mock is nearby but he stumbled a little out of the May gate. And that was before Drew Pomeranz left the mound this morning having surrendered seven earned runs in 1.2 innings. Including two homers to next draft’s hot thing, new debutant Nick Senzel. Plus a triple and double to Jose Iglesias, whose name came up in the draft but didn’t get drafted. I can vouch for EWIE Iglesias, whom I enjoyed having on the Wolverines for a couple of years. He is a modest hitter but a fine shortstop (8.7 defense).
- But I lost my train of thought! The Young Johnsons having taken over is a cause for alarm. And does it help to trade one of them Carlos Carrasco? Not to my mind. Stop it! Unless you bilk them good, of course.
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EFL Standings for 2019
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Portland Rosebuds | 24 | 12 | .665 | — | 228.6 | 164.4 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 22 | 11 | .662 | 0.6 | 213.9 | 152.9 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 21 | 12 | .629 | 1.7 | 204.2 | 159.1 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 19 | 13 | .586 | 3.2 | 161.3 | 135.7 |
| Kaline Drive | 16 | 18 | .483 | 6.5 | 121.1 | 126.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 17 | 19 | .476 | 6.8 | 173.6 | 182.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 16 | 18 | .471 | 6.9 | 154.8 | 168.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 15 | 18 | .442 | 7.8 | 172.1 | 189.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 14 | 17 | .437 | 7.9 | 147.4 | 167.9 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 13 | 19 | .403 | 9 | 150.6 | 187.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 13 | 20 | .392 | 9.5 | 156.5 | 190.7 |
| Brookland Outs | 11 | 20 | .369 | 10 | 139.7 | 185.8 |
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Portland: W 3, L 1; 18 – 9. (192 PA, .256, .324, .415; 45 ip, 17 er, 3.4o ERA). Abundant abundance here, which means the Rosebuds had the luxury of bending these stats in their favor by keeping weaker players on the bench.
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Flint Hill: W 4, L 1; 32 – 19. (190 PA, .246, .319, .503; 38.3 ip, 19 ER, 4.46 ERA) The Tornados traded at the last minute for Carlos Carrasco, getting his 7.7 ip, 4 er, giving up Archie Bradley and Kevin Kiermaier. We’ll see how they were doing in May when we get to DC, and see who won that trade.
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Canberra: W 2, L 2; 29 – 31. (184 PA, .293, .359, .551; 30.3 ip, 23 ER, 6.82 ERA) Nothing wrong with that offense, especially since it’s spread nicely through the team. Scoring 7.25 runs a game should do the trick! Unless, of course, your pitchers toss up a 6.82 ERA which, with your defense, results allowing 7.75 runs per game. Actually, Drew Pomeranz matched that runs-allowed-rate in the first 1.7 innings the Kangaroos pitched today, so as long as the offense stays hot and no other Kangaroo pitchers surrender runs, they should be ok. Or as ok as they were the first 5 days of the month.
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Pittsburgh: W 4, L 1; 27 – 14. (250 PA (!), .282, .347, .480; 32 ip, 6 ip, 1.69 ERA). Such great pitching! The starters combined for 24.7 ip 6 er — nothing wrong with that! That’s a raw stats ERA of under 2.50. But then 5 relievers combined for 7.3 ip, o er. That’s even better. With solid offense, the Alleghenys gained a bit on the Rosebuds.
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Kaline: W 1, L 3; 18 – 21. (210 PA, .276, .336, .469; 42 ip, 23 er, 4.93 ERA). Max Fried and new Drive Spencer Turnbull turned in 7 ip, 1 er gems, but Clay Buccholz, Marcus Stroman and Adam Wainwright combined for 12.7 ip, 17 er. Eight Drives OPSed over 1.00 for the first 5 days of May — led, ir0nically, buy Gerardo Parra’s 2.000 OPS (a single in his only trip to the plate), just preceding his designation for assignment by the Giants.
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Peshastin: W 1, L 3; 16 – 21. (190 PA, .246, .319, .386; 42.3 ip 19 er, 4.04 ERA). One of the lighter offensive impacts in the league the first 5 days of May combined with a mediocre round of pitching left the Pears with one of the two clearly losing records in the league.
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Haviland: W 3, L 1; 17 – 8. (197 PA, .235 .288, .410; 35.7 ip, 8 er, 2.02 ERA). Tyler Glasnow, Pablo Lopez, and Martin Perez (ahh, so this is why John bid on him) combined for 21 scoreless innings, anchoring an outstanding pitching performance. Most of the offense is due to Brandon Lowe (.400, .429, .650) and Gary Sanchez (.462, .563, 1.154). The result: the second biggest winning percentage gain in the league.
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Old Detroit: W 4, L 1; 40 – 23. (178 PA, .312, .385, .586; 33.3 ip, 18 er, 4.86 ERA). The raw numbers are not quite as good as the Dragons. But we know something they do not know: we are not Dereck-handed! That is, Dereck Rodriguez is on the bench, so his 8 er, 5 ip outing doesn’t hurt the W’s. Their effective ERA is much closer to 3.17 than 4.86. The Wolverines kept exact pace with the Rosebuds. See? I told you BP is wrong about the Wolverines finishing 23 games off the pace.
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Cottage: W 1, L 1; 5 – 5. (179 PA, .205, .282, .273; 27.3 ip, 7 er, 2.30 ERA). Just Saturday Brent Peterson convincingly feigned interest in our league. Brooks was sitting next to me, so we regaled him. Brent asked if anyone in our league ever paid a lot of money for a pitcher only to see the guy immediately fall off the table. We told him all about Danny Duffy.
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Except Danny Duffy went 6 ip, allowing only 1 run, to help the Cheese split their two games.
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Bellingham: W 3, L 2; 23 – 18. (145 PA, .290, .354, .412; 32 ip, 9 er, 2.53 ERA). That’s a little short on pitching and maybe on hitting (unless everything is allocated perfectly), but it’s still a fine start to the month. Keep that up and you’ll way over .500 before the season is over.
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DC: W 3, L 1; 31 – 23. (175 PA, .322, .423, .550; 26.7 ip, 17 er, 5.74 ERA). Let’s see, the Balk netted Archie Bradley (2 ip, 5 er) and Kevin Kiermaier (16 PA, 2 hits, 1 3b, 3 walks, .154, .313, .308). Hmmm. I like Kiermaier, and wouldn’t mind having him back somehow. But the Tornados won the first five days of the trade.
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Brookland: W 1, L 1; 7 – 5. (187 PA, .220, .275, .445; 32.7 ip, 8 er, 2.20 ERA). A lot of excellent pitching in the bank, and even some sort of decent hitting. This will come in handy if the Outs face any tripleheaders later in the month. All would have been roses had Nick Anderson not triple chulked to the Mariners yesterday (1.7 ip, 5 er).
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2019
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 22 | 11 | .662 | — |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 21 | 12 | .636 | 0.9 |
| New York Yankees | 19 | 14 | .576 | 2.9 |
| Boston Red Sox | 17 | 18 | .486 | 5.9 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 15 | 18 | .442 | 7.3 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 15 | 19 | .441 | 7.4 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 12 | 22 | .353 | 10.4 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 21 | 12 | .629 | — |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 19 | 14 | .576 | 1.8 |
| Atlanta Braves | 18 | 16 | .529 | 3.3 |
| New York Mets | 16 | 18 | .471 | 5.3 |
| Washington Nationals | 14 | 19 | .424 | 6.8 |
| D.C. Balk | 13 | 20 | .392 | 7.8 |
| Miami Marlins | 9 | 24 | .273 | 11.8 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Minnesota Twins | 20 | 12 | .625 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 19 | 13 | .586 | 1.2 |
| Cleveland Indians | 18 | 14 | .563 | 2 |
| Detroit Tigers | 15 | 16 | .484 | 4.5 |
| Chicago White Sox | 14 | 18 | .438 | 6 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 13 | 19 | .403 | 7.1 |
| Kansas City Royals | 12 | 23 | .343 | 9.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 19 | 12 | .613 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 20 | 14 | .588 | 0.5 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 20 | 16 | .556 | 1.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 16 | 15 | .516 | 3 |
| Cottage Cheese | 14 | 17 | .437 | 5.4 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 14 | 20 | .412 | 6.5 |
| Brookland Outs | 11 | 20 | .369 | 7.6 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 20 | 14 | .588 | — |
| Seattle Mariners | 19 | 17 | .528 | 2 |
| Texas Rangers | 16 | 16 | .500 | 3 |
| Kaline Drive | 16 | 18 | .483 | 3.6 |
| Haviland Dragons | 16 | 18 | .471 | 4 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 15 | 19 | .441 | 5 |
| Oakland A’s | 15 | 21 | .417 | 6 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 24 | 12 | .665 | — |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 22 | 14 | .611 | 1.9 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 20 | 14 | .588 | 2.9 |
| San Diego Padres | 19 | 16 | .543 | 4.4 |
| Peshastin Pears | 17 | 19 | .476 | 6.8 |
| Colorado Rockies | 16 | 19 | .457 | 7.4 |
| San Francisco Giants | 15 | 19 | .441 | 7.9 |