Off the wall

 

The other day Jamie told us “kind words cost nothing,” and lauded the Commissioner for saying nice things about various EFL teams, who responded by thinking better of themselves, having good days, and gaining on the Wolverines. 

 

“Bah, humbug!!”, I said to myself.  “Those kind words cost the Wolverines plenty, several games in the standings, probably, if you add up all the teams’ benefits. That Commissioner had better stop handing out kindness and leaving me with the bill.”  So I have spoken to the Commissioner. Perhaps he paid attention, for once: the T’s lost 0.2 games in the standings. 

 

NL East after games of 8/27
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
D.C. Balk	80	47	.634	—
Canberra Kangaroos	70	57	.551	10.5
Atlanta Braves	69	58	.543	11.5

 

NL East  after games of 8/28
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
D.C. Balk	81	47	.630	—
Canberra Kangaroos	70	58	.549	10.3
Atlanta Braves	69	59	.539	11.6

 

Note that the Braves lost their game while the Balk “won” theirs, but the Braves only slipped about 0.1 games in the standings. With the Braves somewhere between 11.5501 and 11.6449 games back, the Balk have to be between 80.5501 and 80.6449 wins.  So their 1 – 7 score got them somewhere between 0.0602 and 0.1599 wins, enough to go from an extreme round-down to an almost equally extreme round-up. 

 

Now for the Drive.   They started play yesterday like this in the AL West:

 

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Kaline Drive	79	49	.615	—
Houston Astros	76	52	.594	2.8

 

They seem to have 3 more wins and 3 fewer losses than the Astros, but are only 2.8 games (ie, 2.7501 to 2.8499) games up.  After winning 7 – 1, this morning’s standings look like this:

 

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Kaline Drive	80	49	.619	—
Houston Astros	77	52	.597	2.9

 

A 7 – 1 win is worth somewhere between 1.002 and 1.1998 wins, at least at this stage of the month. (It might be worth more earlier, and will be worth less later — in this case, up to three days later.)  This is how both teams could “win” but the Drive could gain about 1.2 games on the Balk.  

 

I love the EFL.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I don’t know where we’d find the Mocks to rebalance the league 4 to 4 between Mocks and Johnsons, let alone the majority of the members the SOS got in their “rebalancing.”  Melanie was in the old league, but seems to have crossed it off her lifetime bucket list.  Ben has done a draft for Ryan, but is going off to the Navy and not deep enough into baseball to sustain an EFL membership.  Sam is more of a soccer guy.  Melissa would be a great addition to the league, but doesn’t even like to hear me talk about the league for more than, say, 2 seconds at a time.  Her husband, Rahul, is a gem of a son-in-law, but not in some of the ways Andre is a gem of a son-in-law.  

 

My grandson Enzo has a lot of potential… but he’s only 9.  Not many of us could stand being beaten by a 9 year old. It might shatter the league.  His little brother Mateo will be 7 in a few week, but is already veering off into art and music. I have one of his paintings on my home office wall… 

 

Ryan?  Any ideas? 

 

Oh, Ryan, by the way: you probably noticed the Dragons racing toward you in the standings. That probably explains why you recoiled 0.3 games backward yesterday.  They’re now within 0.2 games.  Push on through the flock of fleeing fire-breathing fantastic flyers. You’ll be fine. 

 

 

 

Luis Robert is now outperforming both Eloy Jimenez and Ke’Bryan Hayes.  Sigh.