VOLUME:XLVI ... August 1, 2020
LATEST NEWS
Protect others by wearing a mask, stay 6 feet away from others and wash your hands.
Well here we are. We have 50 games left and so far nobody has been eliminated from anything. Granted a couple teams have mighty slim chances, but Jimmy V lives a bit in everyone. There are three very active pennant races and one of them actually has four teams within 10 games of first. Did we have any records set last month? Not officially but I would say that Western NY at Burnsville would have set one if we had a record for futility. Neither team even hit 140! In the four games, WNY had 18 hits & Burnsville 17.
MLB OPT OUTS-COVID 19: I think it's different from a player missing the entire season due to injury or suspension and not receiving a card. We have five opt outs on our rosters. (ALB) David Price, (BEN) Jordan Hicks, (CEN) Mike Leake, (ETI) Ian Desmond & Buster Posey, (SYR) Isan Diaz. Why not provide a special draft round as compensation for those four teams, if they choose to retain that player? A special Covid 19 draft round within our next draft after Round 8. They pick in their regular draft order, one player at a time, from those still available at that point. After their picks we resume our draft with Round 9. Those selections would NOT count towards our 36 man roster limit. In other words if Dowrick wants to keep both, he can roster 38 players. I don't think we can easily come up with a value scale so I'm suggesting the flat value. Somebody got a better idea or should we not care about this?
Bob Fenili wrote two really great recaps regarding his series with Western NY. It starts off this way. "A photo in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle showed Homestead's Josh Donaldson and his teammates disembarking from Homestead's charter plane "The Jet Gray Express" at the Greater Rochester International Airport with the caption "Grays in Town for Big 4 Game Series." It should have read "Leading the Lambs to Slaughter." to continue go here
HARWELL DIV: 
A four team race? Ottawa stumbled a bit last month and saw their lead shrink to two games. They were 7-6 home/4-10 away last month and are +13 in home wins over away wins. The Cats are 8-3-1 (WLT) in series play at home and 4-8-0 away. Western NY is the one now chasing them. They were 10-3h/7-7a last month and are +9 in home wins. The North Stars series marks are 9-2-1h/5-7-0a. In third just four out of first is Albuquerque. The had a 8-5h/6-8a month and are +11 in home wins. The Horsemen are 9-2-1h/4-6-2a in series play. In fourth and still in this race we have Kentucky. They posted a 9-4h/6-8a month & are a whopping +18 in home wins. The Bourbons series record is 8-1-3h/1-9-2a. In fifth and thirteen out of first is Havre de Grace. They were 5-8h/9-5a in July and +2 in home wins. The Bucs series record is now 5-5-2h/4-7-1a.
CARAY DIV: 
Syracuse has regained the lead here but it's just one thin game in this two team battle. They were 7-7h/8-5a last month & -6 in home wins versus road wins. The Blues series play shows a 7-3-2h/8-3-1 mark. Right behind in second is Homestead. They had a 9-5h/4-9a July and are now +3 in home wins. The Grays series record is 8-3-1h/9-3-0a. In third and ten out of first is Laurel Highlands. They were 10-4h/5-8a last month and are +2 at home in wins. The Mustangs series' show a 8-4-0h/4-5-3a record. In fourth is Bennett Run and 23 back. They played 7-7h/4-9a ball in July and are +5 in home wins. The Boilermakers series record is now 6-5-1h with a sorry 1-9-2a mark. Just a game back of them is Centralia. They were 6-8h/6-7a last month & -2 in home vs away wins. The Minefires are a pitiful 0-9-3h vs 3-7-2 away.
ALLEN DIV: 
Another two team fight. Miami Beach stays in front by five games. They had a 7-2h/4-5a July and are now +6 in home wins over away wins. The Bears have a stellar 11-1-0 home series mark and are 7-5-0 away. Still chasing them is Burnsville who were 7-2h/3-6a last month to put them a rather large +17 in home wins. The Blaze series record is a perfect 12-0-0 at home & not even close 3-8-1 away. A terrific three way fight for third place is going on in this group. Etiwanda is tied for third and 25 out of first after a 5-4h/3-6a month making them +7 in home wins. The Anteaters are 5-5-2h/1-9-2a in series'. Tied with them for third is Knob Noster. They had a 4-5h/3-6a July and are +3 in home wins. The Knuckleheads series record is 4-7-1h/3-7-2a. One game behind those two is Port St Lucie. They posted a 2-7h/5-4a record in July & are -2 in home wins. Their series record is 2-8-2h/1-9-2a.
WILDCARD: 
The three berths have Homestead at #3, Burnsville #4 and just two back of the Grays. The final slot right now is Western NY who are six back of the Grays. Three teams are breathing down the WNY necks. Albuquerque is two behind them, Laurel Highlands just three back and Kentucky is 5 behind WNY. It's not like any of the rest are for sure done but double digits back of the #6 slot isn't good. Those are lead by Havre de Grace out by 11, Bennett Run, Etiwanda & Knob Noster all 16 out with Centralia and Port St Lucie 17 games from the #6 slot.
TEAM STATS: We've had 262 games played on-line or face to face. Awesome! Of those games the home team is 139-123. Leading the way is Albuquerque with 75g/38wins, Laurel Highlands 68g/32w, Homestead 65g/34w, Syracuse 65g/39w, Ottawa 49g/24w, Miami Beach 46g/28w, Port St Lucie 46g/18w, Knob Noster 45g/16w, Kentucky 37g/21w and Western NY 28g/12w. The breakdown of those games are at the bottom of the stat page after the team stats..... Those team stats will show Ottawa the dominant offense. They not only lead us is OPS but also total bases, extra base hits, ISO% and runners on base. Except the ISO, the second best in any of those is not close. They are one of two with 600+ runs and lead that. Centralia is the only team with 1000 hits. In bombs it's Albuquerque with 1 more than the Fat Cats and both are over 240. Ottawa is just five shy of 500 walks to lead there. Port St Lucie is number one in stealing with nearly 90. Laurel Highlands has hit into only 52 doubleplays while Homestead is at 99. Burnsville continues to put on the defense clinics and have only made 29 errors. Etiwanda has made 89..... On the mound we have three teams with ERA's in the threes. Syracuse just barely better than Miami Beach. Port St Lucie, Bennett Run & Knob Noster are fighting to see who's the worst with 5.50+ ERA's. Ottawa & Miami Beach the most shutouts. Burnsville and the Bears haven't allowed 800 hits yet. Havre de Grace the worst of six with 200+ dingers allowed. Centralia the fewest allowed. Syracuse the only team with 1100+ k's. Centralia barely over 800... Two standout stats: Burnsville has about 3.00 ERA at home and about 5.00 on the road. Albuquerque about 3.40 at home and 5.40 away.
PLAYER STATS: We have five 300 hitters and a new batting average leader. Howie Kendrick (Mia) is now on top hitting 323 with Austin Meadows (Bur) right behind him. LeMahieu (Cent), Marte (Ott) & Acuna (PSL) also over 300. Nobody is over 400 for on base percentage but the leader Mike Trout (Alb) is just under at 399. Kendrick is also over 390. Austin Meadows (Bur) is the leader in slugging and the lone man over 700. Renfroe (PSL), Trout (Alb), Rendon (Syr), Bellinger (Ott) & Arenado (Alb) are over 600. In OPS Meadows tops this one too at over 1100. Trout (Alb) & Rendon (Syr) also over 1000. In RBI's we have two over 90 and Nolan Arenado (Alb) is leading with 96 with Hunter Renfroe (PSL) the one. Renfroe leads in extra base hits with 72 (32/2/38). Bellinger (Ott) and Harper (Ott) over 70. Whit Merrifield (Ben) is our triples leader. Bryce Harper (Ott) is best at hitting doubles. Mike Bregman (Ott) and Mookie Betts (Kno) both have over 80 walks. Ronald Acuna (PSL) is way, way out in front stealing. Ketal Marte (Ott) at 139 and Acuna (PSL) at 130 lead in hits. Dingers leader is Peter Alonso (WNY) with 44 on his march to 60. Next up on that list is Arenado (Alb) with 39. Bryce Harper (Ott) may not lead in extra base hits but he is the best in the league at whiffing. Alonso (WNY) is pretty good at it too. Eddie Rosario (WNY) is the best at being worst. He's hitting under 180 folks..... On the mound Jacob deGrom (WNY) is performing the best of the "A" studs. He's the lone man with an ERA under 3 and it's about a half run lead over 2nd place Justin Verlander (Mia) who just a bit from getting into the two's along with Hyun-Jin Ryu (Ott). It's also deGrom (WNY) leader the wins column with 14 and again it's Verlander (Mia) the one right behind him. Gerrit Cole (Syr) leads K's with almost 200. Second here also in the 190s is, wait for it, Verlander (Mia). On top of the WHIP list is Hyun-Jin Ryu (Ott) with a tiny 0.76. It's deGrom (WNY) & Verlander (Mia) also under 1.00 in that stat. In the other pitcher glory stats we have the same guys. It's Verlander (H/9), Ryu (K/BB), Cole (K/9) on top. There are three players with over 30 saves. Liam Hendriks (WNY) leads them. Places where pitchers don't want to be are losses where Yu Darvish (Eti) has the most and high ERA where Trevor Bauer (PSL) is the worst and the lone man with a plus 7 ERA.
PAGE TWO:
Stephen Piscotty (Bur) remains at 1000 and next up behind him is Lane Thomas (Ott-Eti) at 364 after 22 ABs. At the bottom of that list are Gavin Lux (Alb) and Adam Haseley (Ben) at 000 on 3 ABs... Best wishes go out for Kike Hernandez (Ott) who 4 for 35 (114)... Three guys with over 90 runs scored and Cody Bellinger (Ott) leads at 92. Every other player who has been in a games has scored at least one run even Kike... Brandon Belt (Cen) has 65 PAs and never driven in one single run... Cole Tucker (Cen) has zero extra base hits with 22 ABs. Brandon Belt has one... Jonathan Villar (Mia-WNY) has been bagged 6 of his 26 steal attempts. Tip of cap to Paul Goldschmidt (Alb) who has been thrown out 5 of his 6 attempts. Mallex Smith (Ken) is a perfect 22 for 22 stealing... Matt Chapman (PSL) aka Dartboard, has been hit 27 times. Anthony Rizzo (Ben) is also in the twenties. Never happened to Mookie Betts (Kno) in his 519 PAs... Jose Abreu (Kno) has 6 sac flies. We now have seven players with one successful bunt. Two on Homestead and two on Bennett Run... Freddie Freeman (Hom) has grounded into 18 double plays. Kris Bryant (LHi) has never done that during his 348 ABs... Jorge Polanco (Cen) has booted 22 and Kevin Newman (Eti) has 20... There are 39 players still in the minors.. Tommy Kahnle (Bur) has been in 73 games. There are 21 with 0 games... There's 23 undefeated pitchers and Domingo German (Hom) is 8-0. There are 18 guys with 000 WL% and the worst one is Pedro Baez (Cen) who's 0-5... Cody Stashak (Mia) has a 9.00 ERA after 3ip. Get well soon wishes go out to Kyle Gibson (Kno) who's 8.83 after 90.7ip gets your attention and makes you wonder why he still has a job. Jacob Webb (WNY) has a 0.87 ERA after 10.3ip... Zach Davies (Ott) has 9 complete games of his 24 starts... There are four with two shutouts. Gerrit Cole (Syr), Clayton Kershaw (Ott), Kenta Maeda (Hav) & Noah Syndergaard (Hom)... Mike Minor (LHi) and Mike Fiers (WNY) have given up 37 big flies. Tony Watson (Cen) has given up 1 after 33.3ip... Trevor Bauer (PSL) has walked 90 in 136.7ip and he does NOT have a "w" control letter. Next on that list with 68 is Kenta "Two Shutout" Maeda (Hav) in 131ip and he doesn't have a "w" either. Zack Littell (Eti) has zero walks in 10ip... Freddy Peralta (Syr) has a 17.0 K/9 rate after 9ip. Sam Tuivailala (Ben) is at 4.5 after 14ip... Cody Stashak (Mia) has 15.0 H/9 rate and Evan Marshall (Bur) is at 3.0... Craig Kimbrel (Alb) has posted a 2.15 WHIP in 30.7ip while Alex Wood (Bur) is at 0.56 after 9ip.
... IMPORTANT DATES ...
- October 1: Playoffs begin
- Jan 30, 2021 (Sat): Free Agent Draft
THE SHOW
A few quick comments. I know it's 2020 and the world is screwed up but I'm not a fan about some changes. Installing minor league rules of a runner on 2nd base to start each extra inning and scheduling seven inning double headers so the players aren't together too long. Really? What about keeping everyone in the clubhouses for 8 hrs before postponing the Cubs-Reds game on the 30th. We have 16 teams making the playoffs this year which lowers baseball into a softball tournament or NHL foolishness. The honor of having the best record has been erased and a bye from the new TV three game round. How about they require that any kind of rain delay is no longer than two hours. Just play 7 inning games. Maybe have runner on start on 3rd in extra innings. Tie games anyone? Why eliminate any teams from the playoffs? Imagine the TV pregame drama of the 15th seed about to attempt knocking off the best team in round one... That said I get it. It's not gonna be easy this year and the bottom line is I'm glad there is baseball to watch in whatever form it has chosen. Moving on...
Does baseball have a Covid 19 problem or is it really just a Miami Marlins problem? Since the season started last week, 17 Marlins have tested positive. The Marlins knowingly had four players test positive before they played a game with the Phillies. They have had all their games postponed thru August 2nd. The Phillies have as of July 30th, no positives for players but they won't play until the 31st. The issue resulted in the Yankees having four games with Phillies postponed and two games with Orioles added into two of those dates which was also new for the Orioles who were supposed to be playing the Marlins. The Marlins have been locked down in Philadelphia until at least the 2nd. On July 31 the St Louis Cardinals had two players test positive which caused a postponement and most likely the first of the minor league 7 inning double headers. MLB has now launched some new protocols as of July 30th. It requires surgical masks and not just cloth ones for all players and staff on the road. All teams must now have a compliance officer who will ensure league protocols are followed including players being encouraged to never leave their hotel except for the games.
The MLB investigation of what the heck happened with Marlins includes speculation that a few of the Marlins players left the team hotel in Atlanta to "party" on July 21st, just before the season started. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on the 27th the league will carry on with the 2020 season despite the Miami Marlins COVID-19 outbreak. Manfred said on MLB Network that owners haven't seriously entertained the idea of halting the season and that league officials "believe the protocols are adequate to keep our players safe. I don't put this in the nightmare category. We don't want any player to get exposed. It's not a positive thing, but I don't see it as a nightmare. We built the protocols to allow us to continue to play. That's why we have the expanded rosters. That's why we have the expanded pools of additional players. We think we can keep people safe and continue to play." Meanwhile the Marlins are bringing in some of the surplus, "alterate training", 60 guys and making claims from the waiver wire.
How about this idea that I heard today? Any player violating the protocols of not going to bars, casino's etc or is spitting all over the field or is high fiving his team mates. Any violation means his team forfeits any postponed game and he's suspended without pay for 6 games. I mean those idiots are possibly going to shut down the game entirely if they can't behave like adults for eight weeks.
Maybe if they click their heels three times while saying "There's no place like home", a miracle will happen and it'll just go away.