Newsletter for games through 8-22-21

COMMENTARY

Musings on Met malaise…one reason I love watching baseball even when my favorite team is terrible is the strange things that happen…while getting blown out last week the Mets put in backup utility guy Brandon Drury to pitch the 9th…and he couldn’t finish it…so they sent int another position player to finish mopping up…you know things are bad when you have to make a pitching change because your emergency white-flag player can’t even throw strikes…The NL division race is between Gordon’s Cubs and Chris’ Brewers….Brewers are up by 2 losses, and Cubs gained a game this week…Last week Washington took 2 of 3 from the Brewers to help out he Cub cause, and the Reds took 2 of 3 from the Brewers to help the Cub cause….meanwhile, the Braves, Marlins, and Nationals are slugging it out in the NL East and are all within 4.5 games of each other, with the Braves gaining the most ground…crucially, the Braves took 2 of 3 from the Marlins in a head-to-head series…Oakland and Houston are providing the most drama in the AL, and both were 3-4 last week…Texas is the spoiler you don’t want to play right now, and they ran the table at 6-0 and are 8-2 over their last 10, moving into a tie with the Orioles for the top wins-over-reality spot…the real factor is which actual team will blow it the most in the last 5 weeks of the season…and a shout out to the Dodgers, Jays, and Chisox who have put themselves in the driver’s seat going into the stretch run…Padres seem to have a lock on the top NL wildcard spot (for now), and the Brewers/Cubs runner-up will probably claim the second spot, but if the Giants can pull a Rangers-like run they are definitely in contention…Rays and A’s have the top 2 AL wildcard spots, but the Yankees, Twins, and Angels are within 5 games, and I’m not counting the Rangers out of anything at this point…best record in the NL went to the Diamondbacks, who are quietly .500 over the last 30 games, which is quite a feat given the tailspin the actual club is in…watching the little league world series and wondering if we really need a world championship for 12-year-olds…seems mostly like a “first to puberty” contest…and then I watch the Angel bullpen and wonder why they weren’t recruiting out of the little league games…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Aristides Aquino (Cincinnati) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2021 against Chicago (CC)) 
Austin Hedges (Cleveland) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2021 against Minnesota) 
Trent Grisham (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2021 against Colorado) 
Trevor Bauer (Los Angeles) struck out 12 batters (on 8/16/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Michael Chavis (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 8/17/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Gerrit Cole (Philadelphia) struck out 13 batters (on 8/17/2021 against Arizona) 
Pete Alonso (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 8/17/2021 against San Francisco) 
Yoan Moncada (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 8/18/2021 against Boston) 
Seattle and Texas played14.5 innings on8/19/2021
Aaron Nola (Kansas City) struck out 12 batters (on 8/19/2021 against Houston) 
Mitch Garver (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 8/19/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Garrett Hampson (Chicago (CC))  had 5 hits (on 8/20/2021 against Kansas City) 
Mitch Garver (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 8/20/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Collin McHugh (Tampa Bay) struck out 13 batters (on 8/20/2021 against Chicago (CWS)) 
Mitch Haniger (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 8/20/2021 against Houston) 
Jason Vosler (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 8/21/2021 against Oakland) 
San Francisco and Oakland played15.5 innings on8/21/2021
Carlos Santana (Seattle) hit 6 RBI (on 8/21/2021 against Houston) 

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Newsletter for games through 8-8-21

COMMENTS

From John Weerts, and offered for the pet-owning component of our membership: “The cat that interrupted the Yankee game on 8/2/21 had the 30th highest print run for a baseball card this season on Topps Now web site with 3,836 cards printed. The cat at the Rockies-Dodgers game in Colorado on 4/2/21 is in 39th place on the print run list with 2,958. With 635 Tops now cards through 8/9/21 it looks like the cats are winning.”… coincidence, then, that Pat’s Tigers have the 3rd-best AL central record over the last 30 games? The baseball-card buying public has spoken…I try not to discuss the Mets too much here, and usually fail, but I think my 14-game losing streak is an accomplishment that bears mention…I have 207 innings on my disabled list, and I traded deGrom…Danny WIldes is ruling the NL East and not only leads the division but has a 3.5 WOR, things that almost pale considering Steve Clemmons is +11.5 and as 6-1 last week, best in the NL…Andy Somers was 5-2 despite a spate of covid injuries and a Washington roster from an actual club that has basically mailed it in…Symonds and his re-vamped Phils had a winning week…Chris Zewiske moved into some sort of mathematical impossibility with Gordon Leckie and his Cubs…they have the same number of wins but the Brewers have fewer losses but fewer games, sooooo….the Cubs are up by .03 percentage points? Talk about a close race…Rick Wynne plugged away to another winning week but kudos to Hugh Brown’s Rockies with 4 wins on the week and Ben Leckie’s Diamondbacks who actually had the best record in the division…Alan Minsky and the Rays were 5-1 on the week and are 19-11 over the last 20, but this just might be the year for Johnny Mac, who’s 22-8 over the last 30 and won 5 more games this week…impossible to talk about the AL in any week without mentioning Mark Chen, despite a tough week, being +12.5 WOR with the Orioles…Leo is cruising in the AL Central and both the Twins and Royals had sub-.500 weeks, but they’re 10 and 9.5 games above reality respectively…the Guardians turned in a winning week for Steve Skrovan, who’s managing a team that just dipped below .500 in reality…Oh, my, the AL West…Jim Casey turned thr roster over and made it better, holding on to first place with a 5-1 week and 20-10 over the last 30…John Weerts‘ patience and trade saavy is paying off, and he’s solidified a lead on second and gone 8-2 over the last 10…the Angels have slid a little but Greg has the team at the exact .500 mark the real club has produced, and Texas is a solid 11 games over the actual team making just about every divisional game a meaningful one for some reason or another…Jeremy Moore’s Giants have 160 ASFBL homers, 3rd in the league…Raphael Malveaux‘s Reds have the 4th-best homer total in the NL, and only trail the Cubs in the central…weird stat of the week…the Orioles and Royals have the fewest innings pitched with 980 and 983, a full 45 innings lower than the Bosox and Twins, who have the most…although the Field of Dreams game is the first MLB game in Iowa, our server used to route through Iowa so our games were played there first…and a shout out CSUF alum Kevin Costner who’s work in Water World can almost be forgiven for making some decent baseball movies…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Jonathan Villar (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 8/2/2021 against Miami) 
Manny Machado (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 8/3/2021 against Oakland) 
Kyle Farmer (Cincinnati)  had 5 hits (on 8/4/2021 against Minnesota) 
Xander Bogaerts (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 8/6/2021 against Toronto) 
Corbin Burnes (Milwaukee) struck out 16 batters (on 8/6/2021 against San Francisco) 
Tommy Pham (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 8/6/2021 against Arizona) 
Michael Chavis (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2021 against Toronto) 
Andrew Kittredge (Tampa Bay) struck out 13 batters (on 8/7/2021 against Baltimore) 

Newsletter for games through 8-1-21

Trade Tales

Q: Who was the most active owner at the trade deadline?

A: Pat Walsh of the Tigers, with a staggering 8 trades. Other notables were Kansas City (Mike Mendoza) with 6, the Cubs (Gordon Leckie), Houston (Jim Casey), and Philly (Adam Symonds) with 5, and Baltimore (Mark Chen) and Texas (Ben Brockreide) with 3 each.

Q: How many trades did we make?

A: 24

Q: Did we beat MLB?

A: Depends on how you count; one sources says MLB pulled off three dozen trades, which is slightly ahead of us, but we go week-to-week so maybe we were closer. If anyone has a more definitive source, let me know

Q: When did the first trade happen?

A: Freaking Thursday of last week.

Q: Did big names move?

A: Oh, yeah. Greinke and Altuve, Gregorius, Mancini, and bunch of other guys having pretty good years that Rick Wynne probably knows all about but I’m just catching up on.

Q: Are there any Bruschke family connections to major league players who were traded this week in the ASFBL?

A: Obviously. Phil Bickford, in his brief and academically undistinguished career at CSU Fullerton, took an intro geology class from my wife that he thoroughly failed. He later dropped out having burned all his bridges with the coaching staff who, I might add, are generally a group of top-notch humans, especially head coach Rick Vanderhook. Sensing the potential negative clubhouse influence, Chris Zewiske shipped him out of Milwaukee. He’s Dodger property in real life.

Q: Were their blockbusters?

A: Probably…of the 48 trade packages 27 involved only a single player, so in 19 instances more than 1 player was involved in the deal. I guess that means about half of the trades involved at least one team sending multiple players?

Q: Did anyone get traded multiple times?

A: Josh Sborz, Didi Gregorius (who was also traded with 3 free waivers), and Jake (“Not THAT Bauer”) Bauers.

Q: Can we extend the trade deadline one more week?

A: No, we’d burn out the internet at our pace.

Feats and failures

Eric Sogard (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 7/26/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Robbie Ray (Toronto) struck out 12 batters (on 7/26/2021 against Boston) 
Charlie Morton (Atlanta) struck out 12 batters (on 7/27/2021 against New York (NYM)) 
Mike Zunino (Tampa Bay) struck out 4 times (on 7/27/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Michael Chavis (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 7/27/2021 against Toronto) 
Alek Manoah (Toronto) struck out 12 batters (on 7/27/2021 against Boston) 
Anthony Rizzo (Chicago (CC))  hit for the cycle! (on 7/27/2021 against Cincinnati) 
George Springer (Toronto) hit 6 RBI (on 7/29/2021 against Boston) 
Max Scherzer (Washington) struck out 11 batters (on 7/30/2021 against Chicago (CC)) 
Yadiel Hernández (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 7/30/2021 against Chicago (CC)) 
Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia) hit 3 homers (on 7/30/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia) hit 7 RBI (on 7/30/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Yoan Moncada (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 7/30/2021 against Miami) 
Bradley Zimmer (Cleveland) struck out 4 times (on 7/30/2021 against Chicago (CWS)) 
Yordan Álvarez (Houston) struck out 4 times (on 7/30/2021 against San Francisco) 
Austin Slater (San Francisco) hit 7 RBI (on 7/31/2021 against Houston) 
Yoan Moncada (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 7/31/2021 against Miami) 
Jesus Aguilar (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 7/31/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Nestor Cortes Jr. (New York (NYY)) struck out 11 batters (on 7/31/2021 against Miami) 
Trent Grisham (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 7/31/2021 against Colorado) 
Seby Zavala (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 4 times (on 8/1/2021 against Cleveland) 
Steven Duggar (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 8/1/2021 against Houston)