League Schedule

Two weeks worth of games shows some playoff movement at the top, but not so much at the bottom playoff spots. This writeup doesn’t reflect the game stats from the 21 series LZP, as I was using the 19 series LZP earlier this morning.

In the West, Woodland Hills finally climbs to the top of the league and stays there, because of a strong 17-13 September record. The pitching staff lead the way with a 3.13 team era, with a bunch of starters doing well: T Glasnow continues to end the season strong as he has gone 2-0 with a 2.00 era; J Verlander continues to be the best 7th round pick ever, as he has gone 2-0 with a 2.76 era; R Pepiot is excellent as ever, going 2-1 with a 3.12 era; and after going 1-4 with an 11+ era last month, this month R Bergert has gone 2-0 with a 3.24 era. While it’s still the S Ohtani show over there (he’s batting .367 with 25 runs, 12 homeruns and 21 rbi), M Muncy has been on fire, hitting .379, with 22 runs, 5 homeruns and 11 rbi. F Lindor is still chipping in, batting .257 with 15 rbi. Looks like the Chompers are firing on all cylinders, and finally can capture the Championship this year that was snatched from them last year. Even though the Hollywood has gone 10-5 this month, the Swingers have fallen 6.5 games back from the red hot Chompers. The Swinger’s batting ave continues to rebound after acquiring J Naylor from the Rockers. Naylor is hitting .310 with 7 runs and 6 rbi this month, and L Arraez appreciates the help as he has hit .400 this month. But it’s been kind of hollow since Arraez only scored 4 runs, and collected 3 rbi with that incredible average. J Soto is anchoring the leadoff spot by hitting .305, scoring 10 runs with 4 homers and 11 rbi. It’s only been 15 games for the Swingers, but the pitching staff has been amazing - compiling a 2.90 era. Z Wheeler has really stepped up towards the end of this season. After June and July’s 5+ era for him, he knocked it down to 3+ in August, and in this month he has gone 3-0 with a 1.50 era. S Gray is bobbing and weaving to a 1-1 record with a 1.38 era; and rookie R Sasaki finally got his first win after 5 starts, going 1-0 with a 2.25 era. Florida has fallen out of the playoff race, as a 4.73 September era so far has lead to a 6-14 record. A Pallante has gone 0-2 with a 6.56 era; and C Horton has gone 0-3 with a 11.91 era. N Lodolo is holding down the fort, sort of, going 1-2 with a good 3.60 era, but Emmett Sheehan is pitching more like the songwriter Ed Sheehan as he has an 0-3 September record with a 11.91 era. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that J Wood was under performing after a .216 August, and as usual when I write that about a player, he takes off. For this month Wood is batting .310 with 10 runs, 4 homers and 12 rbi. However, I Paredes (.167) and P Pages (.152) aren’t helping him out at all. The team’s sparkplug, E De La Cruz, has been dynamite on the bases with an 11-0 success rate, but he is hitting only .237.

In the East, Punxsutawney are doing their usual “Groundhog 2-step,” and it’s not igniting the fans. The 2 step goes “two months of winning record, then 1 month of a losing record.” After posting positive results in July and August, September Hogs have a losing record, going 11-14. It seems to be more of a habit than anything else, as the Groundhogs have a good 3.90 team era and a good .253 batting average this month. The starters have been doing okay, it’s just that the relief corp is letting the team down. J Taillon has a great 2.35 era, but he is 0-0, possibly due to A Uribe going 0-2 with a 3.86 era; or V Vodnik going 0-1 with a 6.30 era. R Ray is 2-1 with a great 2.70 era in his starts, but M Lorenzen fell apart with a 16.50 era and an 0-1 record. D Lile is anchoring the offense, batting .350 with 12 runs, 5 homers and 14 rbi. P Alonso is chugging along, hitting 6 homers with 15 rbi as he bats .247 with 14 runs scored. Luckily Punxsutawney has been excellent in the winning months of their “2-Step,” because even with this record they still have the division lead in the East. I know this is old stats, but when I compiled this information the Bayou Saints were still in the East’s second place. The team has gone 10-10 with a 3.53 era and a .214 team batting ave. The batting ave is a problem, as B Nimmo is hitting only .155 with 8 runs; but he did have 13 rbi and 2 homeruns. E Suarez is doing his thing despite a .200 batting ave: scoring 8 runs, and solidifying his homerun lead with 5 more, with 12 rbi. On the flip side, the Saints did win 10 games so far, and it’s behind R Laureano’s .340 ave as he scored 10 runs with 8 rbi; and J Merrill got hot, hitting .288 with 5 runs and 8 rbi. The Saints are in a tough battle for that 4th playoff spot, and their pitching just might get them there. C Rodon has gone 2-1 with a great 0.76 era; and J Degrom has gone 2-0 with a 2.77 era. But J Quintana needs to step up after going 0-2 with a 5.30 era, and so does Z Gallen and his 0-3 record and 8.41 era. The team chasing that 4th spot, Colorado, has only played a few games as of this writing. The Reavers have done well in this short sample size, going 6-4 with a 3.50 era and .258 team batting ave. M Fried is going strong with his 2-0 record and 1.29 era; and we finally get C Kershaw back after a two month stay on the taxi squad. The old lefty has gone 1-0 with a 0 era. I once wrote that what makes this Reaver team better than previous Reaver teams are the “Three Amigos.” M Olson has always been a force on the team, but this year he has been joined by P Crow-Armstrong and K Schwarber. These three guys are basically “murderers row” on this team. In September, However, M Olson has slowed down, hitting just .200 with 1 homerun in these first 10 games. But don’t worry, K Schwarber (.343, 10 runs, 5 homers, 11rbi this month), PCA (.313, 8 runs, 5 homers, 11 rbi), have been joined by M Moniak. The ex-Angel (I really wanted to draft him myself), is hitting .310 with 3 homeruns, 11 rbi and 8 runs scored. He’s doing a good job keeping M Olson’s seat warm until this 3rd Amigo starts getting hot.