Today is the first day of Week 16, so you need to allocate by noon. Week 16 will be the last one this season where every EFL team is simultaneously facing MLB competition. We go back to head-to-head matchups in Week 17 after the All-Star Game. Week 17 starts on Friday, July 19.

This deluxe post includes the End of Week 15 standings, brief team-by-team updates, and two bonus sections about EFL All Stars.

Standings: Week 15 Final

Team	Wins	Losses	WPct	GB
Portland Rosebuds	52.51	37.49	.583	0.0
Haviland Dragons	50.27	39.73	.559	2.2
Canberra Kangaroos	50.06	39.94	.556	2.5
Peshastin Pears	48.80	41.20	.542	3.7
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	44.62	45.38	.496	7.9
D.C. Balk	43.63	46.37	.485	8.9
Salem Seraphim	42.81	47.19	.476	9.7
Flint Hill Tornadoes	42.63	47.37	.474	9.9
Cascadia Glaciers	40.84	49.16	.454	11.7
Old Detroit Wolverines	33.24	56.76	.369	19.3
Kaline Drive	32.85	57.15	.365	19.7

Portland: (-0.44) [Wk 15: 4.43 – 1.57]

A suddenly benign Rosebud squad had the worst day in the EFL Sunday, allowing every other EFL team to gain on them. The day wasn’t terrible: .280,, .339 , .500 at the plate, and 12.7 ip, 8 er (5.67 ERA) from the mound. But especially the pitching tarnished Portland’s weekly stats. Zack Littell’s near-chulk (4 ip, 7 er) was the main blow. Since there was no 7th game yesterday, that tarnishing could only express itself by making the R’s return part of a win.

Haviland: 0.32 [Wk 15: 0.81 – 5.19]

The Dragons soared a little bit because they got great pitching: 14 ip, 1 er. Luis Ortiz. covered 6 scoreless innings, and so did Tarik Skubal except he also had one inning where he allowed an earned run. Jonah Heim helped out the most from the hitting side, going 4 for 5 with a double and a triple. Even with Heim, Dragon hitters crawled to just a .225, .225, .375 day. Still — that 0.32 day was the best for the week for the Dragons, and allowed them to retake 2nd place.

Canberra: (-0.14) [Wk 15: 4.43 – 1.57]

The Kangaroos slid out of second place mostly due to weak hitting: 8 for 45 with a slash line of .178, .260, .333. Willson Contreras saved if from being even worse: 2 for 5 with a homer (and a stolen base! But also a GDP.). The pitchers weren’t sparkly good, but they were there, which was crucial: 10 ip, 5 er erasing 10 of the 22 replacement innings they were carrying.

Peshastin: (-0.13) [Wk 15: 4.07 – 1.93]

Nathan Eovaldi pitched 7 strong innings (only 2 earned runs allowed) but it wasn’t enough to avoid losing on the day because the Pear hitters only managed a 1.94, .256, .361 slash line. Bobby Witt Jr. expressed his All-Starryness by going 3 for 5 with a home run.

Pittsburgh: 0.15 [Wk 15: 3.03 – 2.97]

Pittsburgh was another team benefitting from a pitching dump on the bonus day: 16.3 ip, 7 er, for a fine 3.84 daily ERA. Allegheny offense wasn’t terrible: .234, .308, .447. Wyatt Langford stood out: 4 for 5 with a double.

DC: 0.13 [Wk 15: 1.98 – 4.02]

Sunday’s pitching wasn’t all that great in DC: 6.7 IP, 4 er, 5.37 ERA — but it did erase some replacement innings. Nor was the hitting: .242, .278, .364 — but it also cleaned up replacements a bit. It was just enough to shift things a bit in DC’s favor in its MLB matchup. Corey Seager blasting a homer and a double in 4 ABs was the highlight.

Salem: (-0.37) [Wk 15: 3.63 – 2.37]

Sean Hjelle had a hjellacious triple-chulk inning (3 er scored) to sink the modest Seraphim pitching effort (2 ip, 3er). Hitters fared better: .281, .361, .531, but not good enough to maintain a .667 winning percentage for the week.

Flint Hill: 0.08 [Wk 15: 1.15 – 4.85]

The Tornados got 7.3 useful but not great innings (4 er, 4.93 ERA). Tornadic hitters did about the same: .243, .317, .351. Lackluster probably fits both aspects of Flint Hill’s Sunday. The hitting star was Tyler Soderstrom who went 2 for3 with a double and a walk.

Cascadia: 0.01 [Wk 15: 1.17 – 4.83]

I suspect the Glaciers were disappointed yesterday when the teams on either side of them produced perfect 0.00 win (an loss) days, but they were left out. They strove mightily to also experience such a blessing, and aaaallllmmmoooosssttt made it. They matched a ton of crummy pitching (14 ip, 8 er, 5.14 ERA) with a fair amount of crummmy hitting (31 PA, .192, .290, .192). Shift one routine Glaciated ground out or fly out to a strikeout, and that might have done it. This illustrates nicely the precision the Tornados and Wolverines required to achieve their once-in-a-lifetime event Saturday

Old Detroit: 0.57 [Wk 15: 3.61 – 2.39]

Speaking of precision Andrew Nardi chipped one scoreless inning off the replacement pitching block — and it was precisely enough to make the last replacement inning disappear. Wolverine hitters had a great day: .355, .429, .645. All 11 of them reached base safely at least once — even the two who only got one plate appearance (Correa: HBP. Loperfido: double).

Kaline: 0.28 [Wk 15: 1.51 – 4.49]

Spencer Arrighetti cleaned up 5 replacement innings at the cost of only 2 earned runs to start the Drive on the path to a winning day. Driven hitters contributed 49 PA at a .267, .327, .467 pace. Shouldabeen All-Star Gabriel Moreno underlined the injustice of his exclusion by going 2 for 5 with a double, while Zack McKinstry and Mitch Garver each homered and singled.

EFL ALL-STARS

MLB has published the full list of All-Stars (although there will probably be additions as some listed players will be unable to play).

Here are the 33 (out of 64!) All-Stars from each EFL team (elected starters in bold):

CG Elly De La Cruz
CK Vladimir Guerrero
CK Isaac Paredes
CK Riley Greene
CK Emmanuel Clase
DC CJ Abrams
DC Pete Alonso
DC Shota Imanaga
FH Juan Soto
FH Jarren Duran
FH Tanner Scott
HD Aaron Judge
HD Kyle Tucker
HD Seth Lugo
HD Tarik Skubal
HD Luis Arraez
HD Mookie Betts
OD Carlos Correa
OD Mason Miller
OD Will Smith
PA Adley Rutschman
PA Jurickson Profar
PA Teoscar Hernandez
PA Paul Skenes
PA Logan Webb
PP Bobby Witt Jr.
PP Garrett Crochet
PR Gunnar Henderson
PR Cole Ragans
PR Jackson Merrill
PR Matt Strahm
SS Alec Bohm
SS Trea Turner

Some notes:

1. We have more than our share of All-Stars: just over half, even though we are just 11 teams and so should have only 34% of them (22). And yet we are still 26.4 games under .500 in our head-to-head matchups against MLB competition. This might mean we are not very good at in-game management. Or, from another perspective, maybe the MLB managers to whom we delegate the in-game management of our players are not very good at it. Or are deliberately undermining us out of fear and prejudice toward us as probably their most formidable upstart competition.
2. We have 8 of the 18 elected starting position players. We “should” have 6. Each EFL team “should” have about half of one.
3. Preseason favorite Haviland has the most All-Stars: 6. Each of us “should” have 2. Here’s how we stack up:
   • Haviland: 6, 1 elected to start
   • Pittsburgh: 5, 2 elected to start
   • Portland: 4, 1 elected to start
   • Canberra: 4, 1 elected to start
   • Flint Hill: 3, 1 elected to start
   • DC: 3, 0 elected to start
   • Old Detroit: 3, 0 elected to start
   • Salem: 2, 2 elected to start
   • Peshastin: 2, 0 elected to start
   • Cascadia: 1, 0 elected to start
4. Kaline has no one at the All-Star game. This is an outrage. The rules clearly require MLB to name at least one player from each team to be an All-Star. This has been a rough week for Kaline fans the world over, their team sliding into the cellar and not quite making it back out (although I think there’s a good chance they will after today’s play). It’s time we rallied around them and stood up for their dignity and rights! Which brings us to…

…Our Grievance!

I lean toward restraint when it comes to confronting MLB about its persistently arrogant and dismissive neglect of EFL teams. But this disrespect for one of our honored franchises cannot be tolerated! The only question is which Drive should we tell them to add to the team?

• MLB already has Logan Webb and Logan Gilbert on All-Star rosters. Shouldn’t they also add Logan Allen, to represent all the left out Logan Allens in MLB?
• Or maybe Gabriel Moreno, who has the highest defensive rating of any major league catcher (8.9) and holds his own nicely at the plate (.250, .331, .380)?
• Or Marcus Stroman, who has pitched 100 innings to a 3.58 ERA?
• Or Mark Vientos who is OPSing .915?
• Or someone else I’ve overlooked?