As we go into our All-Star Break, we find ourselves in an exciting, tightening race.

The four Leader teams atop the standings combined to go 10.4 – 13.6 over Week 16, with the first-place Rosebuds having the worst record in the league, and the fourth-place Pears having the only winning record among the top four teams. So we have four glorious All-Star Break days to contemplate four teams within 1.8 games of the lead!

The next four teams are still Lurkers in the hunt, although they have ground to make up… which they got a good start on doing in Week 16. These four, as a group, went 13.6 – 10.4 during the week, gaining as a group 3.2 games on the four leaders, group v. group (or 0.8 per team, on average). With 11 weeks to go, if they could keep up that pace they’d catch up to the leaders by early September.

The bottom two teams combined to go 8.4 – 3.6 over the week, including one team which had the best weekly record in the league — and the other team had the fourth-best! These two Sedimentarians gained (as a pair, an entire class of underprivileged teams) 4 games on the leaders, or an average of 2 games per Sedimentarian team! Keep that pace up, and Sedimentarians might beat the Lurkers to catching the Leaders!

Yes, I realize I have left out the Glaciers. We kicked them out of the Sedimentarians weeks ago for being over-achievers. On our way to the top, the Sedimentarians will re-admit the Glaciers to our club, but they can only stay if they keep up.

I suspect the Glaciers would claim they are among the Lurkers — and, to their credit, there have been teams in MLB who were down 10.6-ish games at the All-Star Break and come back to fight their way into first place.

But let’s be frank: the Glaciers are 2.2 games behind the 8th-place Tornadoes — who are only 1.6 games behind the 5th place Seraphim. It’s awkward to claim to be part of a tight-knit cluster in the standings when the cluster has to more than double its expanse to let you in. And it doesn’t help when the gap is widening between you and the closest member of the cluster.

Don’t be too downcast, Glaciers. If current trends continue, you’ll be true Sedimentarians again in a few weeks.

Standings: All-Star Break, 2024

Team	Wins	Losses	WPct	GB
Portland Rosebuds	54.18	41.82	.564	0.0
Haviland Dragons	52.96	43.04	.552	1.2
Canberra Kangaroos	52.52	43.48	.547	1.7
Peshastin Pears	52.37	43.63	.546	1.8
Salem Seraphim	47.37	48.63	.493	6.8
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	46.85	49.15	.488	7.3
D.C. Balk	45.93	50.07	.478	8.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes	45.75	50.25	.477	8.4
Cascadia Glaciers	43.57	52.43	.454	10.6
Old Detroit Wolverines	38.14	57.86	.397	16.0
Kaline Drive	36.31	59.69	.378	17.9

Portland: (-0.09) [Wk: 1.67 – 4.33]

Truly dismal hitting did in the Rosebuds: .109, .196, .261 over a whopping 51 plate appearances. The ‘Buds got a bunch of solid pitching — 14.7 ip, 7 earned runs — but they didn’t need any of it to avoid replacement innings, and the daily 4.29 barely budged the weekly ERA down to 4.34.

The ‘Buds must be feeling the pressure, right? Everyone in the league gained on them. The fourth place team is only 2/3 as far behind them as the second place team was to start the week. The 8th place team is only 0.1 further back than the 5th place team was to start the week. The meandering Glaciers meandered more than a game closer. And even the far-distant Sedimentarians have brought the outer rim of the system 2.3 games closer than it was after Monday’s games.

Haviland: (-0.05) [Wk: 2.69 – 3.31]

Haviland didn’t need any pitching, but the single inning of scoreless work still helped them a little. Too little. Hitters went .148, .258, .519, LOWERING the Dragons’ BA to .260 and OBP to .313. The boost in slugging percentage (.450) didn’t make up for those hits. Ezaequiel Tovar had a great day going 3 for 4 with a double, a walk,and two homers. Luis Campusano hit a pinch-hit home run. Aaron Judge walked twice and got hit by a pitch (and grounded into a double play)… and that was it. No other walks or hits or HBP from any of the other 5 players accounting for 20 of the 31 team plate appearances.

Canberra: 0.69 [Wk: 2.46 – 3.54]

Canberra regained second place with outstanding hitting: .310, .423, .690. Pete Crow-Armstrong homered twice, doubled, walked, and stole a base. Brent Rooker homered twice and walked. Vladito singled, doubled, and homered. Amid that offensive fireworks show, four Kangaroo pitchers struggled to complete 4 innings while allowing 3 earned runs. Not great on the pitching side, but just enough to edge back in front of the Pears.

Peshastin: (-0.21) [Wk: 3.57 – 2.43]

The Pears suffered from the anti-offense virus plaguing the Rosebuds: .105, .150, .263. That’s 4 for 38 with two homers (Adam Frazier and Ben Rice) and two walks. Things could have been way worse, if it weren’t for the great work of 5 Pear pitchers, who put up 10 sharp innings at the cost of only 2 earned runs.

Salem: 0.22 [Wk: 4.56 – 1.44 ]

Salem probably thought they had secured the best week 16 in the EFL when they pitched 12.7 gem-like innings at the cost of only 2 earned runs (Ryan Pepiot pitching 6 of those scorelessly). That great pitching was enough to gain wins, even after being blunted by rather ho-hum offense (.233, .303, .433) from which the highlights aren’t all that high: probably Trea Turner’s 2 for 2 with a homer and a hbp. But, alas for Salem: another team had a better day and even a better week.

Pittsburgh: 0.27 [Wk: 2.23 – 3.77]

Pittsburgh eschewed pitching, offering 0 innings. They didn’t quite eschew hitting — .267 .327, .378 — but their gentle approach (no homers or triples ) limited their gains on our bonus day. Luis Robert Jr did have a great day: 3 for 3 with two walks and a stolen base.

DC: (-0.54) [Wk: 2.30 – 3.70 ]

DC did the most in the league to turn bonus day into bogus day. Neither Ryan Yarbrough (2.7 il, 2er) nor Jose Quintana (5.7 ip, 5 er) did better than replacement. In fact the team’s daily ERA Sunday was precisely replacement-level: 7.50. But that was BETTER than the hitters did: .152, .220, .283 — well below replacement. The only home run was hit by Pete Alonso, part of a 1 for 5 day. I suppose .200, .200, .800 is better than replacement, but not by as much as it looks.

Flint Hill: (-0.12) [Wk: 3.12 – 2.88]

The Tornados pretty much matched the pace of the Rosebuds, keeping the bottom end of the Lurker group under 9 games out. Hitting, while better than some EFL rivals, was still relatively weak: .229, .308, .286. Half of the good stuff in those numers came off the bat of Jarren Duran ( 4 for 5 iwith a double). Pitching was VOLUMINOUS: 19.0 innings shared by NINE pitchers. All 7 of the relievers did great except for Jordan Leasure, who quadruple chulked (1 ip, 4 er). The two starters were ok: Bryan Bello (6.3 ip) and Jameson Taillon (5.7 ip) both allowed 3 earned runs.

Cascadia: 0.23 [Wk: 2.73 – 3.27]

I’ve already emptied my well of empathy for the Glaciers’ standings predicament: neither hot enough to lurk nor cold enough to sink into the Sediment. Apparently Sunday was a day to move toward the hot side of the Glacier. Not so much the hitters, who slugged 3 homers Elly De La Cruz, Jose Siri, Jake Meyers) but didn’t swarm the basepaths: .235, .270, .520. But they did pitch a lot (14.3 innings) and very nicely (only 5 earned runs) for a 3.13 ERA, despite Ryne Stanek’s Seattle-frustrating 0 ip, 1 er.

Old Detroit: 1.09 !! [Wk: 4.90 – 1.10]

Old Detroit hitting was OK-ish. 27 PA created an acceptable .308, .333, .385, but left 25 replacement PA’s on the books. However, on the pitching side, Blake Snell faced the minimum 21 batters over 7 innings of one-hit, no walk (no walks! For Snell!!) ball. And Chris Paddack, pitching for the Twins in the same game, also pitched great, allowing only 1 earned run in 5 innings. Altogether (with a scoreless 1/3 of an innings in relief) the W’s got 12.3 ip, 1 er, a daily ERA of 0.73, the replacement of 8 replacement innings and the erasure of 5.7 earned runs allowed, bringing the weekly ERA down from something well over 4.00 to 2.53. In a week in which every team gained at least an entire game on the Rosebuds, the Wolverines gained the most: 3.3 games.

Kaline: 0.53 [Wk: 3.46 – 2.54]

The Drive have brought the cellar up to 17.9 games out, the closest the cellar has been to the lead since June 4 — almost 7 weeks ago. When Kaline took over managing the cellar on July 5, it was 19.7 games out, the same place it was at the end of Week 15. But in the last week, the Wizard hauled the cellar 1.8 games closer to first! That’s a pace that would last place atop the standings by the end of the season! No one has ever seen that before, at least not in a league with more than one team. Only a true Wizard could do it. Last place has never been in more capable hands!

And to buttress my point, consider the Wizard’s day-to-day management of his team. It’s not like the team dominated — their three pitchers only completed 5 innings while allowing 3 earned runs, and their 15 (!) hitters were no better than about average: .235, .316, .471. But erasing 5 replacement innings, and replacement PA at second and third base, boosted Kaline’s winning percentage enough to gain half of a win, and finish over .500 on the week.