Standings thru Monday, August 25 

 Who’s Hot

And Who’s Not

·       Absent from the first list and well-populated in the second list, the Monarchs.   Gulp…

Who’s Hot 

And Who’s Not 

·       Mikolas is available as of this writing for anyone thinking he can keep it rolling

·       McCarthy landed a top-10 spot on just one outing, the only single start pitcher on the list

·       Tough week on the mound for the Bombers

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What's It All About, Alfie:  Pitching or Hitting?

I went back through end of year point totals by batting and pitching for the last few years, in particular for the eventual league champ.

So maybe it really is primarily about hitting, though you clearly can’t whif on pitching either.  Witness 2012, where the Bums took the crown with the 3^rd ranked hitting squad.  That year the Wahoos led the pack in batting but ranked just 9^th in pitching; the Chiefs were the 2^nd ranked batting team but only 10^th in pitching.   So Curby, thank Ted and BT for taking the ALL about hitting approach, rather than the PRIMARILY about hitting approach.  Lastly on this topic, though a healthy 20% of the 2014 season remains, this year’s cover story on the need for balance is the Bears with the 2^nd ranked team of sticks lugging along the 13^th rated pitching staff.

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Ramblings…

·       Forget Cy Young’s 511 victories, the record to never be broken is Chuck’s 665 pitching appearances in 2009.   The turnstile of middle relievers through the Cubs starting pitcher slots was dizzying.   Since the Sinclair Rule was enacted no team has had more than the Chiefs’ 531 appearances in 2012.  Still a full 20% behind the all-time record.

·       Why is it I can’t get excited about baseball at the University of Nebraska?   I really thought bringing Erstad in would add some life to the program.  Not so, yawn…  

·       Did anyone else have problems with the active/non-active designations on Yahoo this past weekend?   Saturday late morning both Encarnacion and Bautista were shown with an x rather than a ^.  I was afraid the Blue Jays plane went down.   After a few minutes on the bench their status showed active, teams were taking the field, and I was frantically making roster moves before they got chained to the bench.

·       Hyun-jin Ryu, get off your strained gluteus maximus.  Get in the game son, Papa’s in need of innings!

·       Anyone review their Team Log and wonder “what the... when did I…”    I have no idea when Aviles went 0 for 3 as a Monarch, or Endy Chavez walking and scoring a run.   Ryan Cook?   Hardly knew ya.   Maybe Bob’s breathalyzer on the computer idea isn’t such a bad one.

With that, Go Monarchs and Go Big Red, now where did I leave my anxiety meds…