<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">IBL 2019 at the quarter pole...7nweeks down and 20 to go.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Let's take a look back at the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the first half.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>The Good</b>: Motor City Marauders (MCM) (#4
in Batting and #1 in Pitching)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">MCM and their league leading 33-9 record. Sean’s team is #4 in team batting thus far
and #1 in team pitching (pitching does win around here, doesn’t it?). If you look at the last 5 IBL champions, you
see that for the most part, you need a top 5 team in either batting or pitching (and MCM has both)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">2018: WMS
(#17 Batting, #1 Pitching)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">2017: SFP
(#1 Batting, #15 Pitching)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">2016: OAK
(#6 Batting, #10 Pitching)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">2015: MCM
(#1 Batting, #2 Pitching)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">2014: CSG
(#3 Batting, #7 Pitching)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">It also doesn’t hurt when you can trot out Yelich, Muncy,
Suarez each day and have Carrasco, Ryu, Gibson and Cahill throwing. Hell, even the kid Moronta is leading the
league in saves. Motor City Marauders indeed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Others in the “Good” category…</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>NC East all within 2.5 games of each other (they're always competitive)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>NYK-CAN battle in the NC Central (will be fun to watch)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>BAL with an NC best 33 wins (smoke and mirrors and a lot of rebuilding teams in the NC)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>BOW-WMS-PHI yearly blood bath</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>The Bad</b>: Monrovia Madness (MAD) (#10
in Batting and #21 in Pitching...21st????)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The Madness striking Monrovia so far. You trot out Corbin, Greinke and Maeda and
you expect decent things to happen (better than decent.....should be awesome). Not
so far for the Madness. Compare how
they’re performing in the IBL vs how they performed in real life:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Corbin. IBL: 5.47 ERA and 1.59 WHIP Real Life: 3.15 ERA and 1.05 WHIP</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Greinke. IBL: 5.55 ERA and 1.53 WHIP Real Life: 3.21 ERA and 1.08 WHIP</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Maeda. IBL
7.33 ERA and 1.69 WHIP Real Life: 3.81
ERA and 1.26 WHIP</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I’ve been at some pretty cold crap tables in my time, but
these dice are ARCTIC COLD. The silver
lining is that you’d think that things would regress back to the mean
eventually, but so far….yikes. Keep the
sharp objects away from Chris for a while, okay?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Others falling into the BAD category early on</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>TRI swimming around .500 (they're better than that!)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>GTY’s bad luck (I can attest....rollbot hates Brent)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>POR’s injury list (reads like a who's who)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>EDG’s team hitting (.226 team BA...yikes)</p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings">Ø<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span>SFP’s team pitching (no starter with an ERA below 5.50)</p><p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The good news for these guys, the rosters are talented and there's still plenty of time to turn it around!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>The Ugly</b>: LAD and
OXY</p>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Trust me when I say that rebuilding teams
sucks. Those seasons when you’re playing
Free Agent Bingo each week and just hoping to take 2 out of the 6 games each
week to consider it a “good” week. Those
are tough. LAD and OXY are in the midst
of rebuilding, which isn’t fun by any stretch of the imagination. LAD (formerly OAK) is eased by remembering
the recent past when Alex had the team consistently in the playoffs and
winning. Tier 0 status is still a ways
away though. For OXY, David knew that he had a
renovation projectd on his hands when he took over from Nelson (and the former LAD Devils
of Palo Alto). While it will probably be
a long season for these guys, there are building blocks</span> there and talent that could garner them draft picks and youth.<br><div><br></div><div>42 games in (give or take depending on your situation). How much will change over the nexst 7 weeks? Who knows. The rollbot is a fickle mistress.....don't we all know all too well.</div><div><br></div><div>See ya in 7 weeks with the half-way report</div><div><br></div><div>Doug/BAL</div></div>