[IBL] IBL at the Quarter Mark

[Doug Palmer]

IBL 2019 at the quarter pole...7nweeks down and 20 to go.

Let's take a look back at the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the
first half.



*The Good*: Motor City Marauders (MCM) (#4 in Batting and #1 in Pitching)

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)

2018: WMS (#17 Batting, #1 Pitching)

2017: SFP (#1 Batting, #15 Pitching)

2016: OAK (#6 Batting, #10 Pitching)

2015: MCM (#1 Batting, #2 Pitching)

2014: CSG (#3 Batting, #7 Pitching)


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.

Others in the “Good” category…

Ø  NC East all within 2.5 games of each other (they're always competitive)

Ø  NYK-CAN battle in the NC Central (will be fun to watch)

Ø  BAL with an NC best 33 wins (smoke and mirrors and a lot of rebuilding
teams in the NC)

Ø  BOW-WMS-PHI yearly blood bath

*The Bad*: Monrovia Madness (MAD) (#10 in Batting and #21 in
Pitching...21st????)

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:

Corbin.  IBL: 5.47 ERA and 1.59 WHIP   Real Life: 3.15 ERA and 1.05 WHIP

Greinke.  IBL: 5.55 ERA and 1.53 WHIP  Real Life: 3.21 ERA and 1.08 WHIP

Maeda. IBL 7.33 ERA and 1.69 WHIP  Real Life: 3.81 ERA and 1.26 WHIP


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?

Others falling into the BAD category early on

Ø  TRI swimming around .500 (they're better than that!)

Ø  GTY’s bad luck (I can attest....rollbot hates Brent)

Ø  POR’s injury list (reads like a who's who)

Ø  EDG’s team hitting (.226 team BA...yikes)

Ø  SFP’s team pitching (no starter with an ERA below 5.50)

The good news for these guys, the rosters are talented and there's still
plenty of time to turn it around!



*The Ugly*: LAD and OXY
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 there and talent that could
garner them draft picks and youth.

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.

See ya in 7 weeks with the half-way report

Doug/BAL
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