Innings

The Pickled Pecklers are right on target to hit the minimum innings requirement of 1075. We have 1,025 going into play today, and Brandon Webb is pitching a masterpiece, which is likely to result in another 9 innings.

If you do not make innings, your score in WHIP and ERA goes to zero. We’re in a dogfight for 8th place, which means nothing other than a slightly higher position in the minor league draft. But we’re also fighting with Any 9, and we always want to beat them.

One of the reasons we picked up the dangerous Oliver Perez (of O. Perez fame) was we felt we needed the innings. He immediately rewarded us with a sparkling Bullinger last week: 3IP, 12H, 2 BB, 7ER. The Doc, somewhere in darkest Africa, was in no place to consult about dumping him on Tuesday, and I held onto him for one more week because he we are short on innings. Lo and behold, he provided a surprising complete game shutout.

Just for kicks today I took a look at the inning totals of the teams that have fallen out of contention. Sure enough, two teams have a chance of not making their innings. As of Friday night, the Bleacher Bums have 986.7 innings and the 300 Pounders are at 971.

The Bums are eighth in ERA and seventh in WHIP. The Pounders are seventh in ERA and eighth in WHIP. Behind both teams in both categories are Doyle Cartel, the Lickers, and Any 9. Should both teams miss their innings requirement, all three teams would pick up 4 points in pitching. This would clinch 4th for Doyle, who is ahead the closing Falkuhns and the Busch Leaguers by 3.5 and 4 points respectively. The Lickers would pass both of those teams for 5th place. And finally Any 9 would pass us for 8th.

I want to make some kind of joke about this, but I don’t have one. I think it is irresponsible of teams out of the money to refuse to compete at all and affect the races of teams still trying by their inactivity. If their inactivity only affected their own standings, I would have no problem. But there is a big difference in the payoffs here. And even though there is no big difference between 8th and 9th, I’d be pissed if we lost out because Any 9 gets free points that we played hard to earn.

Hey, guys – get with the program.