Lava Flow for June

Rounding the halfway pole at 80 games, the Margaritaville Volcanoes continue to head for offensive records in the I-75 League. After 80 games the Volcanoes have scored 513 runs (on pace for 1,026 runs) and hit 165 HRs (on pace for a league-record 330 HRs). In the retention era, only three teams have topped the 1,000-run barrier: the 2005 Littleton Lumberjacks with 1,171, the 2005 Bushwood Gophers with 1,087 and the 2008 Bushwood Gophers with 1,063. In this same period, only four teams have topped the 300-homer barrier: the 2008 Bushwood Gophers with 325, the 2007 Bushwood Gophers with 320, the 2005 Littleton Lumberjacks with 306 and the 2004 Brooklyn Excelsiors with 302. Post-15-team expansion (2012), the season records are 970 runs from the 2013 Margaritaville Volcanoes, and 273 HRs from the 2013 Bushwood Gophers.

Comparing the 2017 Volcanoes and Gophers to their 2013 counterparts is interesting. Only three players remain on each 2017 roster from the 2013 team: Joey Votto, Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman for the Volcanoes and Yu Darvish, Buster Posey  and Albert Pujols for the Gophers. Gopher 2013 World Series hero David Ortiz is now holding down the 3-hole in the 2017 Volcano lineup.

In March play, the Volcanoes attempted their only sacrifice bunt of the season. Through May play, the Boulder Tree Huggers had out-Earl-Weavered the Volcanoes with zero sacrifice bunts attempted. In June play, the Tree Huggers shot past the Volcanoes with two sacrifice bunts attempted. Twelve of the teams in I-75 have at least 18 sac bunts attempted. … Margaritavlle is tied with Boulder and Tatooine with one intentional walk issued in the season’s first 80 games. … There have been three games so far this season in which a team has scored 17 or more runs. Each has been a Margaritaville opponent: on June 21 Tatooine scored 26 runs; on March 19 Boulder scored 20 runs, on March 12 Savannah scored 17 runs. Two of these three games were Marcus Stroman starts. Stroman is on pace for some records of his own. Through 80 games (with 160-game paces in parentheses) Stroman has pitched 98 (196) innings, allowing 142 (284) hits and 15 (30) home runs to an ERA of 7.10 and a WHIP of 1.78. Stroman’s half-season WAR of -2.1 (compared to his Toronto full-season WAR of 2.0) has been one of the Volcanoes’ first-half puzzles. Stroman’s struggles, along with the June addition of uber-reliever Addison Reed, go a long way toward explaining Margaritaville’s 5.75 / 3.60 ERA gap between its starters and relievers this season.

Got notes like these on your team and want to see them on the league webpage? E-mail them to me by the 4th of the following month…