The biggest shocker in our Statis-Pro Baseball pool play so far came in our early June game when the Boston Red Sox—who, in real life, were beginning a four-game losing streak that dropped them to 27-39—stunned the Atlanta Braves, who were 45-21 at the time.
Statistically, an upset between teams with those records would be expected about once in every four-game series. When it happens, though, it makes you wonder whether the calculations on the cards are off—or whether it was simply a great day for the underdog.
The amazing thing is that since then, the real season has played out much like our Statis-Pro cards. The Red Sox have gone 22-9, while the Braves have gone 11-20. All that being side, Chris Sales' card projects to have an outstanding 3.19 ERA or FIPS, and in fact he is even better this year hovering around a 2.00 ERA so it is true even his card is not truly as great as he is.
The Braves did rally in their second pool game for a 4-2 win over the Rangers. With the Red Sox and Braves two of only four teams with four strong starting pitchers (all rated PB 2-7 or better), and with the Braves added benefit of having preserved their bullpen in the 8-1 loss to Boston, they still have a strong chance to emerge from the pool.
The other two teams are the Blue Jays and then the ridiculous Dodgers, with all four pitchers at least a PB 2-8 to make them seem unbeatable at times.
The second Red Sox-Braves matchup should determine which team advances, featuring an outstanding pitching duel between PB 2-7 starters Reynaldo López for the Braves and Ranger Suárez for the Red Sox.
If the Braves win that game and both teams finish 3-1 while the Rangers end up 0-4, the tiebreaker would come down to run differential. In that scenario, Atlanta would likely need to take full advantage of its final pitching matchup against Texas, with PB 2-7 Spencer Strider facing the Rangers' below-average (PB 2'-6) Jordan Montgomery. The Red Sox currently sit at +7 in run differential thanks to their 8-1 victory, while the Braves are at -5 through two games.
For those who do not play the Statis-Pro baseball game you should start with this free version, but the pitcher's PB is the key that makes us love the game more than any others. This is the range where the pitcher controls the action without allowing that chance for anything more than a single. A PB 2-9 is the best -an All-Star - and on a two-sided dice roll of 2-9 he controls the action, while 10-12 rolls put the action on the batters card. The other strong pitchers are 2-8 or 2-7, while the middle 30% of all pitchers control the action on PB 4-7, then the below average pitchers are 2-6, 2-5 or the weakest 2-4.
Here is a look at the batter and pitcher cards for both teams.
Here is the pool schedule.
| Pod B | PB- | Pitcher | Opp | Score | Allow | Result | Proj ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATL | 2'-9 | Chris Sale | Bos | 1 | 8 | L | 3.19 |
| ATL | 2'-7 | Reynaldo López | Bos | 4.06 | |||
| ATL | 2'-7 | Spencer Strider | Tex | 3.82 | |||
| ATL | 2'-8 | Spencer Schwellenbach | Tex | 4 | 2 | W | 3.65 |
| BOS | 2'-7 | Ranger Suarez | Atl | 3.74 | |||
| BOS | 2'-8 | Garrett Crochet | Atl | 8 | 1 | W | 3.02 |
| BOS | 2'-7 | Connelly Early | Tex | 3.65 | |||
| BOS | 2'-8 | Sonny Gray | Tex | 3.69 | |||
| TEX | 2'-8 | Nathan Eovaldi | Atl | 2 | 4 | L | 3.65 |
| TEX | 2'-6 | Jordan Montgomery | Atl | 4.28 | |||
| TEX | 2'-7 | MacKenzie Gore | Bos | 3.82 | |||
| TEX | 4'-7 | Kumar Rocker | Bos | 4.23 |
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