Archive for June, 2012

Around the League

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

Moonshiners savior R.A. Dickey

We’re only in the last week of June, but I’m ready to declare that we have quite a pennant race brewing.  At no point has any team in the league asserted its dominance, thus leaving us with a situation where seven out of the ten teams are in a very good position to win the championship.  Those seven teams are all within 10 points of first place, with the top five separated by just four points.  Somehow, the Mavericks have managed to hold the top spot most of the year, but it has been by the thinnest of margins at most times, including today when they are just 1/2 point clear of the Jackalope.

As we near the half way point of the season, I’m going to take a quick look at each of the ten teams, highlighting some of the key stories for each team.  I will start with the three teams who are not currently in the thick of the race and then work my way up to the top of the standings.

Darkhorses

Only a year and a half removed from four consecutive championships, it would be fair to say things have gone downhill since then.  While last year was a shocking disappointment for the Darkhorses, this season has been an absolute nightmare.  Injuries have been the story of the league this season, but no team has had their season completely ruined by injuries like the Darkhorses.  They sit in last place with just 18.5 points, so they are in serious jeopardy of breaking the league’s all time low water mark of 20 points since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1998.  If you look at their roster, there is no way they should be this bad.  Besides the injuries, incredibly disappointing seasons from Adrian Gonzalez and Tim Lincecum haven’t helped either.  If those guys can turn it around and Chris Carpenter, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner return soon, maybe they can gain a little momentum and avoid a historically bad season.

Gators

Still a work in progress, and not really a threat this year, but things are looking up for the Gators.  Their ridiculously bad offense from ’11 has improved a bit and their pitching staff is respectable.  But there is still a lot of work to do.  Their huge pre-draft trade with the Mavericks hasn’t really worked out.  Nelson Cruz has been so-so and Mark Reynolds has provided virtually nothing.  They could have used those picks to improve in other areas, but what’s done is done.  The first draft pick they did make, Melky Cabrera in round three, has been a huge surprise, currently third in the league with a .355 average.  The Gators appear to be headed for another high draft slot next season.  With some exciting young players coming into the league again next year, maybe they will have an opportunity to grab one of them.

Demigods

The third team not currently in the title race is the Demigods.  At the beginning of the year, they looked like a team ready to make a run at the championship.  But like the Darkhorses, the Demigods have been sabotaged by injuries.  One in particular:  Matt Kemp.  In April, Kemp appeared to be a shoe-in for his second straight DTBL MVP award and a possible Triple Crown.  But since then, he has missed the better part of the last two months.  Who knows what he will provide when he returns?  But a healthy Kemp and Evan Longoria could get the Demigods back into contention.

Cougars

Although they are only in seventh place, this is the best Cougars team in a long time.  They are just 9.5 points behind the Mavericks and could get even closer if a couple of their pitchers turn things around.  Josh Hamilton has carried the offense, despite slowing down a bit of late.  Jason Kipnis has been one of the biggest steals of the draft, providing big time power and speed at a weak second base position.  Many were surprised when the Cougars passed on Stephen Strasburg with the first pick of the draft.  That may not have been a wise decision, but the Cougars made up for it by grabbing his Nationals teammate Gio Gonzalez in the second round.  Gonzalez’s numbers are pretty similar to Strasburg’s and you have to figure the Cougars would not have taken Gonzalez if they had gone with Strasburg in round one.

Choppers

The transformation of the Choppers has been quite remarkable.  Last year they were all offense with a questionable pitching staff.  This year, it is just the opposite.  They are second in the league with 40 pitching points, but only have 20 batting points.  One player is mostly responsible for the pitching turnaround:  Chris Sale.  Over the years, many teams have benefited from an extra starting pitcher in a relief pitching slot.  But normally, that pitcher doesn’t put up All-Star caliber stats like Sale is doing this year.  He’s keeping together a staff whose starting rotation is bandaged up with a bunch of free agent signings to fill in for other injured starters.  The injuries to the Choppers rotation could be a huge problem in the upcoming weeks/months.  But there is certainly reason to believe the offense will pick it up.  Jose Bautista is heating up, now in a tie for the league lead in home runs.  He could help the Choppers pick up some offensive points to move even closer to first place.

Kings

It is hard to say that a team four points out of first has been a huge disappointment, but to some degree, I think that can be said about the Kings.  The pitching staff has been atrocious as a whole.  They are ninth in the league in ERA and near the bottom in WHIP and wins too.  Justin Verlander needs some help.  Recently, the Kings have done a poor job of rotating their extra starting pitchers into the lineup.  In the last eight days, they missed out on a one hit shutout by Ervin Santana and seven great innings from Edwin Jackson last night.  If they could ever start picking the right five starting pitchers for a given week, they could be on to something.  For the most part, the offense has been great, leading the league in batting points.  But the lack of production from two Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, has been troubling.  The Kings are still in pretty good shape despite being in fifth place though.

Naturals

Much of what I wrote about the Choppers also applies to the Naturals.  They have transformed from an offensive juggernaut with a mediocre pitching staff to a team with a disappointing offense and the best pitching staff in the league.  Matt Cain, Zack Greinke and David Price have been outstanding for the Naturals rotation.  Jordan Zimmermann would be right there too if he would ever get run support and win some games.  The Naturals have to be considered one of the most dangerous teams heading into the second half because you  have to figure their offense will improve.  Having said that, the recent injury to Troy Tulowitzki could be extremely costly.  He’s expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks and they don’t have an obvious candidate to pick up the slack.

Moonshiners

The Moonshiners are perhaps the league’s most intriguing team right now.  They have suffered some very costly injuries to their pitching staff, with the most devastating one coming this past week when Brandon Beachy was lost for the season with a torn UCL.  Beachy was leading the league in ERA and had a sub 1.00 WHIP.  But one free agent signing may have saved their season.  Since joining the Moonshiners a month ago, R.A. Dickey has not allowed an earned run.  Read that again.  Dickey has a 0.00 ERA, 0.495 WHIP, four wins and 42 strike outs in just 34.1 innings with the Moonshiners.  The 37 year old knuckleballer has been the league’s best story this year and may have a huge say in determining if the Moonshiners can win their first DTBL championship.

Jackalope

It really can’t get any tighter at the top of the standings.  As of today, the defending champions sit one half point behind the Mavericks.  Batting points:  35.5 for the Mavericks, 35.0 for the Jackalope.  Pitching points:  both have 33.  So both teams are holding their own in batting and pitching.  The Jackalope got off to a bit of a slow start, but ever since their two biggest stars, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun, have started to heat up, so has this team.  I think they have to be considered the favorites at this point, especially if they are able to get anything out of Ryan Howard in the second half.  Their dominating rotation from last year hasn’t been quite the same this season.  But Felix Hernandez has been better of late, Cliff Lee will eventually win a game and Roy Halladay should provide he boost when he gets healthy.  As long as they keep it close, I like their chances down the stretch.

Mavericks

This has been a pretty remarkable season for the Mavericks, following two consecutive eighth place finishes.  Despite the incredible tightness of the race, they have managed to hold onto first place most of the year.  Their strategy of stockpiling draft picks is paying off.  Their pre-draft trade with the Gators may alter the course of this league for years to come.  The two players they acquired with the draft picks they received in that trade:  Stephen Strasburg and Mike Trout.  Strasburg leads the league in strike outs and is not far behind in ERA, WHIP and wins too.  What the Nationals decide to do with him when he reaches that magical 160 IP mark could have a dramatic impact on this league.  I’ll probably write about this more when that date gets closer because I have a strong opinion on the matter.  Meanwhile, I’ll be honest, I thought Trout was a bit of a gamble in the early second round because I wasn’t so sure the Angels would be able to make room for him this season.  Boy was I wrong.  He is hitting .351 and will probably be leading the league in stolen bases before June is over.  If Adam Dunn, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Jones keep hitting home runs at their current rates, the Mavericks are going to be tough to catch, despite all the teams nipping on their heels.

Cain is Able

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Naturals pitcher Matt Cain

It’s almost getting to the point where no hitters aren’t even worth discussing, and perfect games aren’t terribly rare either.  But nonetheless, Natruals right hander Matt Cain pitched the 22nd perfect game in MLB history last night, arguably one of the most dominating pitching performances of all time.  In addition to not allowing a base runner, Cain also struck out a career high 14 hitters during the Giants 10-0 victory over the Astros.  The 14 strike outs matched Sandy Koufax for the most K’s in a perfect game.

Using Bill James’ Game Score statistic, Cain’s outing was tied for the second best pitched game of all time, trailing only Kerry Wood’s 1 hit, 20 strike out game in 1998.  By the way, Wood’s game was also against the Astros, but a lineup that featured a couple possible future Hall of Famers.  The same cannot be said of the Astros lineup last night.  But that should not diminish Cain’s accomplishment.

While there have only been 22 perfect games in MLB history, five of them have occurred in the past four seasons, including two this year.  Cain is the first DTBL player to do it this year tough since Phil Humber is not on the league roster.  The last DTBL perfect game before last night belonged to Roy Halladay in May of 2010.

The history of perfect games is quite fascinating.  There had been a gap of 34 years without one before Don Larsen threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series.  Then there was another 13 year drought between 1968 and 1981.  13 of the 22 have occurred in the past 32 years and nine since this league was formed in 1993.  There have been a lot of theories as to why they have been so frequent in recent years.  Some are fairly obvious:  there are a lot more teams, and therefore more games played than there were in the first half of the 20th century.  The end of the steroid era has led to better pitching numbers across the board in the last half dozen years or so.  One theory I like is more about the increase in no hitters than perfect games:  it could have a lot to do with the diminished focus on batting average as a significant stat.  Strike outs are way up in the current era.  It stands to reason that with fewer balls being put into play, fewer hits will fall in.  But this is only a partial explanation since the MLB-wide batting average is not even close to historical lows.  Whatever the reasons may be, perfect games are still extremely impressive achievements.

With his outing last night, Cain moved into the DTBL lead in WHIP with a miniscule 0.853 mark.  Although he’s not likely to keep it there all season, only two DTBL players have finished a full season with a lower WHIP.  His 2.18 ERA, eight wins and 96 strike outs are all in the top three of the league as well.  Cain has been a solid performer for the Naturals since 2007.  His highest ERA was a very respectable 3.57 in his DTBL rookie season (’07).  Yet wins have been hard to come by, mostly due to the Giants anemic offense in recent years.  Cain has never reached the 15 win mark, though he seems to be a pretty good bet to do it this year since he’s already more than half way there.  He leads the Naturals in all pitching categories except for saves, so he deserves most of the credit for their league high 41 pitching points.  The Naturals are currently in fourth place, but just eight points out of first.  Their batting/pitching numbers are almost reversed from last year when it was their hitting that led them to a second place finish.

Cain was only one of several pitchers who put up extremely impressive numbers on Wednesday night.  The Cardinals’ Lance Lynn matched Cain’s strike out total of 14, allowing three hits in 7+ scoreless innings.  And R.A. Dickey nearly made it two no hitters in one night.  He allowed just one infield hit in a complete game.  The Mets are appealing to try to get the scoring of the one hit changed to an error, but I would be absolutely shocked if the appeal is upheld.  Dickey has been an amazing story all year.  Last night, he broke the Mets team record for consecutive scoreless innings before allowing an unearned run in the ninth.  But since the Moonshiners signed him as a free agent a few weeks ago, he is yet to allow an earned run in 25 1/3 innings.  He has won 10 games this year (three with the Moonshiners).

Finally, following my last blog post a few weeks ago, there were a few comments about possible rule changes for next season.  I decided to start a Forum thread to get a discussion going.  If you haven’t read it yet, please check it out and provide any feedback you may have.