Archive for June, 2015

Pair of Nats Win May Honors

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015


The season’s second month saw the Jackalope open a small lead over several close pursuers into a gigantic lead which could take an extended run of good fortune for other teams to close.  When the calendar turned to June yesterday, the Jackalope lead was 18 points over the Darkhorses.  Incredibly, no other team was within 28 points of first place.  Obviously, there is more than enough time for other teams to get back into the race.  But for now, the Jackalope are sitting pretty.

Since I still haven’t gotten around to putting together the new awards pages where all of the weekly and monthly winners will be listed, here are the players who have been named the batters and pitchers of the week since last month’s update:

Batters of the Week:

Week 4 (4/27 – 5/3) – Josh Reddick, Naturals
Week 5 (5/4 – 5/10) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
Week 6 (5/11 – 5/17) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
Week 7 (5/18 – 5/24) – A.J. Pollock, Kings
Week 8 (5/25 – 5/31) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope

Pitchers of the Week:

Week 4 (4/27 - 5/3) – Sonny Gray, Jackalope
Week 5 (5/4 - 5/10) – Michael Pineda, Darkhorses
Week 6 (5/11 - 5/17) – Max Scherzer, Kings
Week 7 (5/18 – 5/24) – Cole Hamels, Demigods
Week 8 (5/25 – 5/31) – Carlos Martinez, Mavericks

Unlike last month, the award winners from May do appear on the lists above.  Here are the best of May 2015.

Batter of the Month:

Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
.360 AVG, 13 HR, 28 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.87 PAR

Pitcher of the Month:

Max Scherzer, Kings
1.67 ERA, 0.907 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 56 K, 4.07 PAR

Besides the Jackalope, there were two other unstoppable forces in the month of May, and both play for the Washington Nationals.  Darkhorses outfielder Bryce Harper had the best month of his young career on the way to winning Player of the Month.  Meanwhile, Kings ace Max Scherzer seems to be adjusting well in his return to the National League.  He is the Pitcher of the Month.  Neither of these awards were very closely contested.  Harper and Scherzer were almost indisputably the best two players in baseball in May and are certainly among the favorites for the MVP and Cy Young awards too.

Only two players in DTBL history have met or exceeded Harper’s five monthly stat totals from above:  Barry Bonds in May of 2001 and Jeff Bagwell in June of 1994.  That’s some pretty exclusive company.