The Kings have been in first place for a majority of the season, but things were getting a little too close for comfort in early August as the Mavericks and Demigods were in hot pursuit. They even briefly surrendered the top spot. But in the last few weeks, they have built up a more comfortable lead once again. As September hit, the lead was up to 9 1/2 points, though that has dropped down to 6 1/2 as of today. The race is far from over, but the Kings are definitely in the driver’s seat.
It has pretty much been a three team race since the All-Star break. A month ago, the Demigods may have actually been the presumed favorite just because the Kings and Mavericks were fighting through some serious injury problems. This is still a major problem for the Mavericks, who haven’t been able to field a full, healthy rotation since June. The Kings injuries were mostly on the offensive side as they seemed to suffer a new ailment every day in late July. But things have been patched up recently and they continue to field the league’s best offense.
At first glance, the Kings simply don’t seem to have a championship caliber pitching staff. But two of their long time aces have really stepped up of late: Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. Those two guys have led the Kings into the top half of the league in pitching points, which seemed like an unreachable goal as recently as a month ago. The Kings are still dead last in ERA, yet are in the top three of every other pitching category, which is a little strange to say the least. But this pitching resurgence has pushed the Kings back up to the 80 point mark in the standings. If they can hold onto that, they should be able to finish off the improbable worst to first turnaround.
This race is far from over though. The Kings are extremely vulnerable in a whole bunch of categories, especially on the pitching side. The Demigods are the closest competition at the moment. All year, they have looked like the most balanced team, and as mentioned earlier, some might have considered them the favorite when the Kings and Mavericks were losing players left and right. The Demigods have possibly been the healthiest team in the league. But now they need to go on a run to get back into the race for their first championship.
Perhaps the team most worth watching in the final month is the Mavericks. In some ways, it is quite remarkable that they are still in this race despite losing basically their entire rotation for significant portions of the season. But the band is going to start coming back together this week as Stephen Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw are expected to make their returns from the disabled list. It shouldn’t take long for the Mavericks to gain points in pitching categories with those two back in the lineup.
Finally, the Choppers and Darkhorses aren’t completely eliminated yet, but will need to get hot in a hurry to get back in the race. Four weeks to go. Will the Kings become the DTBL’s first six time champion? Here are the award winners for August 2016.
Batters of the Week:
Week 18 (8/1 – 8/7) – Brandon Phillips, Cougars
Week 19 (8/8 – 8/14) – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars
Week 20 (8/15 – 8/21) – Kris Bryant, Cougars
Week 21 (8/22 – 8/28) - Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 18 (8/1 – 8/7) – Kyle Hendricks, Moonshiners
Week 19 (8/8 – 8/14) – Rick Porcello, Darkhorses
Week 20 (8/15 – 8/21) - Ian Kennedy, Cougars
Week 21 (8/22 – 8/28) - David Price, Naturals
It was a weirdly strong month for players on the non-contending teams. Not one of the weekly awards went to a player on one of the top four teams. The last place Cougars had three different hitters and a pitcher take home weekly honors. This carried over to the monthly awards as well, which were won by teammates from a non-contender. Here are the DTBL monthly award winners for August 2016:
Batter of the Month:
Brian Dozier, Moonshiners
.302 AVG, 13 HR, 27 RBI, 27 R, 3 SB, 3.23 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Kyle Hendricks, Moonshiners
1.28 ERA, 0.780 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 36 K, 3.36 PAR
The month of August saw the Moonshiners creep up the standings a little bit, no longer in serious danger of finishing dead last for the first time in franchise history. The August surge was largely due to the month’s top two players: Brian Dozier and Kyle Hendricks. Dozier is having a career year, already surpassing his previous season highs in home runs and RBI. In August, he led the league in home runs with 13 and was near the top in RBI and runs, with 27 apiece. The Moonshiners offense has been carried most of the season by their two second basemen, Dozier and Ian Kinsler. A whole host of other hitters challenged for the monthly award, with Nolan Arenado as the closest competition.
In an absolutely loaded rookie class, one player has gone largely overlooked, until now. Kyle Hendricks has been the most surprising star of the Cubs magical season, making a run at Jake Arrieta for the title of ace of the staff. He has unquestionably been the ace of the Moonshiners staff, a rotation containing former Cy Young winners Felix Hernandez, Zack Greinke and Dallas Keuchel. Hendricks was the pretty clear winner of the August honor, but Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello had great months as well.