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The first month of the 2018 baseball season is in the books. Early indications are that the recent surge of the three true outcomes (home runs, walks, strikeouts) is far from over. Perhaps most troubling is that MLB saw more strikeouts than hits in the first month of the season. That had never previously happened over a full month in the history of baseball. In our league, I don’t keep track of hitters’ strikeouts, so I am not certain if that was the case for DTBL hitters. But it definitely was for pitchers. Through Friday’s games, DTBL pitchers have recorded 2,663 strikeouts compared to 2,059 hits allowed. To be clear, DTBL pitchers recording more strikeouts than hits allowed isn’t new. It has happened over each of the past six full seasons. But the current K/H ratio of 1.29 would blow away last year’s record high of 1.14. Because home run rates are still historically high, overall scoring in baseball is only slightly down from the last couple years and still higher than it was a few years back. But the current DTBL league batting average of .259 is eight points lower than the league’s record full-season low of .267 (2015). Average tends to rise as the weather warms up though, so I’m not going to read into that too much. The big takeaway from the first month numbers is clearly the rise in strikeouts and drop in hits. Fewer balls in play tends to make for a less interesting game. So let’s hope this trend doesn’t continue much longer.
In the DTBL, March/April was dominated by the Kings, who are looking to bounce back from an awful 2017 season. They finished April with a double digit lead. They held onto first place most of the month. The Darkhorses and Mavericks are in pretty good shape as well. Interestingly, it is the Mavericks’ usually reliable pitching staff that has kept them from leading the league in the early stages of the season.
As for the players, the leaderboards are topped by a lot of familiar names with a bunch of impressive rookies mixed in as well. Below are the Players of the Week and Players of the Month for March/April. Please note that the games from March were included in determining the April Player of the Month awards. Also, there is going to be one extra set of weekly award winners as I did separate that season opening weekend (Thursday through Sunday) into its own week.
Batters of the Week:
Week 1 (3/29 – 4/1) – Adam Eaton, Kings
Week 2 (4/2 – 4/8) – Didi Gregorius, Jackalope
Week 3 (4/9 – 4/15) – Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope
Week 4 (4/16 – 4/22) – Manny Machado, Mavericks
Week 5 (4/23 – 4/29) – Gary Sanchez, Jackalope
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 1 (3/29 – 4/1) – Jose Berrios, Darkhorses
Week 2 (4/2 – 4/8) – Jameson Taillon, Cougars
Week 3 (4/9 – 4/15) – Max Scherzer, Kings
Week 4 (4/16 – 4/22) – Patrick Corbin, Darkhorses
Week 5 (4/23 – 4/29) – Masahiro Tanaka, Choppers
It was a good month for Jackalope hitters as three of them won weekly honors. It was an up-and-down month for several of the players listed above, particularly the pitchers. But at least two of them were strong throughout the month and are recipients of the Player of the Month awards. As a reminder, these are not subjective choices on my part. These are the players who accumulated the highest batting and pitching PAR for the month. Again, “month” isn’t entirely accurate in this case as the last few days of March were included as well. Here are the award winners for April 2018.
Batter of the Month:
Didi Gregorius, Jackalope
.327 AVG, 10 HR, 30 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.55 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Max Scherzer, Kings
1.62 ERA, 0.821 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 57 K, 3.69 PAR
Didi Gregorius had the unenviable task of replacing a legend at shortstop for the Yankees. But since taking over for Derek Jeter in 2016, he has been nothing short of spectacular. This year, it seems he may be reaching a new level though. He finished April with 10 home runs. His career high is 25, which he recorded last season. The Jackalope nabbed Gregorius in the fourth round last year and have been rewarded handsomely ever since. Gregorius edged out A.J. Pollock for this award. Five of the top nine finishers were Mavericks, led by first round pick Ozzie Albies.
Pitcher of the Month awards are nothing new for Max Scherzer. This is the third time he has won it since I officially started tracking this in 2016: (June ’16, May ’17). At this point, I think it is safe to say that Scherzer is the most consistently dominant pitcher in baseball. The two time reigning NL Cy Young award winner is the early leader for that award again this season. His closest competition for this monthly award was his Kings teammate, Justin Verlander. Corey Kluber and Gerrit Cole had tremendous opening months as well.