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June is more than half over, so I suppose I should probably get around to announcing the DTBL May award winners. Sorry for the ridiculous tardiness of this article. There are a couple of reasons for the delay though. First, I forgot to run my script to capture the monthly stats on the first of the month, so I had to come up with a slightly different way of computing the numbers for May. But that didn’t take too long to do. The main reason for the delay is because I’ve spent most of the past couple weeks watching and celebrating the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup championship. As you may know, we don’t get an opportunity to celebrate sports championships very often here in the nation’s capital. The Caps victory came at the expense of the Vegas Golden Knights, so I became accustomed to reading article headlines that were plays on gambling terms. So, why not one more here?
Not a whole lot has changed since last month’s article. The Kings are sill in control at the top of the standings. However, things started to look a little dicey for them a few weeks ago when a whole bunch of their outfielders got hurt at the same time. They seem to have weathered that storm though, as they still hold a comfortable lead. The Darkhorses and Demigods have been putting together solid seasons as well and currently sit in second and third places. Meanwhile, the Mavericks have been absolutely decimated by pitching injuries, turning what has been their strength for many years into a considerable weakness. They currently have the fewest pitching points in the league.
The Kings have been chugging along thanks to spectacular numbers from some of their biggest stars. In April, Kings ace Max Scherzer won Pitcher of the Month honors and still leads the league in pitching PAR well into the season’s third month. But it is a teammate of his who was the league’s best pitcher in May. And another teammate topped the May batting PAR leaderboard. But before we get to that, here were the weekly award winners in May.
Batters of the Week:
Week 6 (4/30 – 5/6) – Eddie Rosario, Komodos
Week 7 (5/7 – 5/13) – Scooter Gennett, Demigods
Week 8 (5/14 – 5/20) – Brandon Belt, Mavericks
Week 9 (5/21 – 5/27) – Jose Altuve, Demigods
Week 10 (5/28 – 6/3) – Edwin Encarnacion, Darkhorses
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 6 (4/30 – 5/6) – Gerrit Cole, Jackalope
Week 7 (5/7 – 5/13) – Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners
Week 8 (5/14 – 5/20) – Lance McCullers, Kings
Week 9 (5/21 – 5/27) – J.A. Happ, Komodos
Week 10 (5/28 – 6/3) – Michael Wacha, Kings
Well, that list of pitchers is pretty interesting for a couple reasons. First, if you couldn’t tell, May was a pretty good month for Astros pitchers. Three of them won weekly honors (Cole, Keuchel, McCullers), yet their pitcher who had the best month is not one of those three! Secondly, if you couldn’t tell, May was a pretty good month for Kings pitchers. Two of them won weekly honors (McCullers, Wacha), yet their pitcher who had the best month is not one of those two! Yes, I’m talking about the same pitcher in both cases. Here are the DTBL monthly award winners for May 2018.
Batter of the Month:
Mookie Betts, Kings
.372 AVG, 9 HR, 19 RBI, 23 R, 10 SB, 3.65 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Justin Verlander, Kings
0.86 ERA, 0.696 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 50 K, 3.67 PAR
Using Baseball-Reference’s Play Index, I was only able to find two other monthly stat totals in DTBL history that were comparable to Betts’ five category stat line: Mike Trout in July of 2012 and Ryan Klesko in May of 2001. Had I tightened my search criteria to Betts’ exact stat line, he would have been the only result. So Mookie had one of the best five category months in league history. Unfortunately for him, he suffered an injury to his side at the beginning of June which shelved him for a bit, but he is back at it now and trails only Mike Trout in batting PAR for the season. It is still relatively early, but right now, it looks like a two person race between those two for MVP honors. A pair of Indians were Betts’ closest competition for this monthly award, however. Komodos third baseman Jose Ramirez and Demigods shortstop Francisco Lindor also had great months of May.
Verlander saw a bunch of Astros and Kings teammates win weekly honors in May, but he was clearly the league’s best pitcher in the month. The modest win total (3) was all that kept him from blowing away everyone else for this award. The Naturals’ James Paxton and the Kings’ Max Scherzer were in striking distance. Scherzer and Verlander sit first and second in the league in pitching PAR, which goes a long way towards explaining why the Kings are crushing the rest of the league in pitching points. They currently have at least a share of the lead in all five pitching categories.