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As usual, I have gotten lazy with my DTBL News articles as the season has worn on. I thought about skipping this one altogether, but decided it would be good to get a least some of the following out of the way before the season ends. Scroll to the bottom of the article if you have been waiting weeks to find out who the best players of August were, as we near the end of September. But first, a brief look at what is in store for the final weekend of the season.
The Kings have been in first place all but four days this season. The only time they were lower than second place was the day after Opening Day. They held a share of the lead every single day from April 18 through September 16. And yet, with just three full days remaining on the calendar, they are hardly a sure thing to win their seventh DTBL Championship. They dominated the league for the first three months, but faded badly in July and especially August. It was not a huge surprise when the Darkhorses finally caught them a couple weeks ago. But the Kings picked a good time to get hot again as their offense has had its best stretch in several months over the past week or so. With one weekend to go, the Kings lead over the Darkhorses is four points. That is, by no means, a safe lead.
The final week began with the Kings leading the Darkhorses by 1 1/2 points. The Demigods were just five back and the Choppers were in striking distance as well, seven points behind. But since then, the Kings have picked up 3 1/2 points and have increased their lead over all of the challengers. I think it is safe to say that the Choppers and Demigods are probably out of it now, barring something miraculous. But the Darkhorses have several paths to claiming the title.
The categories that present the best opportunities for the Darkhorses to pick up points are batting average, ERA and maybe home runs. If Jacob deGrom were slated to pitch one more time, I might have thrown strikeouts in there too. But realistically, 71-72 points is probably the Darkhorses’ ceiling. In other words, they are going to need a little help as the Kings sit at 73 points. But the Kings could very easily spit back some points they’ve gained this week. They are very vulnerable in home runs, RBIs and ERA. The game I will have my eye on will be Jon Gray facing a resurgent Nationals offense at Coors Field on Saturday night. If Gray were to get lit up, a loss of an ERA point would be very possible for the Kings. On the flip side, the Kings have some suddenly hot power hitters, like David Dahl and A.J. Pollock. The Darkhorses will be rooting for a power outage from the Kings this weekend.
Keep in mind that our league does count stats from tie-breaker games. There is a very good chance that at least one tie-breaker will be required to settle the National League playoff races. So this thing may not be over on Sunday. However, no roster moves will be processed before Monday, so the current active rosters will remain in effect until the season is officially over. If the championship remains up for grabs on Monday, I’ll be live blogging the action.
Now it is time to play catch-up on all of the weekly and monthly awards I missed. Since I’m so late with these, I’m not going to bother with write-ups. But here are the weekly award winners from August and September (so far).
Batters of the Week:
Week 19 (7/30 – 8/5) – Matt Carpenter, Choppers
Week 20 (8/6 – 8/12) – J.D. Martinez, Demigods
Week 21 (8/13 – 8/19) – Justin Turner, Darkhorses
Week 22 (8/20 – 8/26) – Javier Baez, Mavericks
Week 23 (8/27 – 9/2) – Christian Yelich, Darkhorses
Week 24 (9/3 – 9/9) – Trevor Story, Cougars
Week 25 (9/10 – 9/16) – Whit Merrifield, Choppers
Week 26 (9/17 – 9/23) – Tommy Pham, Cougars
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 19 (7/30 – 8/5) – Jon Gray, Kings
Week 20 (8/6 – 8/12) – Trevor Bauer, Choppers
Week 21 (8/13 – 8/19) – Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses
Week 22 (8/20 – 8/26) – Kevin Gausman, Kings
Week 23 (8/27 – 9/2) – Corey Kluber, Demigods
Week 24 (9/3 – 9/9) – Robbie Ray, Moonshiners
Week 25 (9/10 – 9/16) – Justin Verlander, Kings
Week 26 (9/17 – 9/23) – Hyun-Jin Ryu, Choppers
And now, here are the Batter and Pitcher of the Month from August 2018.
Batter of the Month:
Matt Carpenter, Choppers
J.D. Martinez, Demigods
.373 AVG, 7 HR, 25 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.69 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses
1.24 ERA, 0.985 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 60 K, 3.29 PAR
FYI, Carpenter Martinez just barely edged out the Darkhorses’ Christian Yelich, who is probably a strong contender for this award again in September. Speaking of guys who are strong contenders for September honors, deGrom’s unbelievable ’18 season was finally rewarded in August.
It should be an exciting final weekend, both in the DTBL and MLB. May the best teams win!
TWO YEARS LATER EDIT: When going through these articles to retroactively populate the honors table with past monthly award winners, I discovered I completely botched this one. J.D. Martinez was the actual Player of the Month for August 2018. My spreadsheet of monthly stats clearly states that, and I verified that the stat line above matches what Martinez produced in 8/18, not Carpenter. I do not know how I got this wrong.