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The past seven seasons have been a roller coaster ride for the Kings. During that span, they have reached the top of the summit multiple times and the depths of the valley as well, with little in between. Two seasons ago, they made the improbable jump to winning a league championship just a year removed from finishing dead last. Last year, they dropped all the way down to ninth place. But this season, they pulled off another improbable rebound, winning the championship for a record extending seventh time. Kevin’s Kings are the 2018 Dream Team Baseball League Champions.
At the halfway mark of the season, it looked like a forgone conclusion that the Kings would win the league. They had a double digit advantage through most of the first half. But then they started to cool off in July and August, briefly losing the lead in early September. Fortunately for them, the bats caught fire in mid-September, just in time to hold off an impressive charge by the Darkhorses. There was still some doubt heading into the final days of the season, but in the end, the Kings held on to win by 2 1/2 points. The Demigods and Choppers also finished in shouting distance, 9 and 12 1/2 points back respectively.
Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were three of the best players in baseball this season. That is almost indisputable. Having the three of them put together those amazing seasons for the same team would obviously make you think that team was pretty good. In this case, those three were almost the only reasons why the Kings won the league. The Kings probably had more players who failed to meet expectations, due to injuries or poor performances, than those who exceeded expectations. But Betts, Scherzer and Verlander were so good that it didn’t matter.
Betts finished the season with 11.3 PAR and would have led the league if not for a red hot stretch run by Christian Yelich. His 2018 was almost identical to his 2016 campaign, which produced a MVP award and also another championship for the Kings. Betts joined the 30/30 club for the first time this year, reaching career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (30). He also won the batting title, hitting .346, and tied Francisco Lindor for the league lead in runs scored with 129. It was an all-around great season for Betts who will be a strong contender to win his second MVP award.
Scherzer and Verlander have been leading the Kings pitching staff for many years. They are both former Cy Young award winners and have each had several elite seasons in the past. But this was easily their best combined campaign as Kings teammates. They finished first and second in the league in pitching PAR (14.0 for Scherzer, 13.0 for Verlander) and had very similar stat lines across the board. Scherzer: 2.53 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 18 wins, 300 strikeouts. Verlander: 2.52 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 16 wins, 290 strikeouts. Here are their league ranks in those four categories: ERA – 6th/7th, WHIP – 2nd/3rd, W – 4th/9th, K – 1st/2nd. Scherzer joins Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw as the only pitchers to reach 300 strikeouts since 2002. Verlander smashed his career high in that category as well and had his best overall season since winning the Cy Young in 2011 with one of the all-time great pitching seasons.
Hardly any other Kings players are even worth mentioning beyond those three. Rhys Hoskins, the second overall pick in this year’s draft, had a solid rookie campaign. But he was the only Kings position player besides Betts to top 4 PAR. Second round pick Matt Olson was decent as well. A.J. Pollock was solid when healthy, but once again missed significant time due to injuries. Betts was the only Kings player to finish in the top 10 of any offensive category. He was almost literally a one man show with the bat. This is the second straight year that a team has won the league with just 29 batting points. But unlike the star-studded ’17 Mavericks, the Kings got to that number on the back of just one superstar.
The pitching staff was a little more well-rounded, leading the league with 43 1/2 pitching points. But again, Scherzer and Verlander were responsible for most of that. The rest of the rotation was a revolving door of guys who were okay, but not great. Lance McCullers and Eduardo Rodriguez were having nice seasons before they got hurt. Kevin Gausman proved to be a solid pickup in the second half. The bullpen was rock solid in the first half of the year, but was decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness down the stretch. Sean Doolittle was easily their best reliever over the course of the season, but even he missed a couple months with a foot injury.
So how exactly did the Kings win the league with so few great performances? Well, to be honest, they got a little lucky. The league as a whole was not terribly strong this season. I may cover this in another season recap article, but the league-wide PAR was below 400 for the first time in any season I’ve calculated to date. Granted, that should go up when I do the off-season update to incorporate 2018 numbers into the calculations. There are several reasons why this number was so low. But it does shine some light on how the Kings were able to win with less than spectacular numbers across the board. I believe the Kings dominant first half played a significant role as well, potentially leading other teams to feel like they were out of the race by the start of summer. Had a couple teams been more aggressive in those summer months, the Kings could have been in big trouble down the stretch. This will not go down as one of the all-time great championship teams. But you know what? Championship pennants fly forever. And now the Kings have seven of them. No other team has won more than four.