DTBL News

Author: Kevin

  • Stanton Slugs Way to MVP

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    2017 will be remembered as the year of the non-steroid enhanced home run.  A record number of homers were hit in MLB this season and the most in the DTBL since 2000.  29 DTBL players hit at least 30 round-trippers and 70 players hit at least 20.  Despite this proliferation of homers, one player managed to separate himself from the pack.  Jackalope outfielder Giancarlo Stanton slugged 59 homers, 10 more than any other player.  That is the largest gap between the top two home run hitters in DTBL history (tying Albert Belle in 1995).  In a crowded field of strong candidates, Stanton has come out on top as the 2017 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

    Yesterday, I adjusted the 2017 PAR numbers to be based on a five year set of stats including the recently completed season.  In doing so, most hitters saw their PAR take a slight drop, particularly power hitters.  Stanton was no exception.  His PAR dropped from 12.1 to 11.7, which cost him the top spot on the PAR leaderboard since 2009.  Mookie Betts’ 2016 total of 11.72 edged Stanton by one tenth of a point.  Stanton did lead the league in that category in 2017 though, in addition to soaring past the field in home runs and also leading the way in RBI (132).  His 123 runs trailed only Charlie Blackmon.  Even his .281 batting average was quite impressive for such a prodigious slugger.  While Stanton has been a force ever since he made it to the majors, this was easily his best season yet.

    The Jackalope drafted Stanton with the sixth overall pick of the 2011 draft.  He has been their most consistent power hitter ever since.  In his seven DTBL seasons, he has hit at least 20 home runs in each one.  Only injuries have been able to slow him down on occasion.  2017 was clearly his best season to date, but 2014 was pretty darn good as well when he finished second in the MVP race.  This year marked his fourth All-Star appearance.  He was a major contributor to both of the Jackalope’s championships (2011 and 2015).    This was a disappointing season for the Jackalope, but that was mostly because of the pitching staff.  Stanton helped them easily lead the league in home runs with 364, the highest team total since 2003.  Stanton and Jackalope teammate Paul Goldschmidt formed the most fearsome duo in the league this season.

    Stanton clearly had a MVP caliber season, but he was not alone.  He received half of the first place votes and appeared on all ten ballots, but in scattered positions.  In total, he accumulated 77 points, winning this award by 19 over Cougars outfielder Charlie Blackmon.  Blackmon was no doubt a benefactor of the Coors effect, but his numbers across the board were legitimately spectacular, leading the league in runs (137) while hitting .331 with 37 homers, 104 RBI and 14 stolen bases.  He received a pair of first place votes and was the only player besides Stanton to make it on every ballot.  Finishing third was the DTBL Rookie of the Year, Mavericks outfielder Aaron Judge.  Stanton was the only DTBL player to hit more home runs than Judge this year.  Judge received one first place vote and 46 total points.  Interestingly enough, that allowed him to edge out American League MVP Jose Altuve by a single point.  With a AL MVP and World Series championship under his belt, Altuve is now receiving proper recognition as one of the best players in the sport.  This is the third time in four years that he has finished in the top four of the MVP race.  He won the league batting title, hitting .346 with 24 home runs and 32 stolen bases.  The Demigods second baseman received a pair of first place votes, but was edged out by Judge because he received just one second place tally.  The top four finishers all received first place votes and made strong arguments to win this award.  But so did the guy who finished fifth, Jackalope first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.  Goldschmidt accumulated 18 points.  It is definitely worth checking out the voting results.  There was a clear lack of consensus on where each player should finish.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    As mentioned above, yesterday, I completed the end-of-season PAR adjustments for the 2017 figures.  I’m also in the process of adding PAR numbers for the 2008 season, which means we will have ten full seasons worth of data for that stat very soon.  I have a lot planned for this winter, including a revamp of the transaction processing portions of the web site.  So if you have any suggestions on improvements, please let me know.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Cy Young Goes to a Klubot

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    The 2017 season got off to a rough start for Demigods ace Corey Kluber. He managed to win three of his first six starts, but was far from his usual dominant self, posting a 5.06 ERA before hitting the disabled list for nearly a month. Apparently the time off served him well, because he was the best pitcher in baseball for the final four months of the season. Those four months of dominance were enough to make Kluber’s full season numbers as impressive as any other pitcher in baseball. Corey Kluber is the 2017 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    Kluber is the definition of a workhorse.  Despite missing a month of the season, he still managed to record 203.2 innings, exceeded by only two other DTBL pitchers.  He has thrown over 200 innings in all four of his seasons with the Demigods.  But it wasn’t just about quantity of innings for Kluber.  The quality was unsurpassed as well.  He easily led the league in ERA (2.25) and WHIP (0.87) and tied for the most wins (18) as well.  His 265 strikeouts ranked third in the league.  In terms of PAR, he was also the best pitcher in the league with a mark of 13.2.  He did all of this while pitching in the hitter friendly American League.  He is the first American League pitcher to win the DTBL Cy Young award since David Price in 2012.

    The Demigods drafted Kluber in the 10th round of the 2014 draft.  Needless to say, that pick has worked out quite well for them.  Kluber won the DTBL Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and has been a Cy Young contender pretty much every season since.  He has struck out over 225 hitters in each season and has never posted an ERA above 3.50 or a WHIP above 1.09.  This season was probably his best to date, but there hasn’t been a bad one yet.  He already sits in the top five in Demigods franchise history in all relevant categories.  Amazingly enough, this season marked his first DTBL All-Star appearance.  I would say that is a sign of how dominant Kluber tends to be in the second half of seasons, because his full season numbers have been All-Star worthy in all four years of his DTBL career.  The Demigods pitching staff was a bit of a disappointment as a whole, keeping them from being a serious championship contender.  But that obviously wasn’t Kluber’s fault.  He easily led his team in ERA, WHIP, wins, strikeouts and PAR.

    Plenty of pitchers had great 2017 seasons, but Kluber won this award pretty easily.  He received eight of the ten first place votes, and was ranked second on the other two ballots for a total of 94 points.  Chris Sale looked like the favorite to win this award at the All-Star break, but he continued his career trend of fading down the stretch, creating quite a contrast to Kluber.  Nonetheless, the Choppers lefty still led the league in strikeouts with 308, the highest single season total since Randy Johnson’s 334 in the 2002 season, 15 years ago.  Sale received one first place vote and eight seconds for a 69 point total.  There was a very close race for third place.  Last year’s Cy Young winner, Kings ace Max Scherzer edged out Mavericks star Clayton Kershaw.  Scherzer received a majority of the third place votes (7) and accumulated 44 points.  This was just enough to beat Kerhaw’s 40 points that included a first place vote.  Finishing near the top of the Cy Young vote is nothing new for this duo.  Scherzer has now finished in the top four in four of the past five seasons.  Amazingly, this is Kershaw’s seventh straight year in this elite company.  He won the award in 2013 and 2014.  There was a huge gap after these four, but Mavericks closer Kenley Jansen took the fifth spot thanks to four fifth place votes.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    Two down, one to go.  The Most Valuable Player award, which figures to be the most hotly contested of the three races, will be announced on Wednesday.

  • Judge Rules Over Rookies

    Embed from Getty Images Let's cut to the chase.  Putting Aaron Judge at the top of the ballot for Rookie of the Year was probably one of the easiest decisions each of us made this year.  That's not to say there weren't many good first year players in the league this year.  Quite the opposite, actually.  But none of those other rookies had one of the best offensive seasons in recent league history during their maiden voyages.  Judge did.  He already won the American League Rookie of the Year award and is likely to be a strong contender for the DTBL Most Valuable Player award which will be announced next week.  Mavericks outfielder Aaron Judge is the unanimous selection as the 2017 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    Before I go too much further, I need to point out that I have not yet completed the post-season adjustments to the 2017 PAR totals.  Because of the offensive explosion in the league this season, expect hitters' PAR totals to go down a bit.  With that said, Judge just posted the fourth highest batting PAR for seasons in which it has been calculated to date (since 2009).  Granted, two of the three totals ahead of Judge's 11.0 were also accumulated this year.  So it was a hitter friendly environment.  Nonetheless, Judge's numbers speak of themselves.  He slugged 49 home runs, finishing second in the league behind Giancarlo Stanton and also second in league history among rookies, trailing only Ryan Howard's 58 homers in 2006.  His 120 runs scored ranked third in the league and he also drove in triple digits:  106.  Additionally, he stole nine bases and hit a very respectable .287.  Not bad for a guy with swing-and-miss issues.  Judge led the Mavericks in HR, RBI and R.  Perhaps his most impressive feat was topping Mike Trout to lead the Mavericks in batting PAR.  It is the first time in Trout's career that he has not led them in that category.

    This was a pretty special season for the Mavericks organization, and Judge was obviously a huge part of that.  After hitting just .179 with four homers in 27 games at the end of 2016, none of the ten DTBL teams decided to select Judge during the draft this March.  But the Mavericks wisely moved in with a free agent claim in the second week of the season.  One season does not make a career, but this is already looking like the biggest free agent heist in league history.  One day we may look back and wonder how in the world Aaron Judge was not among the 280 players on a DTBL roster to start this season.  Actually, that day has already passed.  Anyway, all the Mavericks got out of their early season free agent signing was one of the best seasons in recent memory, and with it, a league championship.

    I probably would have had to question anybody who didn't put Judge #1 on their ballot.  Fortunately, that didn't prove necessary as he received all ten first place votes for a point total of a perfect 100.  Jake Arrieta was a unanimous choice for this award two years ago, but the last hitter to do it was Judge's Mavericks teammate Mike Trout.  Trout was also the last Maverick to win this award.  Comfortably finishing in second place was Gators third baseman Jose Ramirez who shocked everybody by hitting .318 with 29 home runs and 17 stolen bases.  Ramirez appeared on all ten ballots and received eight of the ten second place votes for a total of 64 points.  Finishing third was another breakout star with little hype entering the season, Moonshiners 7th round pick, Robbie Ray.  The hard-throwing lefty struck out 195 in just 143 innings for the Moonshiners.  Ray also received votes from all ten people and was the third choice for seven of them, finishing with 46 points.  The only first round pick to finish in the top five was Jackalope catcher Gary Sanchez.  Definitely one of the favorites for this award entering the season, Sanchez did not disappoint.  He clubbed 33 homers at one of the few remaining positions where big offensive numbers are hard to come by.  Sanchez was only on half the ballots, but accumulated 17 points.  Finally, a relief pitcher sneaked into the five hole.  Darkhorses closer Corey Knebel wasn't signed as a free agent until May, but racked up 39 saves anyway.  An interesting note about him is that he was technically on a DTBL roster a year ago, but the Moonshiners never put him on their major league roster, preserving his rookie status into this season.  Knebel received one second place vote which helped him reach 15 total points and this fifth place ranking.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    Even though all of the major MLB awards are being announced this week, you are going to have to wait until next week to find out who won the other two big DTBL awards.  Next up will be the Cy Young award, which will probably be announced next Monday.

  • Mavericks Rise to the Occasion

    Embed from Getty Images The Mavericks drafted Mike Trout in the second round of the 2012 DTBL Draft, which remains nearly undisputed as the best draft pick in league history, since the inaugural draft. Not coincidentally, since the day they drafted Trout, the Mavericks have been a championship contender. Clearly they have been the most dominant franchise in the league over the past half-dozen years. But one fairly important thing was missing during that stretch: a league championship. Well, their sustained excellence has finally been rewarded. For the third time in franchise history, Marc's Mavericks are the DTBL Champions.

    Since 2012, the Mavericks have finished in second place three times, third once and their "worst" finish was fourth place a year ago, when they were only 3 1/2 points behind the league champs. Prefer judging teams' individual season performances by points rather than place of finish? Well, the Mavericks have been consistently dominant in that area as well. They haven't finished with fewer than 66 points since 2011. This year, no other team even came close to that mark. They won the league by a convincing 11 1/2 points. Since 2008, the only team with a larger margin of victory was the 2015 Jackalope.

    So what made this Mavericks squad slightly better than their recent teams that fell just a little short? Well, from a points perspective, not a lot changed. It was largely a matter of all other contenders having fatal flaws while the Mavericks continued to ride a dominant pitching staff and a good, but not great, offense. The Mavericks once again had the best pitching staff in the league. They led the way with 43 1/2 pitching points and have now topped the league in pitching four of the past five seasons. On the hitting side, they actually took a slight step back from a year ago, finishing with 29 batting points, which was bested by seven other teams.

    It's actually pretty shocking that the Mavericks finished eighth in offense, because they had a bunch of guys who had outstanding seasons. They lacked the offensive balance of a few other teams, but had plenty of star power. As usual, Mike Trout was dominant. But a thumb injury cost him nearly 1/3 of the season and prevented him from leading the team in PAR for the sixth straight season. Instead that honor went to another guy who the Mavericks somehow found off the scrap heap better known as the free agent pool. All rise...

    Aaron Judge was signed as a free agent by the Mavericks during the second week of the season. The mammoth outfielder was in the draft pool, but was passed over by 120 other players. In fairness, Judge had the look of a potential bust of a prospect having shown major contact problems during his first MLB stint. Some were surprised he even made the Yankees Opening Day roster. But the Mavericks beat the rest of the league to the punch and signed him following his solid start to the season. 49 home runs later, Judge is a mortal lock to win Rookie of the Year and will receive strong MVP consideration as well. With Judge a free agent signing, Trout a second round pick and Clayton Kershaw a sixth round pick, it is hard to say which current Maverick was the biggest steal in franchise history, but all three rank right up there in league history as well.

    Besides Trout and Judge, the Mavericks also got great seasons from a number of other hitters: third basemen Manny Machado (33 HR, 95 RBI) and Mike Moustakas (38 HR), first round draft pick Andrew Benintendi (20 HR, 20 SB) and speedy outfielder Billy Hamilton. Hamilton led the league with 58 stolen bases. But the biggest surprise had to be second baseman Jonathan Schoop. All the ninth round pick from 2016 did was hit 32 bombs with 105 RBI.

    Enough about the hitters though. It was the continued excellence of the Mavericks pitching staff that carried them to this championship. They led the league in ERA and WHIP by wide margins and tied the Demigods for most wins. Both the rotation and bullpen were unmatched in terms of dominance. Unlike the offense, which featured some key newcomers, the pitching staff was the same old guard. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg did the heavy lifting, with an assist from Yu Darvish. Strasburg's performance was especially key since the rotation didn't have quite the same depth as previous versions. Kershaw was unable to make it through a full healthy season again, but still wound up finishing in the top three in the league in ERA, WHIP and tied for first in wins. Strasburg wasn't as flashy, but topped 200 strikeouts and had his best season since 2014.

    The bullpen gave the Mavericks a huge advantage over the rest of the league in ERA, WHIP and especially strikeouts. Kenley Jansen and Dellin Betances both topped 100 strikeouts. Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman may have done the same had they been 100% healthy for the full season. Aroyds Vizcaino, who finished the season as the Braves closer, couldn't even crack the Mavericks lineup most of the year. This bullpen was truly an embarrassment of riches.

    Another way in which you can see how loaded the Mavericks roster was is in the quality of the players they cast aside. Four players they released at some point this year could receive consideration as keepers for teams that signed them later in the year: Josh Bell, Byron Buxton, Steven Souza and Dylan Bundy. It is going to be very interesting to see how the Mavericks cut down to 16 keepers this winter, because they have a lot more guys than that who most teams would want.

    This is the third DTBL Championship for the Mavericks and the first in over a decade (2004, 2006). They are now tied with the Cougars for the fourth most DTBL titles, trailing the Kings (6), Darkhorses (5) and Naturals (4). Only the Kings have more top two finishes than the Mavericks' eight. The Mavericks are pretty clearly one of the league's elite franchises. Now they have a recent championship to prove it.

    Congrats to Marc on a great season! Much more to come over the next few weeks as I recap the 2017 season.

  • September Storylines

    Embed from Getty Images In some circles, it is believed that I have magical powers that allow me to alter the state of the championship race by declaring certain teams dead, thereby causing those teams to actually find their way back into the race. There has been little proof of this, however, as what was described as a two team race a month ago has now become more of a solo act. The Mavericks now hold a double digit lead with just three and a half weeks to go. Is it over? Are the Mavericks a lock to win their first championship in 11 years? Eh, not exactly.

    While the Mavericks have held a double digit lead for a couple weeks now, they are not completely bulletproof. On the batting side, they hold precarious leads over chasing teams in pretty much all five categories. And they are currently nursing several injuries to hitters. Without any free agent signings remaining, they don't have a lot of options to replace injured players either, not that the free agent pool has anybody worth signing at this point anyway. As for pitching, they are sitting pretty and it seems highly unlikely they could lose more than a point or two in pitching categories, especially with Clayton Kershaw healthy again. Perhaps someday I will come up with a way of calculating championship odds, but for now, I'm going to take a blind guess instead. I'd give the Mavericks close to a 90% chance of winning the title, with the other 10% split between the Naturals and Demigods. I suppose a few other teams could enter the picture with a couple ridiculously hot weeks. But it is pretty much the Mavericks title to lose.  There, I said it.

    So the championship race may not be particularly exciting right now, but there are some other very interesting storylines to follow down the stretch. First is the impressive power display by Jackalope outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (spoiler alert: he will be mentioned again below). Stanton currently sits at 53 home runs and has a great chance to be the first person to reach 60 since 2001. In fact, if you exclude the seasons during the peak of the steroid era (1998-2001), Stanton could surpass the next highest single season home run total (Ryan Howard, 58, 2006). While the actual single season home run record (73) is probably not realistic, Stanton does have a great shot at a different kind of home run record: margin of victory for the home run crown. In 1995, Albert Belle hit 10 more homers than any other player. Nobody else has repeated that feat since. Currently, Stanton leads Moonshiners' Khris Davis by 14 home runs. At his recent pace, hard to imagine Stanton not expanding upon that lead.

    The MVP and Cy Young races are both way too close to call right now. In fact, there are so many hitters in play for MVP that I'm not even going to mention all of them here. On the pitching side, Chris Sale and Max Scherzer have been the presumptive Cy Young leaders most of the summer, but Corey Kluber has been coming on strong and a now-healthy Kershaw can't be ignored either. Will Sale reach 300 strikeouts? If he gets to 302, it will be the highest single season mark since 2002.

    Now a belated look back at the award winners for August 2017:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 18 (7/31 - 8/6) - Willson Contreras, Demigods Week 19 (8/7 - 8/13) - Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope Week 20 (8/14 - 8/20) - Rougned Odor, Naturals Week 21 (8/21 - 8/27) - Byron Buxton, Choppers Week 22 (8/28 - 9/3) - Jose Ramirez, Gators

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 18 (7/31 - 8/6) - Cole Hamels, Demigods Week 19 (8/7 - 8/13) - Corey Kluber, Demigods Week 20 (8/14 - 8/20) - Gio Gonzalez, Gators Week 21 (8/21 - 8/27) - Masahiro Tanaka, Choppers Week 22 (8/28 - 9/3) - Jeff Samardzija, Moonshiners

    August was a good month for veteran pitchers.  Four of the five Pitchers of the Week are at least 31 years old, with Tanaka being the young guy (28).  It was also a good month for a few under-the-radar stars like Jose Ramirez and Gio Gonzalez.  The Moonshiners July trade for Jeff Smardzija has been paying dividends as well.  But let's face it, August was all about one guy, who obviously won the Batter of the Month award:

    Batter of the Month:

    Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope .349 AVG, 18 HR, 37 RBI, 28 R, 1 SB, 4.81 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Corey Kluber, Demigods 1.96 ERA, 0.630 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 54 K, 4.35 PAR

    As amazing as Jose Altuve's July was, Giancarlo Stanton kicked it up another notch in August.  He had the best month of this season by a player, by far, according to PAR.  His 4.81 August PAR is a full 1.3 points higher than any other Player of the Month has earned this season.  He slugged an insane 18 home runs in August, which is the second highest single month total in league history, trailing only Sammy Sosa's 20 homers in June of 1998.  As outlined above, this has a chance to be a truly historic season for Stanton.  He is firmly in the mix for MVP now as well.  You want to know who has had the second best month this season?  The Mavericks' Manny Machado, who put up 3.9 PAR in August, but somehow didn't come close to winning this monthly honor.

    Not to be overlooked, Corey Kluber also posted the highest monthly PAR we've seen from a pitcher this season, coming in at 4.35.  He was nearly unhittable in the month, leading qualified pitchers in ERA, WHIP, wins (tied) and strikeouts.  He has also inserted himself into the Cy Young conversation, which didn't seem possible a month ago.  Nobody came close to snatching this honor from Kluber, but recently traded Justin Verlander was the runner-up.

  • Still a Two Team Race

    Embed from Getty Images It's been a two team race for the DTBL Championship for several months now.  Despite the fact that the Mavericks and Naturals have been dealing with injuries to several of their most important players and neither team has truly put it all together yet, no other team besides these two has come close to sniffing first place in recent months.  At the end of July, the Mavericks and Naturals were tied for first place, but the Mavericks have moved into a 1 1/2 point lead at the time of writing.  It is still very much possible for other teams to get back into the race since the gap between the top two and the rest of the pack is just over ten points.  But we just haven't seen any other team make a run yet.

    Two teams looking to make such a run struck a deal a couple weeks ago.  The Moonshiners and Kings completed a trade that was intended to solve roster problems created by injuries.  But as it has turned out so far, this trade has only created further problems as both teams seemingly received damaged goods.  The Moonshiners traded shortstop Zack Cozart and pitcher Jon Gray to the Kings in exchange for outfielder Avisail Garcia and pitcher Jeff Samardzija.  At the time, the Kings were in desparate need of a shortstop to replace the injured Carlos Correa while the Moonshiners were looking for an outfielder to fill in for Gregory Polanco and Keon Broxton.  Of course, within a week of the trade, both Cozart and Garcia hit the disabled list.  This marks the second trade between these teams that appears to have been a bit of a bust for both sides.  The March swap of Polanco for Kyle Seager hasn't been terribly productive for either team.

    This seems like a good time to remind you that the DTBL trade deadline is coming up on August 15.  That is a Tuesday, meaning any trades must be confirmed by both sides before midnight on the 15th even though they will not be processed until the following Monday.  Now, onto the award winners for July 2017.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 14 (7/3 - 7/9) - Jose Altuve, Demigods Week 15 (7/14 - 7/16) - Anthony Rendon, Jackalope Week 16 (7/17 - 7/23) - Nolan Arenado, Naturals Week 17 (7/24 - 7/30) - J.D. Martinez, Demigods

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 14 (7/3 - 7/9) - Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks Week 15 (7/14 - 7/16) - Jose Quintana, Gators Week 16 (7/17 - 7/23) - Jon Lester, Choppers Week 17 (7/24 - 7/30) - James Paxton, Naturals

    The way these weekly honors usually work is that my weekly transaction processing program will create a database record for the players with the highest batting and pitching PAR for the week at the time of processing.  But because of the All-Star break, I wasn't able the capture who had the highest PAR for Week 14 (7/3 through 7/9).  So instead, I used the FanGraphs' splits leaderboard to eyeball the stats for that week and decided Altuve and Kershaw were the likely PAR leaders for the week.  It could be wrong though, particularly in the case of Altuve who had stiff competition from his Astros teammate George Springer.  There wasn't particularly stiff competition for the monthly awards though.  Here are the winners.

    Batter of the Month:

    Jose Altuve, Demigods .485 AVG, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 22 R, 8 SB, 3.38 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    James Paxton, Naturals 1.37 ERA, 0.788 WHIP, 6 W, 0 SV, 46 K, 4.08 PAR

    Jose Altuve nearly hit .500 in July!  He went 48 for 99, which penciled out to a .485 average for the month.  It is the highest monthly batting average since recently inducted Hall-of-Famer Ivan Rodriguez hit .500 in June of 2004 and the fourth highest total in league history:  https://www.baseball-reference.com/tiny/i0mzo.  It wasn't just the average though.  He also hit four homers, scored and drove in over 20 runs and stole eight bases.  Altuve's hot month has inserted the Demigods second baseman right into the thick of the MVP conversation.  He won this award easily.  Following him were a bunch of closely packed players, with Bryce Harper leading the way.

    On the pitching side, another pretty rare feat was achieved by the Naturals' James Paxton.  He won six games in the month, becoming the first DTBL player to do that in a single month this season.  Along with all those wins came a very impressive 1.37 ERA and 0.788 WHIP.  The Canadian left-hander has become the de facto ace for the Naturals in their championship hunt, replacing the injured Noah Syndergaard.  It was a comfortable win for Paxton, but the Choppers' Chris Sale was the runner-up.

  • Harper Stars in National Victory


    Strikeouts have been a prevailing factor in DTBL All-Star Games basically dating back to when we started using OOTP to sim the games.  However, whiffs have really been kicked into overdrive the past five Mid-Summer Classics.  All previous iterations pale in comparison to what happened at The Landing Pad, home of Charlie’s Thunder Choppers, in the 24th annual DTBL All-Star Game.  36 batters were retired via strikeouts, obliterating the old record of 30 set two years ago.  National Division pitchers struck out 19 hitters while opposing American hurlers racked up 17 K’s.  The National All-Stars got the better results from balls that were actually put in play though.  Bryce Harper reached base five times, leading the National squad to a 5-2 victory.

    While 36 strikeouts is kind of ridiculous, it isn’t completely unbelievable when you look at the season stats of the pitchers on these two rosters.  And there are a fair number of All-Star hitters who strikeout at very high rates as well.  Yet the end results went way beyond anything that should have been expected.  This game was a BABIP inflator with the teams combining to hit .483 on balls in play.  Probably a good thing, or runs would have been really scarce.

    The starting pitching match-up was identical to the MLB All-Star Game last Tuesday:  Chris Sale for the American Division against Max Scherzer for the National Division.  Both pitched two scoreless innings in this game, but Scherzer was far more dominant.  He retired all six hitters he faced, four via strikeouts.  Sale managed to scatter three hits and a walk in his two scoreless frames.  In his second inning, the first three batters recorded hits, but Khris Davis threw out Ryan Zimmerman at the plate on a Ryon Healy single to keep the National All-Stars off the board for the time being.

    The American Division drew first blood in the top of the third when Salvador Perez homered off Clayton Kershaw.  Immediately following that, Kershaw allowed consecutive doubles to Corey Seager and Marcell Ozuna, which gave the American team a 2-0 lead.  That score would hold until the fifth.  Dallas Keuchel retired the first two hitters in the top of the fifth, but then ran into trouble.  Bryce Harper walked for the second of three times in the game.  Mike Trout then knocked him in with a double to deep right-center.  That cut the American lead in half heading to the second half of the game.

    One of the most pivotal moments of the game came in the bottom of the fifth.  The American All-Stars were looking to break things open against Carlos Martinez.  They loaded the bases thanks to a pair of walks and a Trea Turner pinch hit single.  Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate looking to unload the bases.  Instead, he grounded out to second to end the inning.  The Americans put a couple more runners on base via singles in the sixth, but that rally ended on a strikeout of Chris Owings by Corey Knebel.  The game was delayed due to rain for 66 minutes during the top of the 6th.  To the best of my recollection, this was the first rain delay in a DTBL All-Star Game.  Eventually, the game moved to the seventh with the American All-Stars still ahead 2-1.

    Greg Holland took the mound for the American Division to start the seventh.  He did not fare well.  Carlos Correa started the inning with a walk and immediately scored on a Charlie Blackmon double to tie the game.  Harper then walked yet again.  Holland managed to get Mike Trout to fly out and Aaron Judge to strikeout and was on the verge of escaping further damage.  But Jose Altuve knocked a clutch single up the middle to score the go-ahead run.  That would prove to be the difference.

    The National Division added some insurance in the ninth inning off the usually unhittable Craig Kimbrel.  Harper reached base safely for the fifth time, starting the inning with a bomb over the right field fence.  Trout made it back-to-back home runs with a 410 foot blast to left-center.  Kenley Jansen made quick work of the American team in the bottom of the ninth, striking out a pair and then getting Turner to ground out to end the game.  The National Division recorded a 5-2 victory.  Corey Knebel picked up the win, Greg Holland took the loss and Jansen earned the save.

    Bryce Harper was an easy selection as the game’s Most Valuable Player.  He reached base in all five plate appearances, going 2 for 2 with 3 walks, a home run and two runs scored.  Perhaps most notably, he did not strike out.  Very few other hitters in this game could make that claim.  Khris Davis wore the golden sombrero, striking out four times.  Another hitter with a less than spectacular game was Aaron Judge who struck out three times and hit into a double play.  Some of the top pitching performances belonged to Scherzer and his Nationals, and National Division, teammate Stephen Strasburg who combined to strike out seven batters in three innings.  On the American side, Roberto Osuna was the top pitcher, striking out all four batters he faced.

    This was the second straight victory for the National Division.  They now hold a 13-11 lead in the all-time DTBL All-Star series.  Next year will mark the 25th Anniversary of the league and the 25th All-Star Game.  Perhaps fittingly, Kevin’s Kings will have the honor of hosting that milestone game.

    Box Score

  • 2017 DTBL All-Stars


    The 2017 DTBL All-Star Game will be the 24th annual mid-summer classic between the American and National Divisions.  Charlie will be the manager for the American squad while I will take the reigns for the National team.  I haven’t decided exactly how the game will be played this year.  It will likely be played using the Out of the Park baseball simulation game again.  However, I may scale back the amount of time and effort I put into it this year.  This is TBD though.  I’ll announce the plans once they’ve been finalized.  The Choppers are the host team for this year’s game.  The last time they were host, ten years ago, the American Division won the biggest blowout in All-Star Game history, 17-2.  But the American team will be looking for revenge this year after losing by a dozen a year ago.

    As for the players making up the All-Star rosters, it is a pretty interesting group.  Not surprisingly, there are a whole bunch of guys with eye-popping offensive numbers.  But while pitchers have struggled a bit this season as a whole, you wouldn’t know it by looking at these guys’ stats.

    There are a few notable players who weren’t able to make the teams.  Much like the National League in MLB, the American Division features a ton of great third basemen this year, leading to the omission of Jose Ramirez, Anthony Rendon and Miguel Sano.  Outfielders Adam Duvall and Mookie Betts were among the most deserving non-invitees for the National squad.  Betts probably would have made it had a majority of the league not already voted before his monster game this past Sunday.

    Now for the guys who did make the teams.  Here are your 2017 DTBL All-Stars.

    American Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Chris Sale, Choppers (6th All-Star appearance)
    • Catcher – Salvador Perez, Gators (2nd)
    • First Base – Joey Votto, Naturals (2nd)
    • Second Base – Brian Dozier, Moonshiners (2nd)
    • Third Base – Jake Lamb, Moonshiners (1st)
    • Shortstop – Corey Seager, Gators (2nd)
    • Outfield – Khris Davis, Moonshiners (1st)
    • Outfield – Corey Dickerson, Gators (1st)
    • Outfield – Marcell Ozuna, Naturals (1st)

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Gary Sanchez, Jackalope (1st)
    • First Base – Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope (5th)
    • Third Base – Nolan Arenado, Naturals (3rd)
    • Shortstop – Chris Owings, Naturals (2nd)
    • Outfield – Trea Turner, Naturals (2nd)
    • Outfield – Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope (4th)
    • Pitcher – Zack Greinke, Moonshiners (5th)
    • Pitcher – Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners (2nd)
    • Pitcher – Robbie Ray, Moonshiners (1st)
    • Pitcher – Carlos Carrasco, Naturals (1st)
    • Relief Pitcher – Craig Kimbrel, Choppers (5th)
    • Relief Pitcher – Roberto Osuna, Moonshiners (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Greg Holland, Naturals (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Raisel Iglesias, Naturals (1st)

    National Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Max Scherzer, Kings (4th)
    • Catcher – Buster Posey, Demigods (6th)
    • First Base – Ryan Zimmerman, Demigods (1st)
    • Second Base – Daniel Murphy, Darkhorses (2nd)
    • Third Base – Ryon Healy, Kings (1st)
    • Shortstop – Elvis Andrus, Darkhorses (3rd)
    • Outfield – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses (3rd)
    • Outfield – Aaron Judge, Mavericks (1st)
    • Outfield – Mike Trout, Mavericks (6th)

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Brian McCann, Darkhorses (4th)
    • First Base – Freddie Freeman, Demigods (2nd)
    • Second Base – Jose Altuve, Demigods (4th)
    • Shortstop – Carlos Correa, Kings (1st)
    • Outfield – George Springer, Darkhorses (2nd)
    • Outfield – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars (2nd)
    • Pitcher – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks (7th)
    • Pitcher – Carlos Martinez, Darkhorses (1st)
    • Pitcher – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks (3rd)
    • Pitcher – Corey Kluber, Demigods (1st)
    • Relief Pitcher – Kenley Jansen, Mavericks (4th)
    • Relief Pitcher – Corey Knebel, Darkhorses (1st)
    • Relief Pitcher – Andrew Miller, Mavericks (3rd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Jim Johnson, Darkhorses (2nd)

    All-Stars per team:

    • 8 – Darkhorses, Naturals
    • 7 – Moonshiners
    • 6 – Mavericks
    • 5 – Demigods
    • 3 – Gators, Jackalope, Kings
    • 2 – Choppers
    • 1 – Cougars

    Nolan Arenado was selected as the 23rd player for the American Division.  On the National side, Elvis Andrus, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa all received eight votes.  Andrus was given the starting nod, so take your pick between Altuve or Correa as the official 23rd man.  Either way, all are deserving All-Stars.  Just like last year, there are 15 first time DTBL All-Stars, including the entire American starting outfield and headlined by Aaron Judge for the National Division.  Clayton Kershaw is the All-Star veteran, making his seventh appearance.  Buster Posey and Chris Sale are on their sixth All-Star squads.  Here are the full voting results.  More All-Star Game coverage coming soon.

  • Turner Breaks Wrist, Wins Award


    For the second consecutive month, one of the league’s top title contending teams is facing an uncertain future due to the loss of arguably their most irreplaceable player.  So far, the Mavericks have weathered the storm without Mike Trout quite nicely.  They have held onto first place for virtually the entire season and have built a relatively comfortable margin over all but one of their competitors.  The one team that is giving them everything they can handle is the Naturals.  As of this writing, the two teams are tied in first.  But while the Mavericks have Trout on the verge of returning, the Naturals will now be without young star outfielder (now shortstop) Trea Turner.  Turner broke his right wrist when getting hit by a pitch by the Cubs’ Pedro Strop last Thursday afternoon.  He figures to miss close to two months of action. Less than ideal for a Naturals team that is competing for a championship while already missing their best pitcher, Noah Syndergaard.  More on Turner in a bit.

    At the halfway mark of the season, it has become pretty clear that we are headed to a record breaking year for home runs and probably the best league-wide offensive numbers in 15 years.  The record for most home runs hit in the DTBL in a single season is 3,231 back in 2000.  Through Sunday, basically the exact mid-point of the season, 1,625 home runs had been hit.  Runs and RBIs are way up as well.  Even stolen bases are on pace to surpass the totals from the past few years.  Only batting average has stagnated.  Meanwhile, it has been a rough go for pitchers.  The league’s 3.90 ERA is up more than 3/10 of a run from last season and is higher than any full season mark since 2006.  Strikeouts remain the lone strong spot for pitchers compared to recent seasons.

    Despite the incredible power surge, it is guys with speed who have been among the biggest contributors to their teams this season.  Last month, Billy Hamilton won the Player of the Month award despite hitting just one home run.  This month’s honor goes to a guy who only hit a pair of homers in June.  Meanwhile, the Pitcher of the Month was earned by a hurler who has bounced back from a slow start in a big way.  Here are the award winners for June 2017.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 9 (5/29 – 6/4) – George Springer, Darkhorses
    Week 10 (6/5 – 6/11) – Gary Sanchez, Jackalope
    Week 11 (6/12 – 6/18) – Jose Ramirez, Gators
    Week 12 (6/19 – 6/25) – Corey Seager, Gators
    Week 13 (6/26 – 7/2) – Mookie Betts, Kings

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 9 (5/29 – 6/4) – Tanner Roark, Jackalope
    Week 10 (6/5 – 6/11) – Robbie Ray, Moonshiners
    Week 11 (6/12 – 6/18) – Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses
    Week 12 (6/19 – 6/25) – Corey Kluber, Demigods
    Week 13 (6/26 – 7/2) – Max Scherzer, Kings

    The weekly hitter honors went to five guys who were just named to the MLB All-Star teams.  How many of them will make the DTBL All-Star squads as well?  Find out later today!  Interesting that Tanner Roark won a weekly award because he has really struggled recently, outside of that one week in late May, early June.  His Nationals teammate Max Scherzer has basically been a candidate for the weekly award every week this season.  Another one of the weekly winners edged him out for the monthly honor though.

    Batter of the Month:

    Trea Turner, Naturals
    .316 AVG, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 23 R, 22 SB, 3.51 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Corey Kluber, Demigods
    1.26 ERA, 0.674 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 64 K, 4.33 PAR

    Trea Turner’s incredible June ended poorly with the broken wrist, but prior to that, he was terrorizing pitchers and catchers throughout the league.  Famously, in one of his last games before the injury, he stole four bases off the Jake Arrieta/Miguel Montero duo, causing the latter to throw the former under the bus prior to being designated for assignment.  Turner stole 22 bases in June, the highest single month total since Jose Reyes stole 23 in August of 2007.  There have only been three 22+ stolen base months in DTBL history:  http://www.baseball-reference.com/tiny/cPbAS (Roger Cedeno wasn’t on a DTBL roster in ’99).  Prior to the injury, Turner had been on pace to challenge the league’s full season stolen base record as well.  But that has gone by the wayside with him expected to miss up to two months of action.  This was Turner’s honor pretty easily, but Mavericks young phenom Aaron Judge was the runner-up.

    It has been an interesting season for Corey Kluber.  After getting off to a rough start, he hit the disabled list in early May with an ERA north of 5.00.  But since returning, he has been dominant, to the point where the Demigods ace is now a strong All-Star candidate.  In June, hes sported an impressive 1.26 ERA and led the league with 64 strikeouts.  Despite very strong months from a couple other pitchers, Kluber won this award pretty handily.  His closest competition was a pair of pitchers you may have heard of: Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer.

    Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2017 DTBL All-Stars later today!

  • Trout Injury Dampens Mood


    You never want to see any player lose significant time due to injury, but especially not the elite players who make the game so fun to watch.  So when Mike Trout hit the disabled list earlier this week with a torn ligament in his thumb that figures to sideline him for a couple months, the whole baseball world took a hit.  Obviously, there are ramifications in this league as well.  The Mavericks have held a small but consistent lead almost the entire season so far.  But that will be put to the test in a big way in the upcoming months.  Can a team that was already mediocre offensively tread water long enough until Trout returns?

    The list of teams that figure to benefit from this opportunity is long.  In fact, at the 1/3 mark of the season schedule, all ten teams are legitimately still in the race.  Even before Trout went down, the Mavericks weren’t blowing away the competition.  And no team has completely tanked to this point either.  Due to an issue with my stats source, the stats haven’t been updated through Friday’s games yet, so I’m writing this looking at the numbers through Thursday.  At that time, the Mavs held a slim 1/2 point lead on the Naturals and just a point ahead of the Moonshiners as well.  Meanwhile, even the last place Choppers were only 20.5 points behind.  Making up that much ground in four months is certainly doable.

    The month of May saw 1,060 home runs hit across MLB, the second highest single month total in history.  Yet, shockingly, the DTBL Batter of the Month went to a guy who hit one measly homer.  But first, here are the guys who won the weekly honors in May.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 5 (5/1 – 5/7) – Billy Hamilton, Mavericks
    Week 6 (5/8 – 5/14) – Mookie Betts, Kings
    Week 7 (5/15 – 5/21) – Corey Dickerson, Gators
    Week 8 (5/22 – 5/28) – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 5 (5/1 – 5/7) – Chris Sale, Choppers
    Week 6 (5/8 – 5/14) – Zack Greinke, Moonshiners
    Week 7 (5/15 – 5/21) – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks
    Week 8 (5/22 – 5/28) – Lance McCullers, Kings

    No big surprises on the pitching list as some of the best pitchers in baseball were at the top of their games in May.  Even though pretty much all of the players listed above were strong contenders for Pitcher of the Month, the award went to someone else.  With the exception of Hamilton, the weekly award winners were certainly part of the huge power surge in May.  But as I hinted at earlier, it wasn’t a gaudy home run total that clinched the Batter of the Month honor.  Here are the players of the month for May 2017:

    Batter of the Month:

    Billy Hamilton, Mavericks
    .288 AVG, 1 HR, 14 RBI, 27 R, 18 SB, 3.10 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Max Scherzer, Kings
    2.27 ERA, 0.824 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 60 K, 3.19 PAR

    Safe to say Hamilton had the green light in May.  He stole 18 bases, which was six more than any other player.  He currently leads the league in steals with 28, which is twice the total of the next highest player!  He is on pace to blow past the DTBL single season stolen base record which is held by Jose Reyes who stole 78 bags in 2007.  Nobody has reached the 60 plateau since 2011, which Hamilton seems close to a lock to achieve, barring injury.  The rest of the offensive numbers were solid in May for Hamilton too.  It will be important for him to keep up the respectable hitting numbers while keeping the Mavericks offense afloat without Trout.  The race for this award wasn’t as close as you might have thought, but the runner-up was Jackalope first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

    I had to do a double-take when I saw Scherzer atop the May pitching PAR leaderboard.  He had a couple very poor outings in the month, by his standards, including a game I saw in person in Atlanta in which his velocity was down and his command was off.  Yet he rebounded in a big way, striking out 24 batters in his final two starts of the month, one which was a complete game and another that was one out shy of that.  In total, he led the league with 60 strikeouts in the month.  He just barely won this award, edging out Kings teammate Lance McCullers and the Darkhorses’ Carlos Martinez.  This is the second time in three years that Scherzer has won this award in the month of May.