DTBL News

Author: Kevin

  • Kershaw Wins Cy Young Again


    2014 was the best year for pitchers in the DTBL’s 22 season history. The total league ERA of 3.31 was the lowest mark ever, easily besting the 3.39 combined ERA of 2011. So there was no shortage of great pitching in the league. Yet one player easily stood out among the rest. Despite hitting the disabled list following his first outing of the year, Clayton Kershaw returned as good as new and simply dominated for the next five months. Following a 2013 season in which Kershaw narrowly won the Cy Young award over Max Scherzer, he left no doubt who the winner would be this year. Mavericks ace Clayton Kershaw is the unanimous selection for the 2014 DTBL Cy Young award.

    This one really was a no-brainer.  Kershaw had one of the best seasons in league history.  He easily led the league in ERA and WHIP and also led the way with 20 wins.  His 1.77 ERA was the fourth lowest mark ever in the DTBL, even beating his minuscule 1.83 ERA from last year.  His 0.857 WHIP was the third best ever.  Only two DTBL pitchers have put up lower ERA and WHIP numbers in a single season:  Greg Maddux in 1995 and Pedro Martinez in 2000, which happen to be the first two players/years mentioned whenever people discuss the best pitcher seasons of the past quarter century.  More on Kershaw’s place in history with Maddux and Martinez in just a bit.  His early season injury prevented him from having a realistic shot at leading the league in all four starting pitcher categories, but his 239 strikeouts put him on the league leaderboard as well.

    This was Kershaw’s best season to date.  And that is saying something considering he has been nothing short of remarkable almost since the day he was drafted by the Mavericks in the sixth round in 2009.  Since his second season, he has never had an ERA over 3.00 or a WHIP over 1.200, numbers that would be a career bests for most pitchers.  Still only 26 years old, he already has 89 career wins with a 2.35 ERA, 1.018 WHIP and 1,296 strikeouts.  He easily holds the DTBL career records in ERA and WHIP among starting pitchers.  The Mavericks pitching staff wasn’t nearly as dominant as it was a year ago, but Kershaw obviously wasn’t to blame.  He was their best pitcher, as he has been pretty much throughout the entirety of his career.

    The scary thing is, Kershaw seems to keep getting better.  He has now finished in the top three of the Cy Young vote four years in a row.  But the last two years have been truly remarkable.  He joins Maddux and Martinez as clear cut leaders in terms of best back-to-back seasons for pitchers in the DTBL.  Maddux’s 1994 and 1995 seasons featured the two lowest ERAs ever.  Martinez wasn’t far off with his 1999 and 2000 campaigns.  And now Kershaw in 2013 and 2014.  It is too early to judge Kershaw’s ultimate place in history.  But it won’t be long before the conversation about pitching greats begins with those three…. and then moves on to everybody else.

    As mentioned, Kershaw was a unanimous selection for the Cy Young award.  It wasn’t due to a lack of solid competition though.  The Demigods’ Johnny Cueto rode a career year to a distant second place finish with 56 points, receiving half of the second place votes.  Jackalope ace Felix Hernandez received the other half of those second place votes and finished just one point behind Cueto.  The difference wound up being that Hernandez did not appear on one of the ballots.  Yesterday’s Rookie of the Year winner, Demigods’ Corey Kluber came in fourth place with 17 points.  It is interesting that Hernandez beat Kluber so easily after Kluber nabbed the AL Cy Young from King Felix.  But keep in mind that Kluber was in the minors for the Demigods for a few weeks in April.  There was a three way tie for fifth place, including the champion Naturals’ ace David Price and a pair of Cougars hurlers:  Adam Wainwright and post-season hero Madison Bumgarner.  All three received ten points.

    Click here to view the full Cy Young voting results.

    The big one will have to wait until next week.  I intend to announce the MVP winner on Monday evening.  Kershaw probably would have been a leading candidate for that one too, except we reserve that award for hitters in this league.  So who will it be?  Check back on Monday to find out!

  • Kluber Nabs Rookie of the Year


    Just a couple hours after winning the AL Cy Young award in a bit of an upset, Corey Kluber has his name attached to another honor.  The first year DTBL pitcher was, hands-down, the steal of this year’s draft.  Picked in the tenth round to provide some depth to a very strong Demigods rotation, Kluber wound up playing a leading role for a staff that put up some of the best numbers in league history.  His performance propelled him to the top of a very deep rookie class.  Corey Kluber is the 2014 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    On a team with Yu Darvish, Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, Doug Fister and first round draft pick Jose Fernandez, Kluber had to wait his turn to become a fixture in the Demigods’ rotation.  He spent most of April in a minor league slot.  But after being activated in late April, he never looked back.  Despite not having the opportunity to put up a full season of stats, his numbers were still quite impressive.  He won 16 games with a 2.40 ERA, 1.089 WHIP and 241 strikeouts for the Demigods.  On most teams, those stats would have made him the obvious staff ace.  But he was slightly bested by Cueto in all four categories.  However, he easily led all DTBL rookies in wins, ERA and strikeouts and was second in WHIP.  His 11.5 pitching PAR was best among rookies as well and fourth among all pitchers.  His brief stint in the minors will probably keep him from being a serious contender for the DTBL Cy Young award, but he should receive plenty of consideration there as well.  Not bad for a tenth round pick.

    The Demigods seemed to have their rotation set well before Kluber was drafted.  Jose Fernandez was chosen with the third pick in the draft and was supposed to be the final piece in their loaded rotation.  But once Fernandez succumbed to Tommy John surgery in May, Kluber’s presence became absolutely essential.  Even without the young phenom Fernandez, the Demigods put together one of the best pitching seasons in league history.  Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t quite enough to beat out the Naturals for their first league title.  But Kluber played a key role in their best season ever and now appears to be an important piece of the puzzle moving forward as well.

    As mentioned, this was a pretty strong rookie class overall, especially among later round picks.  There were actually quite a few first round busts, at least for the 2014 season.  But some of the guys picked much later picked up the slack.  The Rookie of the Year voting was competitive, but Kluber won by a fairly comfortable margin.  He received seven first place and three second place votes for a total of 91 points.  His main competition for this award wound up being another draft steal, Naturals second baseman Anthony Rendon.  Rendon was a sixth round pick and rewarded the Naturals with a rookie leading 5.2 batting PAR.  He received the other three first place votes and was the only player besides Kluber to appear on all ten ballots.  He accumulated 75 points in finishing second.  In third place was Moonshiners third baseman Josh Donaldson.  Considered the favorite for this award through much of the season, Donaldson was clearly the most productive of this year’s first round picks.  He received 34 points.  Finishing fourth was the only other rookie pitcher who came anywhere near Kluber’s numbers, Darkhorses pitcher Julio Teheran, who received 30 points.  There was a sizable gap between those four and the rest of the pack.  But rounding out the top five were a pair of Athletics pitchers who tied for that spot with 10 points.  Jackalope youngster Sonny Gray and Kings closer Sean Doolittle were key contributors to their respective squads.

    Click here to view the full Rookie of the Year voting results.

    My plan is to announce the Cy Young award winner tomorrow (Thursday) evening with the MVP announcement coming early next week.  So be sure to check back soon for those results.

  • The Forgettable Five


    With two teams breaking point records at the top of the standings, one could assume that records in futility may have been in danger as well. That wasn’t exactly the case for any one team in the 2014 DTBL season, but collectively, five teams did manage to make some history. It was a season to forget for the Kings, Moonshiners, Darkhorses, Gators and Cougars.

    Those five teams were essentially out of the race before the All-Star break. The only real question was which bottom half position would each team wind up in. These five were separated by just a handful of points almost the entire season and frequently shuffled standings places. In the end, none came close to breaking any low water mark records. All five finished with point totals between 32 and 43. But the distance they were behind the champion Naturals is where records were broken.

    It is common for one or two teams to finish miles behind the champions. But five teams is unheard of. The sixth place Kings finished an astonishing 46 points behind the Naturals. In the league’s history, never have more than three teams finished that far out of first place. And the only times when three teams did it (1998 and 2000) were expansion years where two of the bottom three were expansion teams and the third bottom-feeder was a team that folded following that season. To have five teams finish so far out of the hunt this year is really quite amazing.

    The biggest disappointment of the bottom five has to be the Kings. They just barely avoided the worst finish ever for a defending champion, coming in one spot higher than the 2011 Darkhorses. However, a sixth place finish for a team that was considered a favorite coming into the year is pretty embarrassing, particularly when you look at just how far they were from being a contender. It was sort of a Murphy’s Law season for the Kings with everything imaginable going wrong. They were absolutely decimated by injuries, particularly early in the year. At one point in May, literally half of the players who were on their Opening Day roster were either on the disabled list or nursing some sort of injury. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Even the healthy players failed to meet the most modest of expectations. In one year, the Kings have fallen from a juggernaut squad with hopes of establishing a new dynasty to a team full of washed up players with a seemingly bleak future. Not one Kings player figures to receive strong consideration for the post-season awards. Only Max Scherzer, Ian Desmond, Jonathen LuCroy and a couple relief pitchers could be considered bright spots.

    Expectations weren’t as high for the Moonshiners, but 2014 will still go down as a disappointing season for them too. Their problem entering the season appeared to be a lack of superstar players who could carry the squad in multiple categories. That remains their main weakness today. No Moonshiners appeared in the top ten in batting or pitching PAR. The early season loss of Prince Fielder was a dagger and David Wright was a disappointment all year. Two of their better offensive players were a pair of rookies: Josh Donaldson and Brian Dozier. Donaldson was a pleasant surprise out of a first round draft class which included a whole bunch of busts. Jared Weaver led the pitching staff with 18 wins, but didn’t get much help from anyone else in the rotation. Next year, they will try once again to acquire top level players to push them back into contender status.

    The Darkhorses offense was respectable, but their pitching staff really let them down, leading to an eighth place finish. Veterans Adrian Gonzalez and Jacoby Ellsbury were joined by younger players like Todd Frazier and Christian Yelich to form a pretty decent offense. But they are still waiting to get a full, healthy, superstar season out of Bryce Harper. And this year’s first round pick, Xander Bogaerts was a huge disappointment this year. They did strike gold with their second round pick though. Julio Teheran was their best pitcher this season. James Shields and Lance Lynn were solid too. The rest of the starters were not and the bullpen finished dead last in saves. Since completing their four-peat in 2010, the Darkhorses have now finished in the bottom half of the standings four years in a row. But they probably have a better stable of young players than any of the other four teams covered in this article. Also worth noting, the Demigods finished in this eighth place slot just a year ago. Perhaps next year the Darkhorses will make a similar leap.

    The Gators have this ninth place thing figured out. For the fourth consecutive year, they finished in that same dreaded spot.  Part of their problem was a very disappointing DTBL rookie campaign for second overall draft choice Wil Myers who struggled through an injury plagued and ineffective season.  Also, losing their longtime ace C.C. Sabathia for most of the season was a huge blow considering how heavily they have relied on him to carry their pitching staff in the past.  On a more positive note, Nelson Cruz bounced back from his PED suspension in a big way, leading the league with 40 home runs.  Scott Kazmir and Alex Wood were shrewd mid/late round draft picks who were solid, but unable to completely fill the void left by Sabathia.  The bullpen was once again a team strength, although it took a bit of a blow towards the end of the season when Rafael Soriano and even Koji Uehara lost their closer roles.  One of these years, the Gators will put it together and avoid another ninth place finish.  Maybe next year.

    This was an extremely disappointing season for the Cougars coming off a very solid fifth place finish in 2013.  Their last place finish was very surprising, especially for a team with such a solid pitching staff.  The offense was not solid though.  In fact, it couldn’t have been much worse.  They finished dead last in all five offensive categories, earning the minimum five batting points.  They are the second team in league history to earn the minimum batting points, joining the 1997 Tidal Wave.  The strange thing is that they actually had one of the best offensive players in the league as Michael Brantley burst into superstar status with his .327, 20 HR, 23 SB season.  Alexei Ramirez and Denard Span were decent.  The rest of their hitters really struggled, led by last year’s team MVP Chris Davis.  Davis hit an awful .193 before having his season popped short due to a drug suspension.  The pitching staff was actually quite good though.  Adam Wainwright won 20 games and was among the league leaders in ERA (2.38) and WHIP (1.03) too.  Madison Bumgarner, before cementing his legacy as a post-season hero, had another great regular season as well.  The bullpen was pretty good too.  Even a slight improvement to the offense next year to complment this very talented pitching staff should make this last place finish a distant memory a year from now.

    We are well into awards season now with MLB announcing winners of some of the lesser awards this week.  The big ones will come next week.  So we better get our own award voting done soon too.  The awards ballot is now available on the main page.  Please take some time this weekend to complete your ballot.  I will begin announcing the winners next week.

  • Demigods Fall Just Short

    The DTBL expanded to ten teams in 1998, making 2014 the 17th season with 550 total points distributed among the 10 teams. In those 17 seasons, only three teams have managed to accumulate more than 86 points. So it would stand to reason that those three teams were almost certainly all league champions. That is not the case. The 2014 Demigods finished with the third most points in league history with 86.5, and yet found themselves 2 1/2 points behind the league champion Naturals. It was a painful final result for a franchise who easily had their best season ever, but fell a little short of their first league championship.

    Before I go any further, I think it is important to point out that a team’s point total in any given season doesn’t paint the complete picture of how strong that team actually was. Since the total number of league-wide points is the same every year, team totals often say as much about the rest of the league as the team itself. This year, the Naturals and Demigods clearly benefited from being the only two particularly strong teams in the league. There were three other mediocre squads and five teams that were pretty terrible. While a decent case could be made for the Naturals and Demigods as two of the all time great teams, it is also worth mentioning that they didn’t have a lot of competition. But enough raining on the Naturals and Demigods parade. This second season recap article will focus on the Demigods and the three other teams who didn’t win the title, but didn’t completely tank either (Mavericks, Choppers, Jackalope).

    The Demigods were definitely a sleeper to make a run at the title this year due to a revamped pitching staff and a solid roster, top to bottom. They did not disappoint in that respect. They made the incredible leap from the league’s worst pitching staff in 2013 (in terms of pitching points earned) to the best in 2014. They led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts, finished second in WHIP and fifth in saves, earning a spot among the best pitching staffs this league has ever seen. The Demigods broke the single season strikeout record, passing the ’07 Mavericks by 41 whiffs. Their 2.70 ERA is only bested by last year’s Mavericks. And their 1.118 WHIP was the third lowest mark ever behind the ’13 Mavericks and this year’s Naturals. They did all of that despite losing the guy who was supposed to be the staff ace, Jose Fernandez, to Tommy John surgery in early May. Johnny Cueto had the kind of season that would make anyone not named Clayton Kershaw jealous, with 20 wins, 2.25 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 242 strikeouts, all among the league leaders. Tenth round pick Corey Kluber turned out to be the steal of the draft and a strong Rookie of the Year candidate (16 W, 2.40 ERA, 241 K’s). Yu Darvish fought through injuries, but still had a pretty good year. Cole Hamels and Doug Fister were their usual solid selves. That’s six starting pitchers who you would think would be sure keepers heading into next year, opening up some interesting possibilities for this team moving forward.

    The offense wasn’t quite as strong for the Demigods, but still ranked second in the league with 41.5 points. Jose Altuve was the breakout star of the year and a strong MVP candidate. He led the league in batting average (.341) and steals (56). Carlos Gomez was the other offensive star, with his second straight 20/30 season (23 HR, 32 SB). It was a mildly disappointing season for some of their other stars which may have ultimately cost them the title, particularly Evan Longoria and Joe Mauer. But this team really does have all the pieces in place to be a contender again next year.

    Although the Demigods were the only team who gave the Naturals a real run for their money, three other teams can look back at 2014 as something other than a complete failure. The Mavericks fell well short of their lofty expectations, but 69.5 points would have put them in the title race most years. The Choppers never were able to make a serious run at the top of the standings, but did have their second straight solid year while finishing fourth. Finally, the Jackalope bounced back from a horrific last place finish in 2013 to return to the top half of the standings this year.

    The Mavericks have been one of the league’s best teams for quite some time, but it has now been eight years since their last championship. Expectations were extremely high entering this year, despite knowing they would have to go at it without Matt Harvey. So a distant third place finish is slightly disappointing. However, they are very well positioned to make a more serious run next year. As for 2014, Mike Trout, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Jones helped lead an offense that actually outperformed their ’13 unit. It was pitching where they took a big step back from their record setting numbers a year ago. Of course, Clayton Kershaw was not to blame in any way, shape or form. He once again compiled one of the best pitching seasons in league history, leading the league in ERA (1.77), WHIP (0.857) and wins (21) despite missing about a month due to injury. His ERA and WHIP ranked as the fourth and third best DTBL single season marks, respectively. Stephen Strasburg had a solid year, but the rest of the rotation was a bit of a disappointment. It will be interesting to see if they are able to bounce back to ’13 form with the return of Harvey next year. They have a large stable of interesting young players along with extra early draft picks in 2015.

    The Choppers put together their second solid season in a row, but may have been slightly disappointed in being unable to mount a serious charge for the title down the stretch. In the end, they just didn’t get enough out of their second tier of players to match up with the Naturals and Demigods. The offense was led by Jose Bautista, who had his best season since 2011. He joined Trout as the only two players to record 35/100/100 seasons (35 HR, 103 RBI, 101 R), leading the Choppers in all three categories. Anthony Rizzo had a breakout season as well, recording 32 homers. A few other players had solid years too, like Adrian Beltre, Jayson Werth and Alex Gordon. But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough. The lack of standouts was even more pronounced on the pitching mound. Chris Sale, Jon Lester and Craig Kimbrel were outstanding. Outside of those three though, they lacked the pitching depth of the three teams who finished ahead of them. On the whole though, this was a good year for the Choppers. They easily soared past the pre-season projection of eighth place. With two solid finishes in a row, the Choppers have pushed their lean years well behind them.

    It was a weird season for the Jackalope. After last year’s disaster, things almost certainly had to improve for this team that was a serious title contender just two years ago. So a jump from tenth to fifth was a huge step in the right direction. However, it ended on a sour note with several of their stars suffering season ending injuries. The second half losses of Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton sank any hopes of finishing the season on a strong note. But prior to that injury, what a season it was for Stanton. He elevated himself into the conversation of best players in baseball. His 37 home runs were second most in the league. Albert Pujols had a nice bounce-back season. Hunter Pence and Evan Gattis made solid contributions as well. It was an up and down season for first overall draft pick, Yasiel Puig. But he helps bolster a squad with a ton of upside moving forward. The Jackalope have almost always been built around pitching. But the core that led them to the 2011 title has started to dissipate, with one notable exception: Felix Hernandez. King Felix had a 2.14 ERA and 0.915 WHIP, which trailed only Kershaw. His 248 strikeouts were the third most in the league. He will certainly garner Cy Young consideration. Sonny Gray and Jeff Samardzija solidified their spots in the Jackalope’s revamped rotation. Aroldis Chapman put up ridiculous numbers out of the bullpen, despite not pitching until May after a scary spring training injury. He struck out 103 in just 53 innings, while saving 35 games too.

    Although they were not particularly close to winning the championship this season, it won’t take major overhauls for the Mavericks, Choppers and Jackalope to be contenders in 2015. Mostly, they just need the Naturals and Demigods not to set a record-breaking pace again next year. These teams are all in very good shape. The same can’t be said for all of the five teams who finished miles behind the leaders. We’ll examine those bottom five in the third and final season recap article, coming soon!

    Last week, I updated all of the 2014 PAR numbers for every player who appeared on a DTBL roster this season. As you may recall from my PAR introduction, these values are calculated using five years worth of historical data. Prior to this latest update, the historical data came from the 2009-2013 seasons, just like the 2013 PAR values you currently see on players’ pages. But now that the season is over, I was able to swap out the oldest season (2009) with this year’s numbers. This helps keep PAR more relevant to today’s stats. For the most part, this adjustment caused hitters PAR to go up and pitchers PAR to go down. This makes sense because the “replacement level” offensive numbers all went down when replacing the 2009 stats with the much weaker offensive numbers of 2014. And the opposite for pitchers. On the whole, batters still earned fewer than the expected league-wide batting PAR of 225. But I expected this because 2014 was the worst offensive season in league history. Once I’m able to calculate the historical PAR values all the way back to the league’s origin, the numbers should even out a bit. If I find this not to be the case, I’ll take another look at my formulas. Anyway, expect past season PAR updates to occur sporadically over the winter. I hope to write about the numbers from each season as I release them to the site.

    Enjoy the rest of the World Series!

  • Naturals Survive, Break Record


    It was a bit of a rough go of it for the Naturals down the stretch. They had to go at it without two of their best hitters along with several other injuries which left them playing short-handed throughout the final month of the season. Meanwhile, they were being chased by a red hot Demigods squad who had cut the lead to just one point with one day left in the season. Despite all of that, not only did they hang on through a dramatic final day to clinch the title, but they managed to smash the ultimate team record along the way. No team has finished with more points than the 89 they earned this year. Nick’s Naturals are the 2014 DTBL Champions!

    You couldn’t have asked for a much better setup for final day drama. The Demigods put up a great final week to close the Naturals lead to just one point heading into Sunday’s games. They did so by passing the Naturals in WHIP, tightening their deficit in RBIs to just two and making moves in several other categories as well. The Demigods lead in WHIP was by the smallest of margins, meaning that category would almost certainly be determined on Sunday when the Demigods had two starters taking the mound (Johnny Cueto and Cole Hamels) opposed by three Naturals hurlers (Zack Greinke, David Price and Jordan Zimmermann). Cueto and Hamels acquitted themselves well, but they were upstaged by the Naturals trio, to say the least. All three picked up victories, allowing a combined one run. Oh, and Zimmermann threw the first no-hitter in Nationals history. Needless to say, that was enough for the Naturals to regain the WHIP title, costing the Demigods a point in the process. They also gained a point in ERA and wins on the final day. The Demigods were able to pass them in RBIs, but that was far too little to overcome the pitching shift. The final tally: 89 points for the Naturals and 86.5 for the Demigods.

    The Naturals’ 89 points broke the league record previously held by the 2007 Darkhorses with 87. Their 47 batting points ranks second all-time behind their 2010 co-championship squad which put up a perfect 50. They finished first or second in all five offensive categories. The pitching wasn’t too bad either. 42 pitching points would normally lead the league, but the Demigods actually outdid them there. But thanks to those last day wins, the Naturals finished in the top half of all ten categories and won four of them (AVG, R, W, SV). I will cover the Demigods more in a later article, but their season was record-breaking as well. Their 86.5 points is not only the most ever for a non-champion, but it actually ranks as the third highest team total in league history, trailing only the Naturals and ’07 Darkhorses. Unfortunately for them, they picked the wrong year to put up those kind of numbers.

    Early in the season, the Naturals benefited from being one of the few teams not totally decimated by injuries. Of course, their luck in that department changed significantly down the stretch. But in the end, their hot start was enough to carry them to the title. They held the lead almost the entire season. Through most of the first half, it appeared there would be no late season drama as their lead was routinely in double digits. But injuries to Troy Tulowtizki and Joey Votto, among others, wound up being a bit of an equalizer. However, it was shrewd draft picks and a couple key free agent acquisitions which made the difference in the end. An already loaded roster became the most talented in the league thanks to those moves.

    It started with the draft when, despite picking seventh, the Naturals managed to acquire several of the best players available. Speedster Billy Hamilton lived up to expectations and was one of the most productive first round picks. Nolan Arenado provided great value from the fourth round. Likewise with Adam Eaton in the sixth. But one of the two biggest steals in the draft was their selection of Anthony Rendon in the sixth round (Demigods drafting Corey Kluber in the 10th probably gets the nod as the biggest steal). Rendon finished second in the league in runs with 115, hit 21 homers with 17 steals and should be a leading candidate for DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    These guys augmented a roster that was already pretty loaded. Andrew McCutchen had another MVP candidate kind of season with a .319 average, 23 home runs and 18 steals. Miguel Cabrera had another .300+, 25+ HR, 100+ RBI and R season that was actually a bit of a disappointment because of his insane standards. Justin Upton pitched in 29 home runs and 102 RBI as well. But probably the most valuable player on the roster was Victor Martinez. V-Mart hit a career high 32 home runs with a .335 average and 103 RBI. He led the Naturals offensive players with a 5.6 PAR, good for sixth in the league, but undervalues him at his hard-to-fill position of catcher.

    The Naturals have been an offensive powerhouse for years now, so it was the elite performance of the pitching staff that may have cemented their championship status. None of these guys are likely to win the Cy Young, but the trio who pitched Sunday (Price, Greinke and Zimmermann) also happened to be their three best pitchers. It was fitting that they were the ones to nail down the title. Price led the rotation with 271 strikeouts and a 1.079 WHIP. Greinke won the most games (17) and had the lowest ERA (2.71). And Zimmermann was strong in all four of those categories as well. The in-season signing of Phil Hughes turned out to be a key move as well as he filled in for the injured Homer Bailey and the injured/traded Matt Cain. The bullpen featured four of the league’s most dominating closers: Greg Holland, Glen Perkins, Francisco Rodriguez and Jake McGee. They blew the rest of the league away in saves. Rodriguez and McGee were also in-season signings. So while the early use of free agent signings left the Naturals short-handed in the final month, it wasn’t like they were wasted moves.

    It is unwise to bet against the Naturals in a close championship race. They have come out on top of most of the great pennant races of the past decade. This was their fourth DTBL title and none of the four have been by more than 3 1/2 points. Their average margin of victory is 1.75 points. In 2010, they tied the Darkhorses for the first/only co-championship in league history. Then two years later they came out on top of the epic five team race. And now you can add this year, when another Naturals championship wasn’t locked up until the final day of the season. With this fourth title, the Naturals have joined the Darkhorses with the second most DTBL championships, trailing only the Kings. Not bad for the league’s youngest franchise. All four of those titles have come in the past ten years and now they have won three of the last five championships, easily putting them in the lead for team of the decade at the half-way mark of the 10s.

    Much more to come soon on these season recaps, starting with the Demigods’ heartbreak and a look at a few other teams who didn’t suck. I hope you enjoy the MLB playoffs, which got off to a thrilling start last night. Once again, congratulations to Nick’s Naturals!

  • Chasing a Title


    With nine days remaining in the 2014 baseball season, the DTBL race looks almost exactly like it has most of the season. The Naturals continue to dominate and appear primed to win their third title in five years, earning a clear place as the league’s best franchise through the first half of this decade. But not so fast, my friends! The Demigods are having a pretty amazing season as well and still have a very realistic shot at closing the five point gap, even though time is not on their side.

    I’ll save most of the superlatives about the 2014 Naturals and Demigods for the eventual post-season articles. But here’s something to chew on in the meantime. The league record for total points belongs to the 2007 Darkhorses with 87. The Naturals currently have 89 1/2 points. This year’s runner-up is a lock to become just the second team to finish with at least 80 points and not win a title. The Demigods sit with 84 1/2 points right now. There is a very good chance both teams will finish in the top five all-time in total points. Yet one of them won’t have a championship to show for it (unless the Naturals find themselves in another championship tie).

    In many ways, this Naturals team doesn’t really look like one of the all-time greats. While they are loaded with talent, they’ve had to do it with less than what may have been expected from some of their stars. Late season injuries to several of those stars made it appear their title ride could be derailed, particularly since they haven’t had any free agent signings available for more than a month now. They have actually been playing a man down for quite some time with no healthy shortstop available. But the depth of talent is really shining through.  They currently hold 49 batting points, just a single point away from a clean sweep of the offensive categories.  Again, they are doing this without a full/healthy major league roster.

    As has been the case most of the second half, the Demigods are the only team within an arms reach of the Naturals.  The Demigods have had a great season themselves and would be in great shape to win the league almost any other year.  Seeking their first DTBL title, they actually overtook the Naturals for a few days last month.  The league’s best pitching staff has kept them in the race, despite losing their first round draft pick, Jose Fernandez, in May and a late season injury to their other top pitcher, Yu Darvish.  The Demigods are the only team in the league in the top half of all ten categories.  But will this balance be enough?  They have a lot of work to do in these last nine days.

    Five points may seem like an insurmountable lead with barely more than a week left, particularly since the Naturals haven’t given any ground in weeks.  It is hard to put odds out on the race, but it would be fair to say the Naturals are huge favorites at this point.  But there is still a very realistic path to the championship for the Demigods.  Let’s outline just how that might happen.  First of all, the Naturals are a mortal lock if they remain at their current point total.  They will need to lose a couple points for the Demigods to have any chance.  They are vulnerable in a few offensive categories in particular:  home runs, RBIs and stolen bases.  RBIs is particularly worth watching with the Demigods just 2 behind the Naturals for the top spot.  A two point swing seems quite possible there.  In the pitching categories, I would say the Naturals are actually better positioned to gain points than to lose them.  So that makes a Naturals fall in those three offensive categories absolutely vital to the Demigods.

    On the other side, the Demigods have an opportunity to pick up points in a couple places.  In addition to RBIs, they also have an outside shot at a two point swing in WHIP where they trail only the Naturals.  Although that lead may appear vulnerable, it’s going to take an especially poor week for the Naturals pitchers for the lead in that category to change hands.  The Naturals have actually increased their lead in WHIP in recent days.  But it is still worth watching.  Finally, the Demigods also have a shot at picking up points in stolen bases and home runs.  In summary, the best chance at closing the five point gap appears to be two point swings in RBIs and WHIP combined with Naturals points dropped and/or Demigods points gained in home runs and stolen bases.

    Meanwhile, the other eight teams are pretty much just playing out the string.  I don’t think any of them are particularly satisfied with their results this year, so it’s all about pride at this point.  One other thing to keep an eye on down the stretch is the position of the Kings.  They currently sit in a tie for seventh place, which would equal the worst finish ever for a defending champion.  Will they suffer the fate of becoming the worst defending champion of all time?  There is also a tight race between the Gators and Cougars to avoid finishing in last place, a race that included the Darkhorses, Kings and Moonshiners through much of the season as well.

    Enjoy the stretch run and good luck to the Naturals and Demigods!

  • Hall Welcomes Six Legends


    On Sunday afternoon, the National Baseball Hall of Fame enshrined six new members:  a trio of all-time great players and three legendary managers.  The three players, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas were all elected into the Hall in their first year of eligibility.  And the three managers, Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa and Joe Torre are almost indisputably the three most accomplished skippers of the past 30 years.  The full class has been lauded as one of the greatest induction classes of all time.  What makes this class noteworthy for our league is that the three players are probably the first full class of inductees who would all be certain DTBL Hall of Famers as well, if such a thing existed.  Although Glavine, Maddux and Thomas made their MLB debuts prior to the formation of this league, the primes of their careers took place while on DTBL rosters.

    The connection between Maddux and Glavine is obvious as long time teammates in Atlanta.  But it’s Glavine and Thomas who spent many years as teammates in the DTBL with the Kings.  Thomas and Maddux also have close ties in DTBL lore as both were first round draft picks in the inaugural DTBL Draft, making them the first official players for their respective franchises.  The Choppers picked Maddux with the second selection in that 1993 draft, following the Gators’ pick of Kirby Puckett.  So Maddux was the league’s first selected pitcher.  Two picks later, the Kings drafted the slugging first baseman Thomas.  As 13 year-olds at the time, Charlie and I may have let our personal fandoms of Maddux and Thomas sway our decisions, but neither of us would ever regret those picks.  In the seventh round of that same draft, the Kings grabbed Glavine.  He and Thomas would be Kings teammates for the first seven years of the DTBL.

    Tom Glavine probably has the weakest DTBL Hall of Fame case (again, if there actually was such a thing) of these three.  However, he is one of only four players to record 200 wins in this league.  He won a total of 204 games for the Kings, Gators and Darkhorses.  He won 13+ games 10 times, a feat only accomplished more often by two other pitchers (Maddux and Mike Mussina).  Nobody has more 20 win seasons.  He did that three times (1993, 1998, 2000 – 4 others also have 3 20+ win seasons).  Glavine’s career ERA of 3.46 and WHIP of 1.317 may not seem terribly impressive by 2014 standards, but keep in mind that he was still going strong in the steroid era of the late 90’s and early 00’s.  His 1,724 career strikeouts isn’t quite enough to put him in the top 10 all-time.  When it comes to the Kings franchise record book, he’s #2 behind Randy Johnson in wins (115) and third in ERA (3.22) and strikeouts (1,048).

    Glavine spent the first seven years of the DTBL with the Kings before being traded to the Gators late in the 1999 season for J.D. Drew.  15 years later, that sounds like an awful trade for the Kings, but it actually worked out quite well for both sides.  Drew wound up being a key contributor for the Kings first three championship teams while Glavine arguably recorded the best season of his career for the Gators in 2000 as he won 21 games.  He remained with the Gators until the end of the 2003 season.  The Kings reacquired him the following year as a free agent.  Finally, the Darkhorses also signed him as a free agent for the twilight of his career.  In his final DTBL season of 2007, he won his first and only league title with the Darkhorses.

    There is a reasonable case to be made that Greg Maddux is the greatest pitcher in league history.  He’s certainly on the very short list.  He holds the league record for most wins with 240.  Only three retired starting pitchers have better career ERAs and WHIPs compared to Maddux’s 3.00 and 1.095.  But those numbers are slightly inflated because of mediocre numbers late in his career.  Nobody can match Maddux’s prime (well, maybe some guys in today’s pitching dominated game, but certainly not in Maddux’s era).  Even though he wasn’t thought of as a strikeout pitcher, only five have a higher career total in that category.  He is the Choppers career leader in wins and is basically tied with current Choppers’ ace Chris Sale in ERA and WHIP.  Only Mussina struck out more hitters while a member of the Choppers.

    The numbers Maddux posted in 1994 and 1995 were easily the two best consecutive seasons by a pitcher in league history and, alone, were the two lowest individual ERA seasons in the books.  He had a preposterous 1.56 ERA in the strike-shortened 1994 season and followed that up with an absurd 1.63 ERA in 1995.  Oh, and his WHIP was under 0.9 both of those years as well.  Maddux won at least 15 games for 12 consecutive seasons, all with the Choppers.  That will be a tall order for anyone else to ever reproduce.  After 13 remarkable seasons with the Choppers, they finally released him after the 2005 season.  He had mediocre stints with the Naturals, Mavericks and Darkhorses (twice) to close out his remarkable career.  He was a member of four DTBL championship teams (’97 and ’99 Choppers, ’07 and ’08 Darkhorses).  So he teamed up with his Hall of Fame buddy Glavine for that ’07 title, although neither were particularly key reasons why the Darkhorses won.

    The career numbers of Frank Thomas speak volumes about what kind of a hitter he was.  However, they were somewhat overshadowed by other players of his generation who would later become tarnished by connections to performance enhancing drugs.  But never mind that.  There still may not have been a better pure hitter in the 90’s than the Big Hurt.  Thomas hit 412 home runs in his DTBL career, which ranks 10th all time.  But more than half of the players ahead of him on that list have been tied to PEDs in one way or another.  Along with the home runs, Thomas had a career average of .297 with 1,323 RBI and 1,045 runs scored.  The full list of players with better career numbers in all four of those categories:  Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero.  Thomas trails only the very tainted Alex Rodriguez in HR, RBI and R in Kings franchise history.

    Thomas was a machine for the first five seasons of this league.  Each year, he hit over .300 with at least 35 HR and 100+ RBI and runs.  He even managed to reach those numbers in the strike shortened 1994 season.  He hit over .340 in three different seasons.  It wasn’t until very late in his career when the averages started to fall, bringing his career mark just below .300.  Unfortunately, a series of injuries in the second decade of his career really kept him from putting up numbers to rival anyone who has ever played the game.  But the Kings kept him on their roster for 13 incredible seasons.  He was a member of all four of the Kings four-peat championships (2000-2003).  He had a brief stint on the Mavericks roster in early 2006, but never recorded any playing time with them.  He did play for the Jackalope later that season.  Finally, the Kings picked him back up for his final two DTBL seasons.

    Unfortunately, my historical records on awards and such from the early years of this league are a little disjointed.  So I don’t have an easy way of telling you about some of the honors these three players received during their DTBL careers.  However, I know for a fact that Thomas was the league MVP at least once and Maddux won several Cy Young awards.  Hopefully I’ll be able to fill in these blanks at some point, because this information is available somewhere on old hard drives and printed newsletters.

    Finally, I want to wrap this up by mentioning a little bit about another Hall of Famer.  Sadly, the great Tony Gwynn passed away last month at the much too young age of 54.  Unlike the three players I just chronicled, the prime of Gwynn’s career was a little before this league started.  However, he also holds a special place in DTBL history.  He is the league’s all-time leading hitter (in terms of batting average) with an amazing .357 mark.  That is almost 30 points higher than any other player this league has ever seen and it is hard to imagine anyone ever breaking this record.  Despite that, Gwynn was not always an automatic starter for all of his teams in this league and bounced around to six different teams in nine years.  Of course, part of that was simply circumstances.  He wound up playing on three teams that folded while he was on the roster (Troopers, Titans and Panthers).  He played for the Gators in his first two DTBL seasons, followed by two years with the Choppers.  Despite ridiculous batting averages every season, he wasn’t a sure starter back in those days.  Because there were so few teams in the league, it was hard for some teams to dedicate a spot for a guy with below average power.  Had he put up those same numbers today, he’d be one of the most valuable players in the league.  But as it stands, he just wasn’t able to accumulate enough stats to appear in the record books for anything other than batting average.  His ability to get hits and avoid strikeouts may never be seen again in a player.  Guys who are thought of as good contact hitters today will still strike out more often the next two months than Gwynn did most full seasons.  He was a legendary hitter and will truly be missed by the baseball community.

  • American Pitchers Prevail


    In a season where pitchers have once again dominated while offense has lagged behind, it was fitting that the 21st Annual DTBL All-Star Game turned into a pitchers duel.  On Tuesday night at DK Memorial Field, home of Marc’s Mavericks, the American Division jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 3-2 victory over the National Division in the Mid-Summer Classic.

    As it turned out, there were a lot of similarities between the DTBL All-Star Game and last week’s MLB All-Star Game, especially when it came to the starting pitchers, and particularly Adam Wainwright.  Like the MLB game, Wainwright got the start for the National All-Stars and was opposed by Felix Hernandez.  And in similar fashion to his performance last week, things didn’t go that well for Wainwright.  In the top of the first inning, he promptly allowed singles to Yasiel Puig and Troy Tulowitzki to start the game.  Both would later score on RBI singles by Paul Goldschmidt and Jose Bautista.  So the American Division opened up a quick 2-0 lead before King Felix took the mound.  No truth to the rumors that Wainwright was laying in pipe shots to the American hitters.  Clayton Kershaw relieved Wainwright in the second, but he too was greeted by some quick hits.  Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler started the second with singles.  Martinez scored on a one out double by Miguel Cabrera.  Kershaw was then able to shut the door, but the American squad already had a 3-0 lead after an inning and a half.  Meanwhile, Hernandez was much more effective in his two innings.  He retired the side in order in the first and kept the National All-Stars off the board in the second despite a pair of hits.

    After the second inning, the pitchers on both sides went into cruise control, racking up strikeouts and extinguishing a few mild scoring threats.  It wasn’t until the sixth inning when the next serious scoring chance popped up.  Jonathan Papelbon surrendered a single and a double to put two American runners in scoring position with just one out.  But Trevor Rosenthal relieved him and struck out the only two hitters he faced to keep the score 3-0.  This appeared to be a potential turning point in the game, particularly with what happened next in the bottom of the sixth.  Facing Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a one out single.  Then, Mike Trout followed with a two run blast to left to cut the National deficit to a single run.  Sean Doolittle proceeded to extend the streak of American hitters going down on strikes as he struck out the side in the top of the seventh.  Momentum seemed to be completely on the National side at that point.

    But that momentum would not continue.  No hitters reached base in the 7th or 8th for either team.  The American All-Stars handed the ball to Craig Kimbrel to protect a one run lead in the ninth, facing Trout to start the inning.  He induced a ground out from Trout before walking Freddie Freeman.  But a double play ball off the bat of Brandon Moss sealed the deal as the American Division held on for a 3-2 victory.

    Pitchers dominated not only in keeping runs off the board, but also in compiling a ridiculous number of strikeouts.  The National pitchers somehow fanned 16 hitters in a losing cause.  The American pitchers weren’t short on punch-outs either.  They had 10 of their own for a game total of 26.  I only have easy access to the box scores from the last 10 All-Star Games, so I can’t confirm any ASG records.  However, I’m not aware of a single team strikeout performance greater than the National’s 16.  But believe it or not, 26 is NOT the combined record.  Just last year, the teams combined for 29 strikeouts (15 and 14 each)!  So apparently these absurd K totals are now an All-Star Game trend.

    Felix Hernandez recorded the win on the strength of his two scoreless innings.  Adam Wainwright took the loss.  Craig Kimbrel recorded the save.  OOTP inexplicably named Sean Doolittle as the Player of the Game, despite only pitching one inning for the losing team.  So we had to overrule that selection.  Those present at the game selected Moonshiners second baseman Ian Kinsler as the 2014 DTBL All-Star Game MVP.  Kinsler recorded a game high 3 hits in his 4 at bats.  Interestingly, this is Kinsler’s second DTBL ASG MVP award.  He also received that honor back in 2009 when he hit a key three run homer off Johan Santana to spark an American victory.

    Click here to view the game box score.

    Congrats to Charlie on leading the American Division to the victory!  It was fun, despite being on the losing side.  Too bad I won’t be able to get revenge next year since there is no chance I’ll be managing the National Division again in ’15.

  • All-Star Break Grab Bag


    I hope you are having a great Worst Sports Day of the Year.  The day after the MLB All-Star Game is so barren of sporting events that scoreboard tickers are featuring WNBA and cricket scores.  This is frequently the day in which we play the DTBL All-Star Game.  But as previously mentioned, that will not occur until next week on a date that is still TBD.  In the meantime, this is the perfect opportunity for me to get caught up on a few items I neglected to write about during the first half of the season.

    First, there were a pair of trades during the last two months that deserve mentioning.  Although neither were what you would call blockbusters, both were intriguing nonetheless.  At the end of May, the Demigods acquired closer Addison Reed and outfielder Melky Cabrera from the Mavericks in exchange for relief pitcher Danny Farquhar and outfielder Shane Victorino.  Draft picks were also a prominent part of this deal.  The Mavs picked up 2nd and 5th round picks in 2015 while the Demigods acquired extra picks in the 8th and 12th rounds.  At the time of the deal, the Demigods were in a solid second place, just a handful of points behind the Naturals, while the Mavericks were toiling near the bottom of the standings.  So this deal was clearly an attempt by the Demigods to boost their title hopes for this season, while the Mavericks had an eye towards 2015.  Despite that, the Mavericks have actually been the stronger of these two teams since the deal.  However, that’s not because of the trade since the Mavs didn’t acquire anyone who has helped with their resurgence.  Reed has given the Demigods a boost in saves, recording seven of them for his new team so far.  However, they will need a lot more from him and the rest of the team to run down the Naturals in the second half.  Meanwhile, after one year of not being able to acquire any additional early round draft picks, the Mavericks have already ensured they will head into ’15 with extra early picks.  Although this season is far from over for the Mavericks, at worst, they figure to be right back in the title hunt next year.

    The second trade really flew under the radar as the Kings and Moonshiners swapped spare parts last month.  In need of a catcher due to Wilson Ramos’ second DL stint of the year, the Moonshiners picked up Carlos Ruiz from the Kings for outfielder, and Ruiz’s Phillies teammate, Marlon Byrd.  The  main reason for this trade was so the Moonshiners could temporarily replace Ramos without wasting another free agent signing on a catcher.  But as it turns out, Byrd has been a key piece in the Kings recent offensive resurgence.  He already has eight home runs for the Kings, continuing to defy Father Time.  Long term though, this trade doesn’t figure to have much of a lasting impact on either team.  This was simply a short-term stop-gap deal for both sides.  The Kings and Moonshiners continue to toil through very disappointing seasons.

    Most of my first half writing focused on the negative, from the incredibly high number of injuries to the expected title contenders who were suffering through miserable early results.  So I have almost completely ignored the team that has been dominating this league right from Day 1.  The Naturals have held first place basically the entire year.  In April and early May, that lead was small but consistent.  However, in the past month or so, they have seen that lead balloon into double digits.  At the All-Star break, they find themselves with a 13 point lead over the second place Demigods.  The Naturals being in first place isn’t a huge surprise, considering they won the league just two years ago and are almost always in the title hunt.  But I’m not sure anyone saw them dominating the league in this fashion.  Until very recently, they had been leading the league in both batting and pitching points, the latter being a pretty big surprise.

    The Naturals offense has been simply the best in the league, by a comfortable margin.  They lead the league with 45 batting points, not far from a maximum total of 50.  Troy Tulowitzki has been one of the best players in baseball.  Andrew McCutchen is in the MVP discussion as well.  Billy Hamilton and Anthony Rendon are two of the top DTBL rookies.  I have no idea where Victor Martinez’s sudden power surge came from.  Miguel Cabrera hasn’t been quite the same player he was in his two previous MVP seasons, but even so, his numbers are very good.  The scary thing here is that there is actually room for improvement from some of the offensive roster.  Cabrera could easily increase his productivity in the second half.  Joey Votto and Allen Craig have been mostly MIA this year.  If they bounce back the next few months, look out!

    As several teams learned in the first half, one thing that can quickly derail a title run is a sudden surge of injuries.  To this point, the Naturals have been relatively fortunate on that front.  But they are currently dealing with a few issues on the mound.  Homer Bailey and Jordan Zimmermann are dealing with ailments that hopefully won’t knock them out for too long, if at all.  The Naturals only have one free agent signing remaining, so there are only so many holes that can be filled that way.  But they are pretty well stacked with depth at the moment.  By no means is this thing over, but the Naturals are sitting in great shape with two and a half months left to go.

    Finally, a quick update on site related things I’ve been working on.  When I introduced PAR last month, I mentioned slowly rolling out the numbers from previous seasons.  Unfortunately, I haven’t made any further progress on that as we still have just 2013 and 2014 PAR numbers on the site.  I intend to get back to this soon after the break.  But before then, I have some updates to make to individual player pages and the All-Star and Awards pages (the latter doesn’t actually exist yet).  I’m going to be adding a column to the players’ stats tables to list individual All-Star appearances and awards won.  Like PAR, this will be a work in progress as I accumulate the necessary historical data.  But recent All-Star appearances should be displayed on player pages very soon (maybe by the end of the week).  I will keep you posted on this in the site update thread on the DTBL Forum.

    More DTBL All-Star coverage will be coming soon.  Now let’s get to Friday already so we can enjoy some real baseball again!

     

  • 2014 DTBL All-Stars


    I probably could have figured this out by glancing at the standings, but it wasn’t until I went to vote for the 2014 DTBL All-Stars when I realized that the balance of power in this league has dramatically shifted from the National Division to the American Division.  A few years ago, the National Division roster was clearly stronger as several very deserving players were left off the roster.  Last year was fairly even, although even then the clear top two teams were both on the National side.  But this year, it’s all about the American Division.  Three of the top five teams in the current standings are American teams.  But the position depth paints an even more unbalanced picture.  Several very deserving American players won’t be part of this year’s All-Star Game.  Having said that, both teams possess incredible starting pitching depth.  And in one game, anything can happen.

    On a date yet to be determined, but probably in a week or two, the 21st annual DTBL All-Star Game will take place.  This game will occur very close to the 20th anniversary of the inaugural DTBL All-Star Game in 1994, played in my family’s basement using dice and custom player cards made by yours truly.  That game was a slug-fest, due primarily to the fact that only hitters’ stats were used to create said cards.  Interestingly enough, 10 years ago was another one of the more memorable All-Star Games.  Due to a glitch in the OOTP game setup, players were nearly incapable of hitting fly balls.  So the National Division burned a lot of worms on their way to a 2-1 victory.  So will this year provide more memorable moments?  We shall see.  The Mavericks will be the hosts for the game.  Charlie will manage the American Division and I will call the shots for the National Division.  There is some question about Charlie’s availability for the game, but we will sort that out later.

    As managers, Charlie and I broke all ties in the voting and selected the 23rd players for each roster.  Here are the 2014 DTBL All-Stars:

    American Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Felix Hernandez, Jackalope
    • Catcher – Victor Marinez, Naturals
    • First Base – Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope
    • Second Base – Ian Kinsler, Moonshiners
    • Third Base – Miguel Cabrera, Naturals
    • Shortstop – Troy Tulowitzki, Naturals
    • Outfield – Jose Bautista, Choppers
    • Outfield – Nelson Cruz, Gators
    • Outfield – Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Evan Gattis, Jackalope
    • First Base – Anthony Rizzo, Choppers
    • Second Base – Anthony Rendon, Naturals
    • Third Base – Josh Donaldson, Moonshiners
    • Outfield – Andrew McCutchen, Naturals
    • Outfield – Yasiel Puig, Jackalope
    • Pitcher – Zack Greinke, Naturals
    • Pitcher – Jon Lester, Choppers
    • Pitcher – David Price, Naturals
    • Pitcher – Chris Sale, Choppers
    • Relief Pitcher – Craig Kimbrel, Choppers
    • Relief Pitcher – Greg Holland, Naturals
    • Relief Pitcher – Francisco Rodriguez, Naturals
    • Relief Pitcher – Huston Street, Gators

    National Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Adam Wainwright, Cougars
    • Catcher – Jonathan LuCroy, Kings
    • First Base – Edwin Encarnacion, Mavericks
    • Second Base – Jose Altuve, Demigods
    • Third Base – Todd Frazier, Darkhorses
    • Shortstop – Starlin Castro, Mavericks
    • Outfield – Michael Brantley, Cougars
    • Outfield – Carlos Gomez, Demigods
    • Outfield – Mike Trout, Mavericks

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Buster Posey, Demigods
    • First Base – Brandon Moss, Mavericks
    • First Base – Freddie Freeman, Demigods
    • Second Base – Robinson Cano, Kings
    • Outfield – Adam Jones, Mavericks
    • Outfield – Jacoby Ellsbury, Darkhorses
    • Pitcher – Johnny Cueto, Demigods
    • Pitcher – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    • Pitcher – Julio Teheran, Darkhorses
    • Pitcher – Madison Bumgarner, Cougars
    • Relief Pitcher – Sean Doolittle, Kings
    • Relief Pitcher – Kenley Jansen, Mavericks
    • Relief Pitcher – Jonathan Papelbon, Kings
    • Relief Pitcher – Trevor Rosenthal, Demigods

    All-Stars per team:

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

    A few comments.  First, nine Naturals on the team is pretty impressive, and completely deserving considering the way they have dominated this league through the first half of the season.  The 23rd players selected for the respective rosters were a pair of first basemen:  Anthony Rizzo (American) and Freddie Freeman (National).  One of the offensive players listed as a reserve for each division will actually start the game since DHs will be used.  The lineups will be compiled at a later time.  Here are the full voting results.  Much more to come soon, including an official announcement of the game date and time.