DTBL News

Author: Kevin

  • A Flurry of Trades

    The most active trade deadline in DTBL history saw five deals completed in the final two weeks before the August 15 deadline.  From what I heard, many other deals were discussed as well.  Some of the deals were made by the top three teams who are in an extremely tight race for the league championship.  Others were made by teams looking to the future.

    The activity began a little more than a week prior to the deadline.  On August 9, the three time defending champion Darkhorses completed a pair of trades.  First, they acquired catcher Ryan Doumit from the Kings for starting pitcher Ervin Santana.  The Darkhorses ran into a bit of a problem right before the deadline as both of their regular catchers suffered injuries (Russell Martin and Geovany Soto).  Martin’s injury was especially problematic because he will miss the remainder of the season.  Doumit took Martin’s spot in the Darkhorses lineup.  The Darkhorses released Martin who was a key member of their three championships.  Doumit has been mostly disappointing following a third round selection by the Kings.  He was recently replaced in the Pirates and Kings lineups by Chris Snyder.  He is getting time at other positions though, so he does have some fantasy value.  Meanwhile, Santana gives the Kings a little more depth to a starting rotation that has been mostly disappointing this season.  For now, Santana is on their bench, but the Kings had little to lose in this deal since Doumit was no longer part of their plans.

    The Darkhorses second deal on the 9th was a minor one.  They acquired second baseman Alberto Callaspo and a 10th round pick in exchange for a 9th round pick to the Mavericks.  The Mavericks had little use for Callaspo once Brian Roberts returned from the disabled list. so they were happy to move up a round for next year’s draft.  Callaspo does have value for the Darkhorses though.  Injuries to Martin Prado and Rafael Furcal have left the Darkhorses a little short handed in the middle infield.  In fact, all of the deals made by the Darkhorses were primarily to shore up spots vacated by injuries.  So far, they are still hanging on at the top of the standings, but their lead is tenuous at best.

    Three more deals were completed in the final weekend before the deadline.  The first was a pretty significant trade between two teams still in the championship hunt.  The Jackalope made their first trade in years, acquiring second baseman Kelly Johnson from the Kings for starting pitcher Max Scherzer.  The Jackalope have had the best pitching staff in the league all year, but their offense has kept them out of first place.  Johnson has had a very good year for the Kings, but was expendable due to a log jam in their middle infield.  Johnson should give the Jackalope an immediate power boost.  Meanwhile, Scherzer may have been the most talented pitcher sitting on a DTBL bench for most of the season.  He was stuck behind the Jackalope’s five superstar aces.  The Kings have had their eye on him for quite a while.  He provides them with a power arm.  Until earlier this week, the Kings were buried in last place in strike outs.  The Kings have a lot of ground to make up, so this trade may not be enough.  However, Scherzer will probably be part of their future plans.

    Perhaps the biggest trade was between two teams near the bottom of the standings.  The Mavericks traded DTBL home run leader Adam Dunn and a fourth round pick to the Cougars for a first round pick in next year’s draft.  So the Mavericks will have two of the first four or five picks in the draft again next year.  Hopefully for their sake, those picks will pan out a little better than they did this year.  On the other hand, the Cougars know exactly what they are getting in Dunn.  One of the most consistent power hitters in the league, Dunn will give the Cougars a huge power boost.  He clearly would have been a top five pick in the draft if he had been eligible next year, so trading the pick made sense for the Cougars.

    Finally, the Mavericks weren’t done with their fire sale.  The last trade before the deadline saw the Mavs deal veteran catcher Jorge Posada to the Darkhorses for relief pitcher Daniel Bard.  Posada fills the other injury hole in the Darkhorses catching duo.  Bard is a likely closer of the future, although if the Red Sox don’t make a decision soon on him vs. Papelbon, the Mavericks will have a difficult decision to make when roster cut time comes.  This deal also leaves the Mavericks very shorthanded for the remainder of this season.  They are out of free agent signings, so they will have to go with one catcher the rest of the way.  On top of that, they had to activate Magglio Ordonez to fill Dunn’s spot.  Ordonez probably won’t return until late September.  So the Mavericks are playing two men short at the moment.  Clearly, the Mavericks don’t have any particular desire to move up the standings.

    So what do these deals mean as far as this year’s pennant race is concerned?  The Darkhorses made a bunch of moves to cover up for injuries.  They weren’t necessarily big improvement type deals, but filled needs.  They are obviously still the team to beat, although they did lose their first place spot for one day earlier this week.  The Jackalope held first place for that one day.  It was their first taste of the top of the standings since early in the season.  Johnson should give the Jackalope offense a boost, but will it be enough?  The Jackalope pitching is so strong that they should be right in the running until the end.  As of today, they are just two points out.  The third team in serious contention is the Naturals.  Although they did not make any deadline deals, they still have as good a shot as anybody.  They continue to dominate the batting categories, but have some pitching issues.  Essentially, they are the exact opposite of the Jackalope.  Meanwhile, the Darkhorses remain strong in batting and pitching.  The Kings bolstered their starting pitching, but 11 1/2 points will be difficult to make up in a month and a half.  The moves they made were not just about this season though.  They hope to keep their strong offense in tact, while improving the starting pitching.

    The other six teams have very little hope of making a run this year, but the Cougars and Mavericks both made moves with an eye to the future.  The Mavericks have suffered through a miserable year full of injuries and disappointments.  With the picks they have acquired, they hope for better results next year.  The Cougars gave up their first round pick for ’11, but picked up a first round caliber player in Dunn.

    With three teams within four points of first place, the next month and a half should be very entertaining.

  • National Pitchers Prevail

    In a baseball season with headlines dominated by pitchers, it was quite appropriate that the pitching staff for the National Division was primarily responsible for a 4-1 victory in the 17th annual Dream Team Baseball League All-Star Game.  The game took place last Monday night, a day later that originally scheduled due to travel problems for yours truly.  But fortunately we were able to get the game in a day later.  A three run seventh inning proved to be the difference in the game as the National All-Stars picked up the victory at Cougar Coliseum, home of Kelly’s Cougars.

    Only two players from the host team made the National All-Star squad, but both played significant roles in the victory, including staff ace Adam Wainwright who got the start on the mound.  He was opposed by early Cy Young Award candidate, Ubaldo Jimenez of the Gators.  Both starters were sharp in this one, pitching a pair of scoreless innings.  Jimenez did get into a bit of a jam in the bottom of the second though.  Justin Morneau touched him up with a one out triple.  However,  successive strike outs of Robinson Cano and Hanley Ramirez ended the threat.  The Ramirez at bat was especially dominating as Ramirez whiffed at three consecutive pitches.

    Chris Carpenter took the mound for the National Division in the third and was rudely greeted with a lead-off home run by Ryan Braun, giving the American All-Stars an early 1-0 lead.  The National squad quickly answered in the bottom half.  Cougars outfielder Josh Hamilton knocked a two out single to right-center scoring Joe Mauer who had singled to lead off the inning.  The National team recorded three singles in the inning off league ERA leader Josh Johnson.

    The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh.  Neither team recorded more than one hit in an inning during the middle frames.  Rafael Soriano took the mound for the American Division in the seventh and quickly retired the first two batters he faced.  But it started to unravel after that.  Soriano hit Torii Hunter and uncorked a pair of wild pitches on his way to walking Alex Rios.  Billy Wagner then relieved Soriano with runners on the corners.  An Adam Dunn single scored Hunter.  Then Kevin Youkilis reached on an error by third baseman David Wright to load the bases.  A bases loaded walk to Morneau increased the lead to 3-1.  Then Cano followed with another single to score the third run of the inning.  When the inning finally ended, the National All-Stars had built a 4-1 lead.

    The American Division never really had an opportunity to get back in the game after the big seventh inning.  Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Brian Wilson retired the American hitters in order in the ninth, including a pair of strike outs.  The game ended on a Wilson strike out of Albert Pujols after a lengthy nine pitch at bat.  Jonathan Broxton picked up the victory for the National Division while Soriano took the loss and Wilson recorded the save.

    There was a small controversy regarding the selection of the game’s Most Valuable Player.  OOTP chose Ryan Braun, but Dave and I immediately overruled that selection since not only was he on the losing team, but his solo home run was his only hit of the game.  There were a number of candidates, including Dunn and Cano, but we went with Kings first baseman Justin Morneau.  Morneau was one for two with a triple and two walks in four plate appearances.  One of his walks was with the bases loaded, so he also had an RBI.

    National pitchers were completely dominating in this one.  Not only did they surrender just the one run on a solo home run, but they gave up only four hits to a very impressive American lineup.  National pitchers also recorded 10 strike outs with just one walk.  American pitchers were not quite as dominant, but they gave up just two earned runs and struck out nine.

    Thanks to Dave and Nick for the time they spent making the final roster selections, setting their lineups and then showing up to manage the game.  It was a well played game and a great way to kick off the second half of the season.  Now we will just have to see if someone is going to make a run at the Darkhorses who appear primed to make it four in a row.

  • 2010 DTBL All-Stars

    Thanks to everyone for voting for the 2010 DTBL All-Stars.  The 17th annual DTBL All-Star Game is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, July 18 at 9 p.m EDT / 6 p.m. PDT.  Nick will be managing the American Division while Dave will be calling the shots for the National Division.  The two of them were responsible for breaking all ties in the voting and for selecting the 23rd player for each roster.  And now, here are your 2010 DTBL All-Stars.  The final voting results are posted below the rosters.

    American Division

    Starters:
    P – Ubaldo Jimenez, Gators
    C – Mike Napoli, Moonshiners
    1B – Miguel Cabrera, Naturals
    2B – Rickie Weeks, Naturals
    3B – David Wright, Moonshiners
    SS – Elvis Andrus, Jackalope
    OF – Carl Crawford, Naturals
    OF – Vladimir Guerrero, Choppers
    OF – Ryan Braun, Jackalope

    Reserves:
    C – Victor Martinez, Naturals
    1B – Albert Pujols, Jackalope
    1B – Paul Konerko, Moonshiners
    2B – Dan Uggla, Gators
    OF – Vernon Wells, Jackalope
    OF – Shin-Soo Choo, Moonshiners
    P – Roy Halladay, Jackalope
    P – Josh Johnson, Gators
    P – Yovani Gallardo, Moonshiners
    P – Jon Lester, Naturals
    RP – Rafael Soriano, Moonshiners
    RP – Heath Bell, Jackalope
    RP – Phil Hughes, Choppers
    RP – Billy Wagner, Gators

    National Division

    Starters:
    P – Adam Wainwright, Cougars
    C – Joe Mauer, Demigods
    1B – Justin Morneau, Kings
    2B – Robinson Cano, Kings
    3B – Evan Longoria, Demigods
    SS – Hanley Ramirez, Darkhorses
    OF – Josh Hamilton, Cougars
    OF – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings
    OF – Alex Rios, Kings

    Reserves:
    C – Jorge Posada, Mavericks
    1B – Kevin Youkilis, Mavericks
    2B – Dustin Pedroia, Demigods
    2B – Martin Prado, Darkhorses
    OF – Torii Hunter, Darkhorses
    OF – Adam Dunn, Mavericks
    P – Chris Carpenter, Darkhorses
    P – Tim Lincecum, Darkhorses
    P – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    P – Clay Buchholz, Kings
    RP – Neftali Feliz, Mavericks
    RP – Jonathan Broxton, Darkhorses
    RP – Mariano Rivera, Mavericks
    RP – Brian Wilson, Darkhorses

    Players by team:
    7 – Darkhorses
    6 – Jackalope, Mavericks, Moonshiners
    5 – Kings, Naturals
    4 – Gators
    3 – Demigods
    2 – Choppers, Cougars

    Voting Results

    American Division

    Catchers

    10 – Mike Napoli, Moonshiners
    8 – Victor Martinez, Naturals
    2 – Kurt Suzuki, Gators

    First Basemen/Third Basemen

    10 – Miguel Cabrera, Naturals
    8 – Albert Pujols, Jackalope
    7 – Paul Konerko, Moonshiners
    6 – David Wright, Moonshiners
    5 – Joey Votto, Naturals
    3 – Adrian Beltre, Choppers
    1 – Scott Rolen, Naturals

    Second Basemen/Shortstops

    8 – Dan Uggla, Gators
    8 – Rickie Weeks, Naturals
    5 – Elvis Andrus, Jackalope
    4 – Derek Jeter, Gators
    3 – Troy Tulowitzki, Naturals
    1 – Howie Kendrick, Naturals
    1 – Chase Utley, Choppers

    Outfielders

    10 – Carl Crawford, Naturals
    10 – Vladimir Guerrero, Choppers
    9 – Ryan Braun, Jackalope
    8 – Vernon Wells, Jackalope
    5 – Shin-Soo Choo, Moonshiners
    4 – Jayson Werth, Choppers
    3 – Andrew McCutchen, Naturals
    1 – Justin Upton, Naturals

    Starting Pitchers

    10 – Ubaldo Jimenez, Gators
    8 – Roy Halladay, Jackalope
    7 – Josh Johnson, Gators
    6 – Yovani Gallardo, Moonshiners
    6 – Jon Lester, Naturals
    4 – Jered Weaver, Jackalope
    3 – Felix Hernandez, Jackalope
    3 – David Price, Naturals
    2 – Cliff Lee, Jackalope
    1 – C.C. Sabathia, Gators

    Relief Pitchers

    9 – Rafael Soriano, Moonshiners
    7 – Heath Bell, Jackalope
    6 – Phil Hughes, Choppers
    6 – Billy Wagner, Gators
    5 – Jose Valverde, Naturals
    3 – Francisco Rodriguez, Moonshiners
    2 – Carlos Marmol, Choppers
    1 – Matt Capps, Jackalope
    1 – Joakim Soria, Naturals

    National Division

    Catchers

    9 – Joe Mauer, Demigods
    7 – Jorge Posada, Mavericks
    2 – John Buck, Cougars
    2 – Geovany Soto, Darkhorses

    First Basemen/Third Basemen

    9 – Evan Longoria, Demigods
    9 – Justin Morneau, Kings
    7 – Adrian Gonzalez, Darkhorses
    7 – Kevin Youkilis, Mavericks
    4 – Alex Rodriguez, Kings
    4 – Michael Young, Darkhorses

    Second Basemen/Shortstops

    10 – Robinson Cano, Kings
    10 – Hanley Ramirez, Darkhorses
    7 – Dustin Pedroia, Demigods
    2 – Martin Prado, Darkhorses
    1 – Rafael Furcal, Darkhorses

    Outfielders

    10 – Josh Hamilton, Cougars
    9 – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings
    9 – Alex Rios, Kings
    6 – Torii Hunter, Darkhorses
    4 – Adam Dunn, Mavericks
    3 – Matt Kemp, Demigods
    3 – Ichiro Suzuki, Demigods
    2 – Andre Ethier, Darkhorses
    2 – Magglio Ordonez, Mavericks
    1 – Matt Holliday, Darkhorses
    1 – Shane Victorino, Cougars

    Starting Pitchers

    10 – Chris Carpenter, Darkhorses
    10 – Tim Lincecum, Darkhorses
    10 – Adam Wainwright, Cougars
    9 – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    8 – Clay Buchholz, Kings
    2 – Justin Verlander, Kings
    1 – Roy Oswalt, Darkhorses

    Relief Pitchers

    9 – Neftali Feliz, Mavericks
    8 – Jonathan Broxton, Darkhorses
    8 – Mariano Rivera, Mavericks
    6 – Brian Wilson, Darkhorses
    5 – Andrew Bailey, Cougars
    2 – Francisco Cordero, Darkhorses
    1 – Matt Lindstrom, Demigods
    1 – Leo Nunez, Kings

  • Pitcher Perfect

    The past few seasons have seen a resurgence of dominating pitching in Major League Baseball.  Perhaps the most obvious sign of this is the significant number of no hitters and perfect games.  In the past 11 months, there have been five no hitters and, remarkably, three perfect games.  In the entire history of MLB, there have only been 20 perfect games and 15% of those have occurred in the last year.  The latest addition to the list is Jackalope and Phillies ace Roy Halladay who retired every Marlins hitter he faced on Saturday evening.

    Halladay’s perfect game was possibly the least surprising of all those recent performances.  Since moving to the National League, he has been nearly unhittable.  His perfecto was his seventh victory of the season and lowered his ERA to 1.99 and WHIP to 0.988.  The only person preventing him from being the leader in the Cy Young Award race is his fellow 2010 no hitter hurler, Ubaldo Jimenez.  Halladay ranks second, behind Jimenez, in wins, ERA and WHIP.

    Halladay is part of a very impressive pitching staff which continues to be the DTBL’s best.  Unfortunately for the Jackalope, the Darkhorses recently regained their familiar spot on top of the league standings.  Through Sunday, the Darkhorses held a two point lead on the Jackalope, with the Naturals and Kings in close striking distance as well.

    The no hitters and perfect games are only one sign of a pitching resurgence in baseball.  You don’t have to look any further than the DTBL team stats to see more evidence.  All but two teams have ERAs below 4.00.  On the flip side, only two teams have batting averages over .280, which used to be a middle of the pack figure.  If the current trend continues, this figures to be the lowest cumulative league batting average in DTBL history and the lowest ERA/WHIP numbers since the league expanded to ten teams.

    As thrilling as having one of your pitchers throw a perfect game must be, I think it would be fair to say that was not the highlight of Jay’s weekend.  On behalf of the league, I’d like to give Jay a huge congratulations on his marriage to Julie.  Jay is the first of two DTBL members who will be getting married this summer.  Dom and Ashley’s wedding is on the 4th of July weekend.  I think it is kind of interesting and appropriate that our league’s two veterans are getting married on two holiday weekends where we, as Americans, celebrate our freedom and honor those who have served to protect our country.  So a big thanks, congratulations, and best wishes to Jay and Dom!

    I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

  • DTBL News Returns!

    After a longer than expected break, DTBL News is back!  I have set up this new WordPress blog to serve as the host for the DTBL News.  Since WordPress is an extremely well supported and highly used blogging software product, I anticipate this will be a great tool for our league.  On the flip side, the old blog software I used on the previous web site was a mod to the phpBB message board system, which had not been supported or updated in several years.  I was hoping to find something similar to use on the new site, which would automatically tie into the existing web site and message board user system.  However, I decided WordPress would be a much better alternative.

    There is a tool available that can be used to integrate WordPress with phpBB so we can continue to use a single sign-on for all web site functions.  I have had some issues getting this to work though.  As you may recall from back in March, I temporarily messed up the entire site login/logout functionality when I was trying to get this to work.  I haven’t touched it since, but this is definitely something I want to implement sooner rather than later.  But in the mean time, I will be the only one who is able to post blog entries.  Of course, I will let you know when I have it set up for any user to create new posts.  In the mean time, if you have anything you feel is DTBL News worthy, just send it to me and I’ll post it for you.  Unlike the old site, I don’t plan on setting up unique blogs for each person.  Instead, once this is completely set up, all of you will have the ability to create/edit/reply to all posts in this single blog.

    Another blog related task I need to complete is an import of all the entries from the old site.  WordPress has a pretty robust import feature, however the old blogging system didn’t exactly comply to standards necessary to get this to work automatically.  I should be able to work around this and get all the old news over here though.  I doubt anyone really cares about this, but it is nice to have that stuff for historical purposes.

    But enough about the blog.  Let’s get to the news since we’re about a quarter of the way into the season already.  First, the latest news is the first trade of the regular season.  The Mavericks and Naturals completed yet another trade between the league’s two most common trade partners.  Some of you may have seen this transaction earlier today and thought the Naturals acquired something for nothing.  That is not the case.  The Mavericks dealt closer Jose Valverde to the Naturals for their second round pick in 2011.  Valverde has already recorded 10 saves with a minuscule 0.51 ERA and 0.792 WHIP.  This trade should help shore up the Naturals bullpen which has been a little bit of a disappointment, but already ranks in the top half of the league in saves.  Meanwhile, this trade could be interpreted as a bit of a surrender for the Mavericks who find themselves in a disappointing eighth place.  Losing one closer isn’t going to have a devastating effect on the team, however, this trade clearly has no upside for the Mavericks in 2010 since they did not receive a player in return.  More about both of these teams in a bit.

    Perhaps the two most news worthy stories I missed so far this season is a pair of no-hitters, including a perfect game.  The perfect game was thrown just a week ago by Dallas Braden of the Oakland A’s.  It was the second consecutive perfect game thrown against the Tampa Bay Rays.  Mark Buehrle did the same against the Rays last July.  Braden’s perfect game was the sixth thrown since the DTBL began in 1993, however Braden is not a DTBL player.  In fact, he’s the first player in the DTBL era to throw a perfect game prior to his DTBL debut (assuming he will be in the league in the future).  Kenny Rogers was not in the DTBL when he threw his perfect game in 1994, but he had been in the league the year before and returned in 1995.

    The other no-hitter was thrown by a DTBL pitcher.  Ubaldo Jimenez pitched nine hitless innings against the Braves on April 17.  He was the first Colorado Rockies pitcher to throw a no-hitter.  It was just one of many dominating performances by Jimenez this season.  The Gators hurler has already accumulated a league high 7 wins and league best 1.12 ERA.  His sub 1.00 WHIP and 54 strike outs also place him among the league leaders.  Jimenez has been carrying the Gators pitching staff so far and is one of the front runners for the Cy Young Award.

    As for team accomplishments so far, the Jackalope have been the lead story.  With the exception of a couple days at the very beginning of the season, the Jackalope have held the top spot in the league standings the entire season.  They have been led by their thoroughly dominating pitching staff.  Roy Halladay pitching in the National League is almost unfair.  Felix Hernandez, Zack Greinke and Jared Weaver have been their usual dominating selves, although they have been a bit unlucky in the wins department.  Meanwhile, Cliff Lee came off the disabled list a few weeks ago to give the Jackalope as good of a starting five as you will ever see.  Even their bullpen has been better than expected with Matt Capps leading the league in saves.  The Jackalope offense has been solid too, although they have slipped a bit in recent weeks to allow the field to close the gap.  What was a double digit lead for a good portion of April is now just four points over the three time defending champion Darkhorses.

    The Darkhorses are lurking once again.  While they have not dominated the league quite the same as they have in recent years, they are still right near the top of the league in both batting and pitching.  The Jackalope certainly have to be concerned that their lead may not last long.  The other closest contender is the Kings.  After an absolutely miserable 2009, the Kings have rebounded back into a more familiar position near the top of the standings.  The improvement of their offense from last year is almost unbelievable.  They currently have 48 of the possible 50 batting points.  Unfortunately, their pitching staff has not been very good, which keeps them seven points behind the Jackalope.

    The Naturals, Demigods, Gators and Choppers find themselves in the middle of the pack.  All four teams are very much alive and well.  The Naturals figure to get a boost from the Valverde deal.  The Demigods and Gators are in similar positions needing more offense to move up the standings.  The Choppers are only in sixth place, but should be pretty happy with where they stand.  After several years of having one of the worst pitching staffs in the league, they have improved in that area thanks to a couple of relievers who are actually starters.  C.J. Wilson and Phil Hughes have not only provided bonus wins and strike outs, but they are arguably the Choppers best two pitchers.

    The Mavericks, Moonshiners and Cougars bring up the rear.  The Mavericks have not had a lot go their way so far this season.  Their three first round picks have been a little disappointing.  Second overall pick Matt Wieters has put up pedestrian numbers thus far,  Gordon Beckham has been brutal and Billy Butler has been solid but could never be considered a great draft pick considering the Mavericks had just released him a few months prior to the draft.  The Moonshiners have also been the victim of some extremely under-performing players, including first round pick Ben Zobrist.  The Cougars offense was about as bad as you could get a few weeks ago.  They have picked up a few points since then though and are on the verge of climbing out of last place for the first time in quite a while.

    Now that I have this blog up and running, hopefully I’ll be able to keep it fresh with somewhat regular updates.  My next post will almost certainly be an update on where I stand with new features and a web site re-design that I hinted at during the offseason.  Don’t expect the latter to happen anytime soon, but I’ll share my plan with you soon enough.