DTBL News

Author: Kevin

  • 2019 Season Preview: Part II

    Embed from Getty Images The second part of this 2019 DTBL season preview series will examine three teams that are projected to finish with nearly identical point totals, within a single point of each other.  Two of the teams are slotted just a couple points ahead of the ninth place Cougars as well, so that means things are projected to be very tight in the bottom half of the standings.  The previous post covered a pair of teams that finished in the top half of the standings a year ago.  Meanwhile, this one covers two more teams in that situation.  So for those of you scoring at home, that means that four of the five teams that will be projected to finish in the top half of the standings were among the teams that finished in the bottom half a year ago.  And the lone team that is picked to remain in the bottom half would still consider this projection to be a pretty significant step forward.  So I guess what I'm getting at is that 2019 may look nothing like 2018 in the DTBL.  Here are the previews for the teams picked to finish in sixth and a tie for seventh places.

    Charlie's Thunder Choppers

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 9th (4th)

    • Home Runs - 9th (9th)

    • Runs Batted In - 10th (8th)

    • Runs Scored - 10th (7th)

    • Stolen Bases - 6th (3rd)

    • Earned Run Average - 3rd (4th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 2nd (6th)

    • Wins - 1st (3rd)

    • Saves - 6th (2nd)

    • Strike Outs - 5th (4th)

    • Total Batting Points - 10th (7th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 2nd (3rd)

    • Total Points - 7th-T (4th)

    Summary:

    Last year marked the fifth time in six seasons that the Thunder Choppers finished in the top four of the league.  However, once again, they weren't able to keep pace with the league champion.  Despite all of those high finishes, they've only come close to a title once in that stretch, finishing 2 1/2 points out in 2016.  It was a mediocre offense that held them back a year ago.  Unfortunately, these projections show that being an issue again this season as they are tabbed to record the fewest batting points in the league.  But there could be a little more upside this time around as they went heavier than usual on younger players with higher upsides in the draft.  Anthony Rizzo and Whit Merrifield have strong offensive projections, but none of their other hitters jump off the page.  New additions Miguel Andujar, Franmil Reyes and Willy Adames have intriguing potential though.  And let's not forget returning outfielder Byron Buxton, who was the top prospect in all of baseball just a few years ago.  If he ever figures it out, he could be a fantasy superstar.  The pitching staff was very good last year, but could be even better in 2019.  Chris Sale is a perennial Cy Young contender.  Trevor Bauer had a huge breakout a year ago and is their clear #2 now.  Bauer's Indians teammate Shane Bieber is the exciting new addition to the Choppers rotation.  The bullpen could be excellent as well, but Craig Kimbrel is going to need to sign with a MLB team sooner than later to solidify the group.  Otherwise, it will be Ken Giles and Jordan Hicks leading the way.  One fallback plan if Kimbrel never gets a job will be Corbin Burnes, who can continue the Choppers tradition of having a starting pitcher accumulating stats from a relief pitching slot, something these projections don't really take into account.  A seventh place finish would be disappointing for the Choppers.  If their offense is better than prognosticated, they will likely finish in the top half of the standings once again.

    David's Darkhorses

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 1st (2nd)

    • Home Runs - 6th (2nd)

    • Runs Batted In - 5th (1st)

    • Runs Scored - 1st (1st)

    • Stolen Bases - 8th (4th)

    • Earned Run Average - 8th (6th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 10th (4th)

    • Wins - 10th (9th)

    • Saves - 5th (8th)

    • Strike Outs - 7th (3rd)

    • Total Batting Points - 3rd (1st)

    • Total Pitching Points - 10th (7th)

    • Total Points - 7th-T (2nd)

    Summary:

    Of the four teams projected to drop from the top to bottom half of the league this season, the Darkhorses would be the biggest disappointment if this actually came to pass.  They put a serious scare into the Kings down the stretch last season before falling a little short.  Had the pitching staff been a little more productive, they would have won the league.  But they are now projected to have the worst pitching staff in the league.  The numbers are dragged down a bit by a couple of their surplus Braves starters who don't figure to be regulars in the rotation though.  Speaking of Braves starters, they have four of them.  First round pick Mike Foltynewicz will be the key to ensuring they don't have the worst staff in the league.  He will slot in behind Jacob deGrom, who once again should be one of the best pitchers in the league.  A little more win luck for him would be helpful as well.  The projections aren't quite as optimistic about Patrick Corbin or Jose Berrios, but the talent is there for this to be a pretty good staff.  With Corey Knebel's health a huge concern, they may have trouble racking up the saves.  Brad Hand is the only safe bet to be a significant save accumulator.  Meanwhile, the offense should remain one of the best in the league.  They have seven hitters projected for 3+ PAR, tied for the most in the league.  Those seven:  Alex Bregman, Matt Chapman, Daniel Murphy, Xander Boagarts, Bryce Harper, George Springer and Christian Yelich.  And that doesn't even include J.T. Realmuto, who may be the best catcher in the league.  They could benefit from some positive home ballpark changes among those guys too, namely Harper, Realmuto and Murphy.  This is a very deep offensive unit.  Whether or not you believe the Darkhorses will compete for the title, or finish close to these projections instead largely depends on what you expect from their pitching staff.  If better than advertised, they will be a dangerous team once again.

    Kat's Komodos

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 6th (7th)

    • Home Runs - 7th (5th)

    • Runs Batted In - 9th (5th)

    • Runs Scored - 4th (6th)

    • Stolen Bases - 1st (1st)

    • Earned Run Average - 10th (10th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 6th (10th)

    • Wins - 3rd (5th)

    • Saves - 8th (9th)

    • Strike Outs - 6th (8th)

    • Total Batting Points - 5th (4th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 6th-T (9th)

    • Total Points - 6th (9th)

    Summary:

    Finally, we come to our first team that did not finish in the top half of the standings last season.  But this projection also shows what would be a significant change in fortune for a Komodos squad that finished ninth a year ago.  Perhaps hidden a bit by the overall place of finish was just how solid of an offensive core this team has already assembled.  The 31 batting points they earned in 2018 was more than the Gators franchise they inherited had accumulated in any season since 2008.  Since their focus was almost exclusively on pitching in the early rounds of the draft, this is basically the same offensive team as a year ago, led by Jose Ramirez, Cody Bellinger and Starling Marte.  Two other guys who don't receive a ton of attention when focusing on the best players in MLB, but who are fantasy studs are Nelson Cruz and Joey Gallo.  This team's most glaring strength is their speed.  Marte, Ramirez, Dee Gordon and Mallex Smith should give the Komodos a great chance of winning the stolen base category once again.  The main reason for optimism that 2019 will be a huge step forward for this franchise is the seemingly improved pitching staff.  The second overall pick in the draft, Walker Buehler gives them a potential ace, which they simply did not have last year.  The rest of the rotation is filled with steady, solid veterans in David Price, J.A. Happ, Rich Hill and Jose Quintana.  At first glance, the bullpen doesn't look great with only Aroldis Chapman and Kirby Yates entrenched as closers.  But Collin McHugh is another potential stat accumulator as a starter in a relief slot.  These projections show the Komodos improving to sixth in the league in pitching points and sixth overall.  Those would be massive improvements over a year ago.  There are plenty of reasons for the Komodos to be optimistic about their second season in the DTBL.

  • 2019 Season Preview: Part I

    Embed from Getty Images The 2019 DTBL Draft wrapped up earlier this week and the regular season officially started on Wednesday and Thursday with a pair of games in Japan between the Mariners and Athletics.  So it is time to start looking forward to the 2019 DTBL season.  The Kings enter the year as the defending champions, having nearly gone wire-to-wire in first place last year.  They were somewhat fortunate that the season ended when it did though, because they faded badly in the second half.  That would seem to open the door for many other teams to be primed for contention this season.  But as we've seen in recent history of the league, that likely would have been the case even if the Kings looked like a juggernaut last year.

    As usual, I am going to preview the upcoming season with the assistance of stat projections, computed by using FanGraph's Depth Charts projections for 2019.  These projections are a combination of the ZiPS and Steamer projection systems with playing time estimates baked in.  The specific methodology I'm using is exactly the same as last year.  See last year's post for details on the switch I made to adjust teams' batting totals.  All 28 players who were on each team's roster at the conclusion of the draft are incorporated into these numbers.  While this methodology has some short-comings, I think it does a decent job of painting a picture of the strengths and weaknesses for each team entering the season.  As for the projected standings, last year's didn't prove to be very accurate, as they overrated the Mavericks and Naturals and underestimated the type of season the Demigods, Cougars and Darkhorses would go on to have.  So fear not if your team is one covered below!

    Once again, I will split this preview series into four parts.  I'm grouping teams that are projected to finish closely to one another into each post.  This first part will cover two teams that the projections show as having a lot of work to do if they want to compete for a title this season.  But they are also a pair of teams that easily exceeded their projections last season as well, as they finished in the top half of the standings.  So there is reason for optimism.  Here are the teams projected to finish in ninth and tenth places in 2019.

    Dom's Demigods

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 3rd (1st)

    • Home Runs - 10th (7th)

    • Runs Batted In - 7th (2nd)

    • Runs Scored - 5th (2nd)

    • Stolen Bases - 7th (6th)

    • Earned Run Average - 9th (1st)

    • WHIP Ratio - 7th (2nd)

    • Wins - 5th (6th-T)

    • Saves - 9th (10th)

    • Strike Outs - 9th (9th)

    • Total Batting Points - 8th-T (3rd)

    • Total Pitching Points - 9th (6th)

    • Total Points - 10th (3rd)

    Summary:

    This is not a pretty forecast for a Demigods squad that finished in third place a year ago.  But they do have a recent history of beating these projections as they were also picked near the bottom of the league the past couple years and wound up closer to the top.  In fact, the Demigods have finished in the top half of the standings five straight years, but are still seeking their first championship.  These projections show the Demigods taking a pretty big step back in both batting and pitching, but it is the offensive numbers that are most alarming considering they were one of the best hitting teams in the league a season ago.  One thing to note is they currently have a bench of almost all hitters, including a third catcher, which does drag down the numbers a bit by lessening the impact of their top players.  J.D. Martinez, Francisco Lindor, Jose Altuve and Freddie Freeman remain their top hitters.  Their first four draft picks were all hitters, so they are hoping at least one of Jesus Aguilar, Jurickson Profar, Brandon Nimmo and Austin Meadows can break into that upper echelon as well.  With those stars and solid depth, I like the Demigods to easily exceed the batting projections.  I think the pitching staff is the bigger question mark.  Corey Kluber and Aaron Nola are studs, but the rest of the rotation could be a drag.  Perhaps they will be able to ride those two aces similar to the way the Kings did with Scherzer and Verlander last year though.  The Demigods completely ignored saves last year, finishing last.  They might be able to move up a couple spots this year, but they still don't have any certain full-time closers.  Mychal Givens, Trevor May and Brandon Morrow provide possibilities though.  If the Demigods are going to compete this year, they'll need some of their new offensive players to break out and the back of the rotation to exceed projections.  This team coming in last in these projections shows just how competitive this league figures to be in 2019, from top to bottom.  The Demigods have a very talented team.

    Kelly's Cougars

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 4th (6th)

    • Home Runs - 8th (6th)

    • Runs Batted In - 6th (6th-T)

    • Runs Scored - 8th (4th)

    • Stolen Bases - 4th (7th)

    • Earned Run Average - 5th (7th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 4th (7th)

    • Wins - 7th (1st-T)

    • Saves - 7th (5th)

    • Strike Outs - 10th (6th)

    • Total Batting Points - 6th-T (6th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 6th-T (5th)

    • Total Points - 9th (5th)

    Summary:

    Even though these projections show the Cougars dropping four spots in the standings, if you take a closer look, they are actually projected to be a very similar team in 2019 to the one that finished in the top half of the standings a year ago.  Plus, the Cougars are another team that has frequently beaten these projections in recent years.  The past two seasons have been a nice resurgence for this franchise which hasn't won a championship in 23 years now.  What they will need to do to put an end to that dry spell is to slightly improve across the board, moving from middle of the pack to elite.  They don't have a lot of weaknesses, but also have a shortage of superstars.  One player who definitely needs to have a better 2019 is Kris Bryant.  Him returning to production worthy of a MVP candidate would help greatly.  A pair of Rockies, Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon are the other two offensive standouts, and the only players who had particularly strong seasons for the Cougars a year ago.  Eugenio Suarez is another under the radar key contributor.  Newcomer Gleyber Torres figures to add a boost to the infield as well.  Blake Snell carried the Cougars pitching staff a year ago and appears likely to do the same this season.  Jameson Taillon continues to improve and should be a nice number two.  In addition to Bryant, the other key player for the Cougars who needs a '19 bounce back is Madison Bumgarner.  Injuries have derailed his past two seasons.  A healthy and productive Bumgarner would go a long way towards proving these projections to be overly pessimistic.  The bullpen has a chance to be the league's best.  While only projected to finish seventh in saves, bet the over.  Alex Colome is only slotted for three saves in these numbers.  He should exceed that in the first couple weeks.  Blake Treinen, David Robertson, Cody Allen and Archie Bradley give the Cougars the deepest pen in the league.  Perhaps a lot needs to go right for the Cougars to win it all this year, but there are plenty of categories where they have a good chance to beat these projections.

  • Acuna, Soto Highlight Round One

    Embed from Getty Images The first round of the DTBL Draft almost always features a crop of young up-and-coming stars.  But this year's group is especially notable for their youth.  Eight of the ten players selected in the first round are under 25 years old, including the first seven picks of the draft.  And two players, Ronald Acuna and Juan Soto, are among the most accomplished players at their age to ever enter the league.  Acuna and Soto just turned 21 and 20 respectively over the offseason.  All ten first round selections are DTBL rookies.  A trade of two marquee players also highlighted an excellent start to the 2019 DTBL Draft.

    For the second straight year, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year was the first pick of the draft.  Ronald Acuna joins the Jackalope coming off a stellar rookie campaign.  He hit .293 with 26 home runs and 16 stolen bases, flashing all of his plus tools.  The Braves outfielder became a star almost immediately upon promotion and helped lead his team to an unexpected division championship.  He could help the Jackalope make a similar jump in the standings this year.  The Jackalope offense was especially disappointing a year ago, but the pieces are still there to be one of the best teams in the league.  Acuna was a pretty clear choice here.

    Last year, the Komodos took a young Dodgers star with the first pick of the draft (Cody Bellinger).  This year, they took another young Dodgers star with the second pick.  Walker Buehler should give a significant boost to a pitching staff that really struggled a year ago.  Buehler was pretty clearly the best pitcher available in this draft.  In 137 big league innings, he struck out 151 while posting an impressive 2.62 ERA and 0.96 WHIP.  That ERA is a full point lower than any Komodos starting pitcher posted in '18, when they finished dead last in the league in that category, by a healthy margin.  Buehler will immediately become the Komodos best pitcher.

    Juan Soto has already put himself in rarefied air based on his accomplishments in the big leagues as a teenager.  Nobody was expecting Soto to reach the majors for another year or two, but a series of injuries to Nationals outfielders caused them to bring him up last May. He was an immediate success and made it impossible to send him back down.  He was so good in his rookie campaign that the Nationals decided to only make a halfhearted attempt to retain Bryce Harper this winter.  Soto hit .292 with 22 homers in just 414 at bats.  The Naturals selected him with the third pick and he could have joined his Nationals teammate Victor Robles to form an exciting young duo for the Naturals as well.  But Soto was immediately traded to the Mavericks in a blockbuster swap of outfielders.  In return, the Naturals acquired Andrew Benintendi.  These are two of the best outfielders in the game, so this is quite a swap.  Benintendi is more established and is a little more well-rounded, offering a stolen base threat as well.  But Soto has a nearly unlimited upside in the power categories.  It will be very interesting to compare these players as their careers progress.  For the Mavericks, an outfield of Soto, Mike Trout and Aaron Judge is pretty darn scary.  But the Naturals have no shortage of young star hitters either.

    With the fourth pick, the Moonshiners selected this year's most interesting player, two-way star Shohei Ohtani.  Coming over from Japan, Ohtani was expected to be an immediate star on the mound, but many questioned if he would really be able to hit big league pitching.  In fact, some thought if he truly wanted to be a two-way player, he may need some time in the minors.  Well, turns out he can hit major league pitching.  He hit .285 with 22 home runs in just 326 at bats.  An injury limited him to just 51 innings on the mound, where he struck out 63 with a 3.31 ERA.  Unfortunately, he needed Tommy John surgery and will not pitch in 2019.  He does intend to hit, but probably won't see action in a big league game until May.  The Moonshiners have all sorts of options with Ohtani.  First, they can use him at 1B or OF this year since he didn't play a non-pitching field position last year.  And looking forward, they will have the option to use him as either a pitcher or hitter next year, assuming he is a keeper.  The sky is the limit with this pick, but the Moonshiners probably won't get their money's worth until next year and beyond.

    The Mavericks aren't used to picking in the first half of the first round, at least not with their own pick.  Last year was the first time they finished in the bottom half of the standings since 2011.  They took advantage of the rare positioning to acquire two of the top five players selected in this draft.  In addition to the trade for Soto, they selected pitcher Jack Flaherty with the fifth pick.  The Mavericks have an absolutely loaded offense, but the once undisputed top pitching staff in the league was anything but that a year ago.  Injuries destroyed the staff and caused them to finish dead last in pitching points.  Flaherty is the first step to try to rebuild that group.  Overshadowed a bit by the players already mentioned above, he had a rather dominant rookie campaign as well.  182 strikeouts in 151 innings is great for any pitcher, much less a 22 year old rookie.  The Cardinals hurler also had a strong 3.34 ERA and 1.11 WHIP.  He should provide stability for this revamped staff.

    The Cougars have had a pretty good recent track record of selecting hitters in the first round.  Second baseman Gleyber Torres is the next in line.  The Cougars will likely open the season with their offensive lineup featuring their past five first round picks.  Torres is younger than all of his predecessors though at the time of joining the squad.  He hit .271 with 24 home runs during his age 21 rookie season.  That combination of ability and age should make him a fixture on the Cougars roster for a very long time.  The Yankees have a lot of options in their infield this year, but one thing is certain.  Torres will be playing virtually every day, whether it be at second base or shortstop.

    Speaking of impressive young Yankees infielders, another one was selected with the seventh pick, with the Choppers taking third baseman Miguel Andujar.  Andujar hit .297 with 27 homers and 92 RBI, to finish second in the American League Rookie of the Year vote, behind Ohtani.  The only knock on him is his glove, but that matters not at all in fantasy.  The Choppers will look to Andujar to replace team legend and future Hall-of-Famer Adrian Beltre, who retired over the winter.  If Andujar can provide a spark to the Choppers offense, they could have a chance of ending their 20 year title drought.

    For the second straight year, the Demigods took the old guy of the first round.  But in this case, it is still a league rookie.  Jesus Aguilar started the 2018 season as a bench player for the Brewers.  But the first baseman immediately showed off his incredible power, quickly earned a starting job, and then made the NL All-Star team.  He slugged 35 homers with 108 runs batted in.  He did cool off a bit in the second half of the season, with only 11 of those homers coming after the All-Star break.  Outside of maybe Acuna and Soto, he was probably the safest bet for power in this draft.  The Demigods finished eighth in home runs last year, the biggest weakness for an otherwise strong offensive team.

    The Darkhorses selected Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz with the eighth pick, making this the first time since 2015 that more than two pitchers were taken in the first round.  Foltynewicz had a breakout season a year ago, which earned him an All-Star appearance.  He struck out 202 hitters in 183 innings with a sparkling 2.85 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.  His previous best ERA season was 4.31, so '18 saw quite a dramatic improvement.  While he has spent parts of five seasons in the majors, he is still just 27 years old.  The Darkhorses barely missed winning the championship last year, with a mediocre pitching staff holding them back.  Foltynewicz could be exactly what they need to get over the hump.

    Sitting with the last pick in the first round, the Kings believed there was one player remaining who was clearly the best available, but he was at a position in which they were already well stacked.  So instead, they swung a trade with the Jackalope to move up a spot to grab that player.  The Kings received the Jackalope 2nd round pick (11th overall) along with a swap of 4th round slots.  The Jackalope then took Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to close out the first round.  Mondesi is a rare breed in that he is an elite base stealer, but also has surprising power.  He managed to steal 32 bases and hit 14 home runs despite not making his big league season debut until late June.  While he's unlikely to maintain a pace like that for a full season, he still could be an above average contributor to the power categories while potentially leading the league in steals.  Once considered an elite prospect, Mondesi had slipped under the radar a bit before his 2018 breakout.  Slight spoiler alert for my upcoming season preview articles, but you definitely won't see the Jackalope projected to finish last again.  They managed to acquire the two players with the highest projected PAR in the entire draft pool.  So the Jackalope started and finished the first round with a bang.  Meanwhile, the Kings selected starting pitcher Zack Wheeler with that pick they acquired from the Jackalope, the first pick of the second round.

    Thanks to all of you for the excellent pace to the first half of this draft.  At this rate, we'll be done with plenty of time to spare before the Japan openers.  Let's keep up the good work!

  • 2018: Year of Mookie

    Embed from Getty Images
    In 2016, the Kings won the DTBL Championship, a Cougars player (Kris Bryant) won Rookie of the Year, Kings pitcher Max Scherzer won the Cy Young award and Kings outfielder Mookie Betts won the Most Valuable Player award.  This year, the Kings won the DTBL Championship, a Cougars player (Blake Snell) won Rookie of the Year, Kings pitcher Max Scherzer won the Cy Young award, and… yes, you have figured out where this is going.  History has repeated itself.  Perhaps no offensive player in league history has been more solely responsible for his team winning a championship than Betts was this season.  Mookie Betts is the 2018 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

    For the first time in his young, but highly productive career, Mookie Betts joined the 30/30 club this season.  He notched career highs in both home runs (32) and stolen bases (30).  Those numbers alone put him in pretty elite company, but his league leading .346 average took things to another level.  Only one player in league history has had a higher average while joining the 30/30 club.  Larry Walker’s insane 1997 season featured a .366/49/33 line.  Oh, Betts also led the league in runs scored with 129.  Somewhat surprisingly, he was not on top of the Batting PAR leaderboard.  His 11.3 was awfully impressive, but was topped by Christian Yelich’s 11.6.  As an entire team, the championship winning Kings accumulated 22.2 Batting PAR.  So yes, Betts was responsible for more than half of that!  No other Kings hitter reached 5 PAR. Not a bad year for him: AL MVP, World Series champion, DTBL MVP and DTBL champion.

    The Kings drafted Betts with the fifth pick in the 2015 draft.  Two of the players taken ahead of him:  Corey Dickerson and Jorge Soler (sorry, Mike).  So far, Betts has won the MVP in half of his DTBL seasons, taking home the honor in 2016 as well.  His numbers from this season were slightly better in most categories, except RBIs, the only category where he didn’t set a career high.  In addition to joining the 30/30 single season club, he also reached the 100/100 HR/SB club for his career this season, now sitting at 105/100 with an average of .303.  He is the only player in the league with 100 homers and stolen bases since 2015.  And only Mike Trout can top Betts’ career PAR of 34.7 since ’15.  There is no question that Betts has established himself as one of the best all around players in the game.

    Despite the gaudy numbers, this award did not come easily for Betts.  As mentioned, he didn’t lead the league in PAR, so it is unsurprising that he wasn’t the clear choice for this award either.  But he did receive a majority of the first place votes:  seven to be exact.  Interestingly, one person did not have him on the ballot.  He compiled 82 points, besting the runner-up by nine.  Finishing second was the PAR leader, Darkhorses outfielder Christian Yelich.  Yelich was insanely hot over the last two months of the season, easily claiming the NL MVP award.  Like Betts, he was a strong five category player, beating Betts in home runs and RBIs, but falling a bit behind in average, runs and steals.  Yelich was the only player who appeared on all ten ballots.  But he received just one first place vote, along with nine seconds, leaving him a bit short of Betts.  While those two were the clear leaders, several others received strong consideration as well.  Betts’ Red Sox teammate and Demigods outfielder J.D. Martinez hit .330 with 46 home runs.  Martinez got a first place vote and earned 42 points to finish third.  Right behind him was Komodos third baseman Jose Ramirez, who proved his breakout ’17 season was no fluke.  Ramirez actually looked like the favorite to win this award before struggling a bit down the stretch.  He also received a first place vote and compiled 40 points.  His Indians teammate rounded out the top five.  Demigods shortstop Francisco Lindor had a pretty great five category performance as well, but was overshadowed a bit by the guys mentioned above.  Lindor made a majority of the ballots (six) and totaled 14 points.  Any of these five guys could have won this award with their numbers in a different season. Although he failed to make the top five for the second straight season, I think it is worth pointing out that Mavericks outfielder Mike Trout has now received MVP votes all seven years of his DTBL career.  Even his worst seasons are elite.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    And that’s a wrap on the baseball award season.  Now it is time to start jumping into my offseason work.  There will be plenty of enhancements, but I’ve learned not to make any promises on what I will actually accomplished.  So stay tuned.  Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Scherzer Wins Another Cy Young

    Embed from Getty Images On a year-to-year basis, you know exactly what you are going to get from Max Scherzer:  a sub 3.00 ERA, a sub 1.00 WHIP, 15-20 wins, over 200 innings and at least 250 strikeouts.  His stat lines from each of the past six seasons have been astonishingly similar.  But 2018 may have been his best season yet.  He failed to win his third consecutive National League Cy Young award due to the historically great season that Jacob deGrom had, but from a roto perspective, Scherzer's year was better.  This is the fifth time in the past six years that Scherzer has finished in the top five of this league's Cy Young vote and the second time he has come out on top.  Kings starting pitcher Max Scherzer is the 2018 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    It is hard to pick out Scherzer's best career season, but I would make the case that 2018 is the new leader.  He posted the highest PAR of his career, a league leading 14.0.  He easily set a career high in strikeouts, finishing at exactly 300.  (As an aside, I was in the park for his 300th strikeout.  It was a pretty cool moment in an otherwise extremely disappointing Nationals season.)  He is the sixth different pitcher to record a 300 strikeout season in DTBL history.  Among qualified pitchers, his 2.53 ERA ranked seventh and his 0.911 WHP was third best.  Three other pitchers were ahead of his 18 wins.  In addition to PAR and strikeouts, he also led the league in innings pitched with 220 2/3.

    The Kings acquired Scherzer in a trade with the Jackalope back in 2010.  That trade continues to pay dividends for the Kings, who have now won three championships with Scherzer on the roster.  This is the second time that he has won both a DTBL Championship and the Cy Young award in the same season, repeating what he accomplished in 2016.  The Kings won the title this year mainly on the strength of three players:  Scherzer, Mookie Betts and Justin Verlander.  While Scherzer faced stiff competition for this league-wide award, you could make a decent case that he wasn't even the best pitcher on the Kings staff as his and Verlander's numbers were nearly identical across the board.  Scherzer won a couple more games and had ten more strikeouts, but Verlander had the slight edge in ERA and WHIP.  They combined for 27.0 Pitching PAR, which was an incredible 75% of the team's total Pitching PAR of 36.1.  Needless to say, the Kings would not have been champions without either of these guys.

    As expected, the Cy Young vote was kind of all over the place as there were a whole bunch of players who made compelling cases.  Scherzer did win by a decent margin, but was far from unanimous.  He received seven first place votes, two seconds and a third for a point total of 89.  He was the only pitcher to appear on all ten ballots.  Finishing second was Cougars lefty, and 2018 DTBL Rookie of the Year, Blake Snell.  Snell received nine votes, including two firsts and two seconds, for 53 points.  The league's win leader had quite a rookie campaign and now adds a second place finish for the Cy Young to his resume.  Verlander finished right behind Snell.  He was the third and final player to receive a first place vote (one) and had a pair of second place votes as well.  Like Snell, he appeared on nine of ten ballots and totaled 42 points.  Coming in fourth was the most interesting case of the year, Darkhorses ace Jacob deGrom.  I think most people would agree that deGrom was the best pitcher in baseball this season, compiling a ridiculous 1.70 ERA, which was the fourth best mark in league history.  But wins do matter in fantasy baseball and he only had 10 of them.  He received a second place vote and racked up 32 points.  Those four were well ahead of the rest, but several other pitchers received strong consideration as well.  Moonshiners reliever Edwin Diaz only received three votes, but two of them were second place nods, so he finished fifth in the voting with 15 points.  Diaz appeared to be well on his way to breaking the league's single season save record.  But his pace slowed a bit down the stretch and he finished with 57 saves, falling five short of Francisco Rodriguez's total ten years ago.  57 did put him in the second spot on the single season saves list though.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    On Tuesday, I plan to announce the third and final award:  Most Valuable Player.  Like the Cy Young, there appear to be plenty of strong contenders for MVP, so expect to see a similar scattering of votes.  Until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

  • Snell Snags Rookie Honor

    Embed from Getty Images 2018 was a strong year for first year DTBL pitchers, particularly ones that were not near the top of most teams' draft lists.  But one stood out among the rest.  Blake Snell overcame his modest draft stock and his status on a MLB team that was at the forefront of "bullpenning" to become a front line starting pitcher.  The Rays lefty won the American League Cy Young award earlier this week and will have a shot at winning that same award in the DTBL as well.  The Cougars managed to turn their tenth round draft pick into the top rookie in the league this season.  By unanimous decision, Blake Snell is the 2018 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    Snell's 2018 campaign is on the short list of greatest rookie pitching campaigns in DTBL history.  He led the entire league with 21 wins, trailed only Jacob deGrom in ERA (1.89) and finished in the top five in WHIP (0.974) as well.  He also struck out 221 hitters in just 180 2/3 innings pitched.  He posted a 12.6 PAR, ranking third among all pitchers and just 1.4 points behind the league leader.  The only past rookie with very similar numbers across the board was Jake Arrieta who won both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young in 2015.  But Arrieta was a 29 year old veteran at that time.  Snell is just 25 and figures to have a lot more peak seasons ahead of him.  Will Snell repeat Arrieta's feat of the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young double?  Stay tuned.  He has a chance.

    The Cougars absolutely stole Snell in the 10th round of this year's draft.  97 players, including 22 starting pitchers, were selected ahead of Snell.  This is the second straight year that the Rookie of the Year award has gone to a player overlooked by almost everybody.  Aaron Judge won the award after going undrafted a year ago.  The Cougars now have two of the past three winners of this award, joining Kris Bryant who took home the honor in 2016.  Snell was easily their best pitcher this season, helping make up for disappointing and injury riddled seasons from their previous staff aces Madison Bumgarner and Chris Archer.  If Bumgarner can return to form next year, the Cougars could have a very strong top of the rotation with Bumgarner, Snell and another nice draft pick, sixth rounder Jameson Taillon.

    While this was a pretty strong rookie class, particularly in the pitching ranks, Snell was the easy choice for this award.  He received all ten first place votes, the third unanimous winner of the award in the past four years.  Coming in second was a player who was actually playing for his second DTBL team, Jackalope fireballer Luis Severino.  Severino was draft by the Naturals back in 2016, but did not make an appearance on their major league roster, preserving his rookie eligibility.  He had a dominant season, striking out 220 with 19 wins, which also rank quite highly on the all-time rookie lists.  But the overall numbers weren't quite at Snell's level.  Severino appeared on all ten ballots, receiving six second place votes to finish with 60 points.  Just behind him was the best rookie hitter, Choppers second baseman Whit Merrifield.  Merrifield was picked right after Severino in the draft as well, fourth overall.  He posted a somewhat quiet 6.8 PAR season on the strength of a .304 average and a league leading 45 steals.  Merrifield was the third and final player to appear on all ten ballots, including four second place votes for a point total of 52.  There was a pretty big drop-off in the voting after those three.  Coming next, in a tie for fourth place were Naturals pitcher Mike Clevinger and Mavericks second baseman Ozzie Albies.  Clevinger was actually drafted even later than Snell, in the eleventh round.  He joined his Indians teammate Carlos Carrasco as the Naturals best pitchers this season.  Meanwhile, Albies turned in a nice rookie campaign, rewarding the Mavericks for selecting him with the last pick of the first round.  Clevinger and Albies each received a single third place vote on their way to compiling 12 total points.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    The tentative schedule for the announcements of the other two awards are Sunday for Cy Young and next Tuesday for Most Valuable Player.  Neither of those awards figure to be as lopsided in the voting as this one was, so be sure to check out those results.  I know there were a few technical glitches in the voting this year, so I apologize for that.  Hopefully cleaning up the voting process will be one of many enhancements I make this offseason.

  • Kings Enter Seventh Heaven

    Embed from Getty Images
    The past seven seasons have been a roller coaster ride for the Kings.  During that span, they have reached the top of the summit multiple times and the depths of the valley as well, with little in between.  Two seasons ago, they made the improbable jump to winning a league championship just a year removed from finishing dead last.  Last year, they dropped all the way down to ninth place.  But this season, they pulled off another improbable rebound, winning the championship for a record extending seventh time.  Kevin’s Kings are the 2018 Dream Team Baseball League Champions.

    At the halfway mark of the season, it looked like a forgone conclusion that the Kings would win the league.  They had a double digit advantage through most of the first half.  But then they started to cool off in July and August, briefly losing the lead in early September.  Fortunately for them, the bats caught fire in mid-September, just in time to hold off an impressive charge by the Darkhorses.  There was still some doubt heading into the final days of the season, but in the end, the Kings held on to win by 2 1/2 points.  The Demigods and Choppers also finished in shouting distance, 9 and 12 1/2 points back respectively.

    Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were three of the best players in baseball this season.  That is almost indisputable.  Having the three of them put together those amazing seasons for the same team would obviously make you think that team was pretty good.  In this case, those three were almost the only reasons why the Kings won the league.  The Kings probably had more players who failed to meet expectations, due to injuries or poor performances, than those who exceeded expectations.  But Betts, Scherzer and Verlander were so good that it didn’t matter.

    Betts finished the season with 11.3 PAR and would have led the league if not for a red hot stretch run by Christian Yelich.  His 2018 was almost identical to his 2016 campaign, which produced a MVP award and also another championship for the Kings.  Betts joined the 30/30 club for the first time this year, reaching career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (30).  He also won the batting title, hitting .346, and tied Francisco Lindor for the league lead in runs scored with 129.  It was an all-around great season for Betts who will be a strong contender to win his second MVP award.

    Scherzer and Verlander have been leading the Kings pitching staff for many years.  They are both former Cy Young award winners and have each had several elite seasons in the past.  But this was easily their best combined campaign as Kings teammates.  They finished first and second in the league in pitching PAR (14.0 for Scherzer, 13.0 for Verlander) and had very similar stat lines across the board.  Scherzer:  2.53 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 18 wins, 300 strikeouts.  Verlander:  2.52 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 16 wins, 290 strikeouts.  Here are their league ranks in those four categories:  ERA – 6th/7th, WHIP – 2nd/3rd, W – 4th/9th, K – 1st/2nd.  Scherzer joins Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw as the only pitchers to reach 300 strikeouts since 2002.  Verlander smashed his career high in that category as well and had his best overall season since winning the Cy Young in 2011 with one of the all-time great pitching seasons.

    Hardly any other Kings players are even worth mentioning beyond those three.  Rhys Hoskins, the second overall pick in this year’s draft, had a solid rookie campaign.  But he was the only Kings position player besides Betts to top 4 PAR.  Second round pick Matt Olson was decent as well.  A.J. Pollock was solid when healthy, but once again missed significant time due to injuries.  Betts was the only Kings player to finish in the top 10 of any offensive category.  He was almost literally a one man show with the bat.  This is the second straight year that a team has won the league with just 29 batting points.  But unlike the star-studded ’17 Mavericks, the Kings got to that number on the back of just one superstar.

    The pitching staff was a little more well-rounded, leading the league with 43 1/2 pitching points.  But again, Scherzer and Verlander were responsible for most of that.  The rest of the rotation was a revolving door of guys who were okay, but not great.  Lance McCullers and Eduardo Rodriguez were having nice seasons before they got hurt.  Kevin Gausman proved to be a solid pickup in the second half.  The bullpen was rock solid in the first half of the year, but was decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness down the stretch.  Sean Doolittle was easily their best reliever over the course of the season, but even he missed a couple months with a foot injury.

    So how exactly did the Kings win the league with so few great performances?  Well, to be honest, they got a little lucky.  The league as a whole was not terribly strong this season.  I may cover this in another season recap article, but the league-wide PAR was below 400 for the first time in any season I’ve calculated to date.  Granted, that should go up when I do the off-season update to incorporate 2018 numbers into the calculations.  There are several reasons why this number was so low.  But it does shine some light on how the Kings were able to win with less than spectacular numbers across the board.  I believe the Kings dominant first half played a significant role as well, potentially leading other teams to feel like they were out of the race by the start of summer.  Had a couple teams been more aggressive in those summer months, the Kings could have been in big trouble down the stretch.  This will not go down as one of the all-time great championship teams.  But you know what?  Championship pennants fly forever.  And now the Kings have seven of them.  No other team has won more than four.

  • Kings, Darkhorses Vie For Title

    Embed from Getty Images As usual, I have gotten lazy with my DTBL News articles as the season has worn on.  I thought about skipping this one altogether, but decided it would be good to get a least some of the following out of the way before the season ends.  Scroll to the bottom of the article if you have been waiting weeks to find out who the best players of August were, as we near the end of September.  But first, a brief look at what is in store for the final weekend of the season.

    The Kings have been in first place all but four days this season.  The only time they were lower than second place was the day after Opening Day.  They held a share of the lead every single day from April 18 through September 16.  And yet, with just three full days remaining on the calendar, they are hardly a sure thing to win their seventh DTBL Championship.  They dominated the league for the first three months, but faded badly in July and especially August.  It was not a huge surprise when the Darkhorses finally caught them a couple weeks ago.  But the Kings picked a good time to get hot again as their offense has had its best stretch in several months over the past week or so.  With one weekend to go, the Kings lead over the Darkhorses is four points.  That is, by no means, a safe lead.

    The final week began with the Kings leading the Darkhorses by 1 1/2 points.  The Demigods were just five back and the Choppers were in striking distance as well, seven points behind.  But since then, the Kings have picked up 3 1/2 points and have increased their lead over all of the challengers.  I think it is safe to say that the Choppers and Demigods are probably out of it now, barring something miraculous.  But the Darkhorses have several paths to claiming the title.

    The categories that present the best opportunities for the Darkhorses to pick up points are batting average, ERA and maybe home runs.  If Jacob deGrom were slated to pitch one more time, I might have thrown strikeouts in there too.  But realistically, 71-72 points is probably the Darkhorses' ceiling.  In other words, they are going to need a little help as the Kings sit at 73 points.  But the Kings could very easily spit back some points they've gained this week.  They are very vulnerable in home runs, RBIs and ERA.  The game I will have my eye on will be Jon Gray facing a resurgent Nationals offense at Coors Field on Saturday night.  If Gray were to get lit up, a loss of an ERA point would be very possible for the Kings.  On the flip side, the Kings have some suddenly hot power hitters, like David Dahl and A.J. Pollock.  The Darkhorses will be rooting for a power outage from the Kings this weekend.

    Keep in mind that our league does count stats from tie-breaker games.  There is a very good chance that at least one tie-breaker will be required to settle the National League playoff races.  So this thing may not be over on Sunday.  However, no roster moves will be processed before Monday, so the current active rosters will remain in effect until the season is officially over.  If the championship remains up for grabs on Monday, I'll be live blogging the action.

    Now it is time to play catch-up on all of the weekly and monthly awards I missed.  Since I'm so late with these, I'm not going to bother with write-ups.  But here are the weekly award winners from August and September (so far).

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 19 (7/30 - 8/5) - Matt Carpenter, Choppers Week 20 (8/6 - 8/12) - J.D. Martinez, Demigods Week 21 (8/13 - 8/19) - Justin Turner, Darkhorses Week 22 (8/20 - 8/26) - Javier Baez, Mavericks Week 23 (8/27 - 9/2) - Christian Yelich, Darkhorses Week 24 (9/3 - 9/9) - Trevor Story, Cougars Week 25 (9/10 - 9/16) - Whit Merrifield, Choppers Week 26 (9/17 - 9/23) - Tommy Pham, Cougars

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 19 (7/30 - 8/5) - Jon Gray, Kings Week 20 (8/6 - 8/12) - Trevor Bauer, Choppers Week 21 (8/13 - 8/19) - Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses Week 22 (8/20 - 8/26) - Kevin Gausman, Kings Week 23 (8/27 - 9/2) - Corey Kluber, Demigods Week 24 (9/3 - 9/9) - Robbie Ray, Moonshiners Week 25 (9/10 - 9/16) - Justin Verlander, Kings Week 26 (9/17 - 9/23) - Hyun-Jin Ryu, Choppers

    And now, here are the Batter and Pitcher of the Month from August 2018.

    Batter of the Month:

    Matt Carpenter, Choppers J.D. Martinez, Demigods .373 AVG, 7 HR, 25 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.69 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses 1.24 ERA, 0.985 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 60 K, 3.29 PAR

    FYI, Carpenter Martinez just barely edged out the Darkhorses' Christian Yelich, who is probably a strong contender for this award again in September.  Speaking of guys who are strong contenders for September honors, deGrom's unbelievable '18 season was finally rewarded in August.

    It should be an exciting final weekend, both in the DTBL and MLB.  May the best teams win!

    TWO YEARS LATER EDIT:  When going through these articles to retroactively populate the honors table with past monthly award winners, I discovered I completely botched this one.  J.D. Martinez was the actual Player of the Month for August 2018.  My spreadsheet of monthly stats clearly states that, and I verified that the stat line above matches what Martinez produced in 8/18, not Carpenter.  I do not know how I got this wrong.

  • Four DTBL Legends Enshrined

    Embed from Getty Images One of the cool things about the longevity of this league is that now most of the newly inducted members in the Baseball Hall of Fame are players who accumulated most of their Hall of Fame credentials as members of DTBL teams.  This has been the case for a while, but some year's classes carry more significance to this league than others.  The 2018 class featured four of the best players in our league's history:  Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome.  Also inducted were Alan Trammell and Jack Morris.  Trammell played until 1996, but was never on a DTBL major league roster.  Morris had a brief, unimpressive stint with the Gators in the league's inaugural season.  But here is a synopsis of the DTBL careers of the big four who were inducted in Cooperstown the last week of July.

    Vladimir Guerrero was originally drafted by the expansion Angels in 1998 and was a member of that team for their only season of existence.  He then returned to the draft pool the following year and somehow fell all the way to the Choppers with the 8th pick of the 1999 draft.  Needless to say, that pick worked out pretty well for them.  He spent the remaining 13 seasons of his DTBL career with the Choppers, winning a championship in his first season with them (1999).  Guerrero ranks sixth in DTBL history with a .319 average and is in the top 10 in RBI as well (1,415).  His name is littered all over the Choppers franchise leaderboard:  second in average (.319), RBI (1,306) and runs (1,130), third in home runs (390) and sixth in stolen bases (165).  Not everyone recalls his base stealing prowess.  There are 16 DTBL players with 400 home runs (Adrian Beltre just recently joined this group).  Of those 16 guys, only Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield have more than Guerrero's 176 career steals.  Vlad was as consistent of a hitter as the league has ever seen.  In his first nine seasons, he hit over .300 with 30+ homers and 100+ RBI in all but one year (2003).  In seasons in which he qualified for the batting title (400 at bats) his *worst* batting average was .300 in 2010.

    In the history of baseball, only one pitcher has recorded more saves than Trevor Hoffman (Mariano Rivera).  The same is true of DTBL history.  His 560 saves is 136 more than any pitcher not named Rivera, so he figures to hold onto the second spot for quite some time to come.  Unlike the other three players covered here, Hoffman doesn't have an obvious choice of team cap to wear on his fictional DTBL Hall of Fame plaque.  He spent time with six different franchises.  His longest tenures were five seasons with two different teams:  Panthers (1997-2001) and Moonshiners (2004-2008).  He started his career with the Kings (1995-1997), spent two stints with the Darkhorses (2002-2003, 2009) and split his final season (2010) with the Mavericks and Naturals.  He is the Moonshiners franchise leader in saves (202) and ranks third on the Panthers list (191).  Hoffman recorded at least 30 saves every year from 1995 through 2008, except for an injury marred 2003.  In addition to the gaudy save totals, he also struck out 948 batters, which ranks fourth among pitchers who spent their entire careers in the bullpen.  His 2.78 career ERA ranks fourth among all pitchers.  He was a member of two DTBL championship winning teams, near the end of his career:  the 2009 Darkhorses and 2010 Naturals.

    Chipper Jones was a slugging third baseman in an era when that wasn't really a thing.  It is basically him and Adrian Beltre at the top of all of the DTBL third baseman hitting rankings.  Most of his best seasons were spent as a member of the Jackalope.  He started his career with the Tidal Wave and was with them for both of their years of existence.  Then he joined another expansion team, the Jackalope, as their first pick in 1998.  He was released by the Jackalope after a decent 2006 season and added a couple more solid years with the Darkhorses in 2007 through 2009.  His final three seasons saw him bounce from the Cougars to the Mavericks and then back to the Darkhorses.  It was the Jackalope years that really made him a Hall of Fame player though.  With them, he hit .310 with 276 home runs, 874 RBI and 868 runs, all four totals rank in the top four of Jackalope history.  His career numbers also put him in elite company:  .308, 411 HR, 1,422 RBI, 1,414 runs.  The only other members of the .300/400/1,400/1,400 club are Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and Albert Pujols.  While Jones' best seasons were with the Jackalope, his championship winning years came with the Darkhorses.  He was a member of the Darkhorses for the first three of their four consecutive titles (2007-2009).  He was a teammate of Hoffman's on that 2009 squad.

    Finally, we have Jim Thome, one of the most feared sluggers of the past quarter century.  Thome ranks fourth on the DTBL career list in home runs (546) and fifth in runs batted in (1,492).  No current member of the Baseball Hall of Fame has accumulated more DTBL home runs or RBI than Thome.  He is one of the few sluggers at the top of those lists without any PED taint.  He spent his entire DTBL career with just two teams.  Thome was originally a member of the Kings, but is best remembered as a member of the Choppers, who acquired him in the second round of the 1999 draft.  Yes, the Choppers selected Hall of Famers in the first two rounds of that '99 draft.  He spent 11 seasons with the Choppers (1999-2009), which was surrounded by a pair of stints with the Kings (1995-1998, 2010).  With the Choppers, he amassed 401 home runs, bested only by Sammy Sosa.  His 1,094 RBI and 976 runs both rank fourth in Choppers history.  Thome hit at least 40 home runs in six different seasons.  Probably the best season of his career came in 2002 when he slugged a career high 52 homers with a .304 average.  From 1999 through 2003, he hit at least 30 home runs with 100+ RBI and runs each year.  His lone DTBL championship came in his first season with the Choppers, 1999, when he was a teammate of Guerrero's.  Coincidentally, all four of these new Hall-of-Famers were members of either the 1999 Choppers or 2009 Darkhorses.

    Congratulations to four of the greatest players in DTBL history:  Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome!

    Now here are the weekly and monthly award winners for July 2018.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 15 (7/2 - 7/8) - Yulieski Gurriel, Demigods Week 16 (7/9 - 7/15) - Jose Ramirez, Komodos Week 17 (7/16 - 7/22) - Matt Carpenter, Choppers Week 18 (7/23 - 7/29) - Jonathan Schoop, Mavericks

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 15 (7/2 - 7/8) - Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners Week 16 (7/9 - 7/15) - Aaron Nola, Demigods Week 17 (7/16 - 7/22) - Zack Greinke, Moonshiners Week 18 (7/23 - 7/29) - Rick Porcello, Cougars

    Compiling the information above exposed a bit of a flaw in my code that captures the Batter and Pitcher of the Week winners each week.  In two instances, the above players were not the ones I captured.  Instead, I had players who weren't on an active DTBL roster at the time.  This has happened before, but I don't recall seeing two instances of it in the same month.  I should probably take some time to fix this.  Anyway, because I don't store weekly PAR numbers beyond the top batter and pitcher, I had to take a guess at who should have won these awards.  So it is quite possible that Yulieski Gurriel and Rick Porcello were not the rightful winners in their respective weeks.  What is certain is the accuracy of the monthly PAR totals for July.  Here are the players of the month.

    Batter of the Month:

    Jose Ramirez, Komodos .322 AVG, 8 HR, 25 RBI, 21 R, 11 SB, 3.55 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Zack Greinke, Moonshiners 1.60 ERA, 0.891 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 35 K, 2.61 PAR

    When I see eye-popping numbers in all five categories, I often will run a Baseball Reference Play Index search to see if any other players in DTBL history have matched or exceeded all of the monthly numbers compiled by the batter or pitcher of the month.  In this case, Jose Ramirez's July, I found no results.  So, prior to July, no DTBL player had ever hit .322+ with 8+ home runs, 25+ RBI, 21+ runs and 11+ stolen bases in a single month.  These numbers were especially impressive coming in July with the All-Star break taking away a couple additional games played.  Ramirez is currently leading the DTBL in Batting PAR and home runs.  He is second in stolen bases and not far behind the leaders in RBI and runs either.  The Komodos third baseman has a strong case for MVP if he continues to be a five category force.  Ramirez won this award in a landslide, but finishing second was his Indians teammate Francisco Lindor.

    Zack Grienke is quietly compiling another great season to add to his impressive career resume.  When discussing the top pitchers of the game today, Greinke is rarely mentioned.  But he is posting a sub 3.00 ERA with a dozen wins and more than a strikeout per inning.  In July, Greinke tied for the league lead with four wins while compiling a 1.60 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.  With the recently added 2005 PAR numbers, Greinke's entire career PAR has been calculated.  Since 2005, only three other pitchers (Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer) have exceeded his 79.0 PAR.  Greinke just barely edged out Chris Sale for this monthly honor.

  • Lindor Caps Epic Comeback

    Embed from Getty Images On paper, the National Division appeared to be the stronger squad in the 25th Annual DTBL All-Star Game.  But it took a comeback for the ages for them to prove it.  The American Division broke out to a 7-0 lead in the game's first two innings and maintained a six run advantage at the seventh inning stretch.  But then the script flipped and the National All-Stars stormed back.  Francisco Lindor completed the comeback with a go-ahead two run homer in the bottom of the 8th.  The National Division won the silver anniversary mid-summer classic at Kings Park by a final score of 8-7.

    The game could not have gotten off to a much better start for the American Division.  Facing Corey Kluber in the top of the first, the American team scored three runs.  Paul Goldschmidt started the scoring with a two run home run, knocking in Jean Segura who had singled to start the game.  Giancarlo Stanton followed the Goldschmidt blast with a single and reached third on a double by Eddie Rosario.  Nelson Cruz knocked in Stanton on a groundout to give the American squad a three run lead before the National Division stepped to the plate against American starting pitcher Luis Severino.

    Things appeared to unravel for the National team in the top of the second with Max Scherzer on the mound.  Whit Merrifield reached on an error by National shortstop Javy Baez.  A Jose Ramirez single and Goldschmidt walk loaded the bases with two outs for Stanton.  On an 0-2 pitch, Stanton launched an opposite field grand slam home run, increasing the lead to 7-0.  All four runs were unearned.

    The American Division seemed to have this game under control.  Severino completed two solid, scoreless innings.  The National All-Stars did get one back in the third off of Chris Sale though, on another opposite field home run.  Manny Machado's blast to right cut the lead to 7-1.  That would be it for the scoring until the seventh as both teams scattered a few hits but never really mounted any great scoring opportunities.  In the top of the seventh, Brad Hand hit the first batter he faced, but then struck out the next three hitters to send the game to the seventh inning stretch.  That's when everything changed.

    Craig Kimbrel came on to pitch for the American Division and promptly walked Aaron Judge.  Then Freddie Freeman hit yet another opposite field home run.  Like Stanton's grand slam, this Freeman blast came on an 0-2 pitch.  Lindor followed with an impressive nine pitch walk.  After a one out single by Jose Altuve, Kimbrel was relieved of his duties.  In came Josh Hader.  His rough week continued.  Mookie Betts greeted Hader with a three run home run to center, capping off a five run inning that cut the American lead to one run.

    Sean Doolittle pitched a perfect top of the eighth with a pair of strikeouts, allowing the National All-Stars to maintain their momentum.  In came Aroldis Chapman to try to protect the one run advantage.  He did not.  Aaron Judge reached on a walk for the second time in the game.  With two outs and a runner on first, Lindor came up to the plate to face Chapman.  He launched a two run homer to left, completing the epic comeback and giving the National Division an 8-7 lead.

    Kenley Jansen got the call for the National squad in the ninth and retired the side in order to close out the stunning victory for the National Division.  Doolittle was credited with the win, Chapman took the loss and Jansen recorded the save.  Lindor was named the game's Most Valuable Player, mainly on the strength of his game winning homer.  But the Demigods shortstop also played a role in the big seventh inning with a key walk.

    There were six home runs hit in the game, four for the National and two for the American.  14 of the 15 runs in the game were knocked in on home runs.  As has been the norm in DTBL All-Star Games in recent years, there were lots and lots of strikeouts.  National pitchers struck out an incredible 20 American hitters.  American pitchers recorded 11 strikeouts too.  Amazingly, no individual hitter struck out more than twice.  But of the 14 American hitters who played in this game, Segura was the only one who didn't fan.

    Not to be overlooked was the impressive pitching by the National squad after the first two innings.  In the final seven frames, National pitchers allowed just three hits, no runs, one walk and 17 strikeouts.  The only base-runner of the final four innings for the American team was via a hit by pitch.  Perhaps the most notable performance came from Blake Treinen, who struck out all three hitters he faced.

    This was the third straight All-Star Game victory for the National Division.  They now hold a 14-11 lead in the all-time series.  Click here to check out the box score from the 25th edition of the DTBL Al-Star Game.