DTBL News

Author: Kevin

  • Watch DTBL ASG Live!

    National Division starting pitcher Justin Verlander

    The 18th Annual DTBL All-Star Game is going on right now at Jackalope Stadium, home of Jay’s Jackalope.  For the first time ever, you can watch the American Division take on the National Division live by viewing the DTBL LiveStream channel.

    Click here to check it out!

  • 2011 DTBL All-Stars

    Jose Bautista highlights a loaded American roster.

    Sorry I’m a few days late with this, but I’m finally ready to announce the 2011 DTBL All-Stars.  The 18th annual DTBL All-Star Game is tentatively scheduled for next Friday, July 15 at 10 p.m. EDT, 7 p.m. PDT.  As mentioned a few days ago, the game will be live video-streamed here.

    For the second straight year, the American Division will be managed by Nick while Dave will call the shots for the National Division.  Perhaps there will be a little extra drama involved in this matchup as Nick and Dave try to claim final bragging rights from their championship tie a year ago.  They broke all ties in voting and chose the 23rd player for their rosters.  For the first time in  league history, there was a team without any representation on the initial All-Star roster.  Therefore, Nick was forced to use his 23rd player slot to make sure the Gators received a bid.  He chose third baseman Johnny Peralta, who wasn’t even on the All-Star ballot (also a first).  Peralta had fewer at bats than Danny Valencia at the time I created the list, which kept him off the ballot.  Dave was able to use his 23rd slot with a more conventional pick, David Ortiz.

    The American Division appears to have the stronger roster, which is not surprising considering they hold four of the top five spots in the standings.  Their rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Jered Weaver, Felix Hernandez and Dan Haren is about as good as you can get (all but Haren were Jackalope a year ago).  Meanwhile, the National team is loaded with Kings.  10 of the 23 players are from the Kings roster, which isn’t terribly surprising since they are the division’s lone contender so far this year.

    Here are the 2011 DTBL All-Stars:

    American Division

    Starters:

    • P – Roy Halladay, Jackalope
    • C – Brian McCann, Jackalope
    • 1B – Prince Fielder,  Moonshiners
    • 2B – Rickie Weeks, Naturals
    • 3B – Adrian Beltre, Choppers
    • SS – Asdrubal Cabrera, Naturals
    • OF – Jose Bautista, Choppers
    • OF – Ryan Braun, Jackalope
    • OF – Curtis Granderson, Choppers

    Reserves:

    • C – Victor Martinez, Naturals
    • 1B – Paul Konerko, Moonshiners
    • 3B – Johnny Peralta, Gators
    • SS – Troy Tulowitzki, Naturals
    • OF – Hunter Pence, Jackalope
    • OF – Justin Upton, Naturals
    • P – Cliff Lee, Jackalope
    • P – Jered Weaver, Moonshiners
    • P – Felix Hernandez, Jackalope
    • P – Dan Haren, Moonshiners
    • RP – Craig Kimbrel, Choppers
    • RP – Heath Bell, Jackalope
    • RP – Mariano Rivera, Choppers
    • RP – Drew Storen, Moonshiners

    National Division

    Starters:

    • P – Justin Verlander, Kings
    • C – Miguel Montero,  Kings
    • 1B – Adrian Gonzalez, Darkhorses
    • 2B – Robinson Cano, Kings
    • 3B – Alex Rodriguez, Kings
    • SS – Jose Reyes, Kings
    • OF – Matt Kemp, Demigods
    • OF – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings
    • OF – Jacoby Ellsbury, Darkhorses

    Reserves:

    • C – Carlos Santana, Mavericks
    • 1B – Mark Teixeira, Cougars
    • 1B – David Ortiz, Demigods
    • 2B – Brandon Phillips, Cougars
    • OF – Jay Bruce, Kings
    • OF – Matt Holliday, Darkhorses
    • P – Cole Hamels, Demigods
    • P – James Shields, Darkhorses
    • P – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    • P – Tommy Hanson, Kings
    • RP – Joel Hanrahan, Cougars
    • RP – Francisco Cordero, Kings
    • RP – Brian Wilson, Darkhorses
    • RP – J.J. Putz, Kings

    Click here to view the full voting results.

  • All-Star Game Live!

    I am excited to announce a new twist to the DTBL All-Star Game.  For the first time since the days when we used to all gather at someone’s house for the All-Star Game, you will be able to follow the action live with your own eyes and ears.  There will be a live video stream of the game available on a LiveStream channel I created a few days ago.  I downloaded software from LiveStream which allows me to stream my PC desktop to this channel.  So you will be able to see what is going on within my Out of the Park baseball sim game as I play it out on my computer.

    I did some preliminary testing of this and I was pretty happy with it.  If you are expecting a professional, HD broadcast, you are in for a a disappointment though.  The video feed is a little blurry, and the only way I was able to read the game’s play-by-play was by putting the video into full screen mode.  But you should be able to get the gist of what is going on even in standard mode, particularly since I will be providing my own play-by-play which will accompany the video.  At the very least, you should get to enjoy me making a fool out of myself.  I’ve set a pretty high bar for myself in the past, but this has strong potential to be the nerdiest thing I’ve ever done.

    The actual date and time of the 18th annual DTBL All-Star Game is still TBD.  Dave and Nick will be managing their respective divisions, so I will have to check with them to find out their availability.  They will be able to communicate their in-game managerial decisions to me using the chatroom that is part of the LiveStream channel.  I invite the rest of you to join in on the conversation as well.  It should be interesting and mildly entertaining.  Even if you aren’t able to join us live, the video will be available on-demand on the LS channel following the game.

    There will be a lot more to come soon about the All-Star Game, including the rosters, lineups and a link to the actual video channel.  The All-Star rosters may be announced as early as Monday.  In the meantime, have a great Independence Day weekend!

  • Pujols-less Jackalope Keep Rolling

    Injured Jackalope Star Albert Pujols

    One of the big stories of the 2011 season has been the rash of injuries to corner infielders, particular for the top contending teams.  Perhaps the biggest blow came last week when the Jackalope lost their All-World first baseman Albert Pujols to a fractured forearm.  This injury will probably put him on the shelf until sometime in August.  In the mean time, the Jackalope’s strong hold on first place will be put to the test.

    The Jackalope currently lead the league by a comfortable 13 points.  They have perfectly positioned themselves to be able to survive injuries, even this one to their most valuable player.  In years past, the Jackalope almost solely relied on Pujols to carry their offense.  But that has not been the case this season.  They have accumulated a very solid 37 batting points despite Pujols not quite putting up his usual MVP-worthy numbers.  Of course, losing him for a couple months weakens their offense, but I believe they are still in great shape.

    The off-season focus on rebuilding the offense may really pay off now.  With Ryan Howard and Mike Stanton on board, the Jackalope do have some other guys to turn to for some power.  Those two players were the direct result of a couple bold trades which sent elite starting pitchers elsewhere.  The Jackalope pitching hasn’t missed a beat though as they are currently first or second in every pitching category.

    The other thing the Jackalope have going for them is that they aren’t the only contending team fighting significant injury issues.  The second place Kings learned yesterday that first baseman Justin Morneau needs neck surgery, and he too will likely be out until August.  They also lost a pair of starting pitchers (Tommy Hanson and Clay Buchholz) to the DL last week, although neither are expected to miss much time.  The Kings have been the hottest team in the league over the past month, despite a complete lack of production from the usual power position of first base.  Morneau and Adam LaRoche were supposed to anchor that position, but both were ineffective and now injured.  LaRoche is out for the year and has been released.  On the other side of the infield, the Kings have had a pair of third basemen spend significant time on the disabled list.  Ryan Zimmerman is back, but David Freese remains out.

    Third base has been an especially troubling position for the third place team, the Moonshiners.  Almost every week, the Moonshiners have had to call on someone new to fill the hot corner position.  Losing David Wright to an injury has been very costly as his replacements have been completely ineffective.  Next in line are the Naturals, who are also missing their top third baseman, first round pick Pedro Alvarez.  Like the Moonshiners, the Naturals have had a hard time trying to find a worthy player to fill that spot.  With all these injuries to corner infielders, there is basically nothing left to choose from in the free agent market.

    So while the Pujols injury is very significant, the Jackalope have a great chance of holding their lead since their closest competitors have equal or greater injury problems of their own.  I didn’t even get to the teams lower in the standings who have been absolutely decimated by injuries.  It has been a war of attrition so far this year, and the Jackalope are winning that battle.

  • My Realignment Plan

    Will Hunter Pence and the Astros be playing in the AL soon?

    One of the hot topics in baseball the last couple weeks has been the suggestion of possible realignment to even out the leagues to 15 teams each.  Although I am a bit of a baseball purist and generally do not like change, I support this idea if it is done correctly.  Here is the plan I have come up with in my own head.

    Ever since the expansion to 30 teams in 1998, the National League has had two more teams than the American League.  For a while, I considered this to be payback for the days of my childhood when it was the American League that had the two extra teams.  Obviously, the reason for the uneven balance between the two leagues is because interleague games would need to be scheduled throughout the entire season if each league had an odd number of teams.  But sine we are about 15 years into interleague play, and it appears to be a permanent fixture at this point, I don’t see it is a bad thing to spread these games throughout the entire season.  For me, the positives outweigh this one negative.

    The primary reason for realignment would be to create a more balanced system and a leveling of the playing field.  With just four teams in the AL West, logic dictates that those teams have a better chance at winning their division each season than do the six teams in the NL Central.  Similarly, all American League teams have less competition when it comes to the Wild Card race.  The NL Central part of this story has been somewhat nullified by the fact that the Pirates pretty much don’t count when it comes to yearly contenders in that division.  So for me, the advantages of the AL West teams is the most unfair thing about the current system.

    So what should be done?  Most of the realignment rumors have been focused on the Astros moving to the AL West.  The Diamondbacks have also been mentioned, but that would mean the Astros would need to shift to the NL West as well.  So the way to make this work with the least amount of change would be the Astros switching leagues.  Personally, I would prefer to see the Brewers move back to the AL Central and then ship the Royals to the West.  But as long as Bud Selig is around, there is no chance of that happening.  I would put the ball in the Astros court and give them the decision:  stay in the National League but move to the West where they would have no obvious division rival, or move to the AL West and create an intriguing division rivalry with the Rangers.  If they choose to stay in the NL, the Diamondbacks would move to the AL West.

    Next is the matter of the schedule.  Interleague games would need to be scheduled throughout the entire season, but this is doable while keeping the number of interleague games the same as it is right now.  Some people have argued that it wouldn’t be good to have teams playing interleague games in September during pennant races.  While that may be true, there are always plenty of interleague games between likely non-contenders anyway, so why not shift a few of these to the last weeks of the season?  Does it really matter if the Pirates are playing the Orioles in the last week of the season instead of June?  It’s not going to be a compelling matchup at any point in the season, so why not have them play each other in meaningless September games?  Keep in mind that there would only need to be one team from each league playing an interleague series at any given time, so the number of teams that would need to play interleague games down the stretch would be minimal.  Also, I don’t think compelling interleague games in August or September would be a bad thing.  Can you imagine how big a Sox/Cubs or Yankees/Mets series in late August could be if one or both teams are in contention?

    While I’m on the topic of interleague play, I would like to see one other change made.  I think the natural geographic rivalries should continue to be played every season, but I would scale it back to one series per year.  I think we have reached a point where these games aren’t nearly as big as they once were, and part of that is because of how often they play each other now.  Sure, they still draw big crowds, but the overall excitement and buzz about these games isn’t like it used to be.  I think scaling it back to one series a year could fix that.  Plus, it would reduce some of the current issues with teams benefiting from playing much easier interleague schedules than their division rivals.  The other problem with the current system is that these geographic rivals are playing as many games against each other as they are against some teams in their own league.  That has never seemed right to me.

    With all six divisions having five teams, a system could be set up where each team plays one series against every team from one of the divisions in the other league, plus that one series against their natural rival.  So now teams would be playing almost the identical interleague schedule as their division rivals.  The division matchups would be rotated every year, so every team would be guaranteed to play every team in the other league every third year (and every six years at home).  In this system, the natural rivals could continue to play a pair of series against each other on those third years when their divisions are scheduled to meet up anyway.  But otherwise, it would be just one series per year.  I think this setup makes a lot more sense than the current interleague schedule, which seems to be completely random outside of the geographic rivalries.

    Some more radical realignment plans have suggested the abolishing of divisions.  All 15 teams in the league would be grouped together with the top four (or five, or six) teams making the playoffs.  I do not support this idea.  First, I think division titles are meaningful accomplishments, so getting rid of them would just give teams one less thing to play for.  No, a division championship shouldn’t be a teams ultimate goal, but it is still a notable achievement.  But more importantly, getting rid of divisions would take away from a lot of existing rivalries and create travel nightmares for some teams who would have to make more frequent cross-country road trips in a balanced schedule scenario.  Having said that, I would be in favor of slightly reducing the number of games played against division teams in order to get a few more games against the other teams in the league.  My plan would call for 14 games against teams in the same division (down from the current 18) and eight or nine games against the other teams in the league.  The only significant imbalance here would be that each team would play three series against most of those intraleague, non-division teams, meaning that one of the teams would get to host two of the three series.  But this happens already in the current system, so I don’t think it is a big deal.  It would be easy enough to make sure the team with the extra home series rotates each year.  And of course, the total number of home/road games would remain at 81/81 for every team.

    Finally, there is the matter of the playoffs.  It sounds like it is almost inevitable that the baseball playoffs will be expanded to at least 10 teams.  I do not support this.  I think this is where MLB stands above the rest of the major professional sports.  The more teams you include in the playoffs, the less significant the regular season becomes.  I find the NBA and NHL regular seasons to be almost meaningless since they play for six months to not even eliminate half the teams.  So my preference would be to keep things exactly as they are now:  4 playoff teams in each league.  I wouldn’t mind seeing the first round expanded to a best of seven series though.  But since it sounds like additional playoff teams is almost a done deal, my recommendation would be to have two wild card teams face off in as short of a series as possible.  Even a one game playoff to determine that wild card spot would be preferable to a longer series which would require the rest of the playoff teams to sit around for a week or longer.  Expanding to six playoff spots per league would be even messier.  So the fewer, the better in my book.

    Thoughts?  Do you have your own plan in mind, or are you against all forms of realignment?

  • Rivera Breaks Save Record

    Choppers closer Mariano Rivera

    Talk about a long overdue post.  Over a month ago, Choppers relief pitcher Mariano Rivera became the DTBL’s all-time save leader.  His 561st DTBL save moved him ahead of Trevor Hoffman.  He has added another five saves since then and currently sits at 566 for his DTBL career.

    Rivera has shown absolutely no sign of slowing down.  In 2011, he has recorded 16 saves, putting him just a few behind the league leaders.  His ERA of 1.90 and 1.056 WHIP are tough to beat.  Even at 41 years old, there is no reason to think Rivera can’t keep pitching for several more years.  Since turning 40, he has continued to rack up the saves with an ERA below 2.00.

    Most of Rivera’s 16 DTBL seasons came with the Cougars.  He was their first round pick in the 1997 Draft and remained with the club until a 2009 trade.  Prior to the trade, Rivera appeared to be aging a bit, posting a career high 3.33 ERA.  But almost immediately after he arrived with the Mavericks, he returned to his perch as the best relief pitcher in baseball.  Following a strong year and a half with the rebuilding Mavericks, they traded him to the Choppers this past March for a second round draft pick.  So after spending most of his career with one team, Rivera has now been traded twice in the last three years.

    A model in consistency, Rivera has posted an ERA under 3.00 in every season except one (2007) and has had at least 30 saves every year but one (2002).  Incredibly, he has been under a 2.00 ERA in nine seasons and has a career mark of 2.02.  His career ERA and WHIP (0.976) are both the best of any pitcher in league history.  It is virtually indisputable that he is the greatest relief pitcher in league history and possibly the best pitcher overall.

    Rivera has been a welcomed addition to the very surprising Choppers squad.  After years of disappointment, they find themselves in title contention.  They are currently tied in fourth place.  Perhaps most surprising is their grip on the league lead in saves after finishing dead last in that category a year ago, 32 saves behind the next worst team.  Obviously, Rivera has played a big part in that resurgence.  The bullpen has helped keep the Choppers pitching staff afloat while the rotation has been decimated by injuries.  The latest coming to Brett Anderson, who may need Tommy John surgery.  But with a powerful offense and a great bullpen, the Choppers figure to remain in contention as the season progresses.

  • Liriano & Verlander Toss No-Hitters

    Choppers pitcher Francisco Liriano

    There have been a ton of close calls this season, but Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander managed to break through to complete the first two no-hitters of the season in a span of five days.  First, the Choppers’ Liriano picked up a no-no on Tuesday evening.  Then, the Kings’ Verlander did the same on Saturday afternoon.

    Of the two, Liriano’s no-hitter has to be the more improbable one.  He entered the game against the White Sox with an ERA over 9.00.  He had never pitched a complete game in his career.  And for a while, it looked like he would have trouble completing this one as well.  A bunch of early walks sent his pitch count soaring.  On the game, he walked six and only struck out two.  So there were probably at least a half dozen more impressive starts than his just last week, but a no-hitter deserves special mention.  Despite the ugly walk/strike out numbers, it was very much a dominating performance.  The White Sox hitters only hit a couple balls hard all evening.

    Liriano is still having a tough season.  His ERA stands at 6.61 and the win was only his second this season.  He has walked more hitters than he has struck out too.  Prior to this start, he was on the verge of a possible bullpen demotion by the Twins.  You have to think the Choppers were losing patience with him as well.  He has been the sour point on an otherwise surprisingly solid Choppers pitching staff.  If he continues to pitch like he did last Tuesday, things could get very interesting as the Choppers already find themselves in third place and are the surprise team near the top of the standings right now.

    Verlander’s no-hitter was less surprising and much more dominating.  He took a perfect game into the 8th inning against the Blue Jays, but a walk to J.P. Arencibia on an extended at bat ruined that.  Arencibia was quickly erased on a double play though, allowing Verlander to finish the game facing the minimum 27 batters.  This was Verlander’s second career no-hitter, joining Mark Buehrle as the only active DTBL pitchers with multiple no-hitters.  (Technically, Roy Halladay has two as well, but his playoff no-hitter didn’t count towards his DTBL stats, so I’m not including him.)

    The Kings pitchers have had a mediocre start to the season, but Verlander has been solid as usual.  He has a 3.16 ERA with 3 wins, a sub 1.00 WHIP and 55 strike outs.  Verlander, his Tigers teammate Max Scherzer, and Tommy Hanson have been outstanding for the Kings, but the bottom of their rotation has been a disappointment.

    As mentioned, there have been plenty of close calls on other potential no-hitters this season including Anibal Sanchez twice.  Also, two Cougars pitchers took no-hitters into at least the 7th inning on the same night last Friday:  Jaime Garcia and Derek Lowe.  The way pitching has dominated so far this season, you have to figure we’ll see a few more guys complete the task.

    Here’s another indication on just how good the pitching has been.  Only one DTBL team has an ERA over 4.00 (Demigods).  They were inching towards the 4.00 mark a couple days ago, so there is still a good chance we could see all ten teams under that mark at some point soon.

    Once again, Mariano Rivera’s save record is getting bumped to a later post.  I promise to write about him soon!

  • Weaver Cruises Through April

    Moonshiners pitcher Jered Weaver

    My timing isn’t very good with this post as Jered Weaver picked up his first loss of the season tonight.  However, this doesn’t change the fact that he had a truly remarkable April and is the primary reason why the Moonshiners find themselves in first place one month into the 2011 season.

    Weaver finished the month with a perfect 6-0 record, winning all six of his starts.  He compiled a 0.99 ERA, 0.788 WHIP and 49 strike outs, all very impressive numbers.  Shockingly, none of these marks were good enough to lead the league, except wins, but I’ll get to that in a bit.  His six wins are two more than any other pitcher has accumulated though.

    The Moonshiners acquired Weaver from the Jackalope during the first round of the draft in exchange for their first round pick.  As we all knew at the time, Weaver was exactly what the Moonshiners needed:  a true ace.  However, I don’t think anyone expected him to come out of the gates quite this strong.  He has helped lead the Moonshiners to a top two ranking in every pitching category except saves (4th).  Combined with the league’s best offense to date, the Moonshiners find themselves 13 points ahead of the pack with a very impressive 87 points.

    Trading Weaver hasn’t really killed the Jackalope as you much as you might think though.  They still have arguably three of the top five pitchers in the league and are right behind the Moonshiners in total pitching points.  If their offense, specifically Albert Pujols, picks it up a bit, the second place Jackalope will be right on the Moonshiners’ heals.  Ryan Braun has carried their offense so far, with a league leading ten home runs and a .356 batting average.  Braun would probably get my vote for Offensive Player of the Month.  One other candidate for that title would be Darkhorses outfielder Andre Ethier.  Just a couple minutes ago, he recorded a RBI single to extend his hitting streak to 28 games.  Going into tonight, he led the league with a .378 average, just a few points ahead of his Dodger teammate Matt Kemp.

    Weaver wasn’t the only pitcher who compiled ridiculous statistics in April.  Amazingly, Gators pitcher Josh Johnson has him beat in both ERA and WHIP.  Johnson has a 0.88 ERA and 0.707 WHIP.  Some bad luck has kept his win total at just three though.  Johnson has carried the Gators to the third most pitching points in the league, however a putrid offense has kept them near the bottom of the league standings.  The third pitcher who deserves special mention is Weaver’s Moonshiners and Angels teammate Dan Haren.  Haren has a 1.23 ERA and a 0.750 WHIP with four wins.  At one point, Weaver and Haren combined for eight wins in eight starts.

    There is one other big news item tonight.  Mariano Rivera became the DTBL’s all-time saves leader with the save he picked up against the Tigers this evening.  This is deserving of a separate blog post though, so I will go into more detail about Rivera later this week.

  • Manny and More

    Former Gator Manny Ramirez

    We’re about two and a half weeks into the 2011 baseball season, but in many ways, things look very much like 2010.  The Naturals are once again tied for first place, although not with the Darkhorses who are off to a slow start, but rather the rejuvenated Moonshiners.  Last year, pitching dominated like it hadn’t since the pre-steroid era.  That trend has continued early this season.  And finally, Manny Ramirez continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.

    Let’s start with Manny.  His sudden retirement has probably been the biggest story of the early season.  Facing another performance enhancing drug suspension, he elected to retire instead.  The Tampa Bay Rays signed him this off-season in hopes of riding one last surge from one of the best hitters of the last two decades.  Instead, Ramirez recorded only one hit in 17 at bats prior to his sudden retirement.  Similarly, the Gators felt he had a little left in the tank as they decided to protect him this past winter.  This past week, the Gators released the best player in franchise history, ending the longest tenure of a DTBL player and team in league history.

    The Gators drafted Ramirez in the 8th round of the 1995 draft, possibly the biggest DTBL draft steal ever.  He helped lead the Gators to a championship in his DTBL rookie season and then again in 1998.  His name litters the league record books.  He is the all-time RBI leader with 1746.  He ranks third in career home runs (528) and runs scored (1467).  His career batting average of .314 just misses the top ten.  He also holds the league’s single season RBI record with an incredible 165 in 1999.  Ramirez hit 30+ home runs with 100+ RBIs in nine straight seasons from 1998 through 2006.  He even had four seasons with a batting average over .330.  An amazing hitter, but unfortunately, all of these numbers will be considered tarnished by three separate PED related suspensions and/or positive tests.

    With the Gators release of Ramirez, this leaves another Gator, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez (Kings) as the longest tenured players with a single DTBL team.  Both were drafted by their respective teams in 1997.  They are the only two players who have been on the same team since before the turn of the century.  Interestingly, last year’s Gators squad had four such players on their roster:  Ramirez, Jeter, Billy Wagner and Pedro Martinez.  Although Martinez did not make an appearance for the Gators (or any MLB team) during the season.

    In other news, the Moonshiners have been in first place for a good portion of the season so far.  Their huge draft day trade with the Jackalope has paid early dividends as Jered Weaver has already won four games and leads the league in strikeouts too.  The only other pitcher with four wins is his Moonshiners and Angels teammate Dan Haren, who leads the DTBL in ERA and WHIP.  So Moonshiners hurlers lead every pitching category except saves.  The Naturals are keeping pace as well and currently find themselves exactly where they finished 2010:  tied for first place.  The Naturals have been led by Troy Tulowitzki and his seven home runs.  I don’t have the full statistics in front of me, but Tulo’s numbers since late August of last season have been absolutely ridiculous.

    In the first week of the season, there were rumors of changes to the stitching and/or other physical attributes of the baseball due to an early surge of home runs and scoring in general.  Those rumors have been put to rest since then as pitchers have continued to dominate.  Six of the ten DTBL teams have ERA’s below 3.40, which is a very respectable mark.  It is too early to make any comparisons to totals from previous seasons, but I think it is fair to say that the juiced ball talk during the first few days of the season was probably a bit premature.

    There are a couple league records that are likely to fall this season.  I should have mentioned these before the season started, but better late than never.  First, Choppers relief pitcher Mariano Rivera is on the verge of becoming the league’s all-time save leader.  He needs just three more to tie Trevor Hoffman with 560.  He already leads the league this season with seven saves.  The long-time Cougar has been traded twice the past two years.  Next, Alex Rodriguez has a chance to break the DTBL career record in both home runs and RBIs.  He sits 14 home runs behind Barry Bonds and with Manny Ramirez’s retirement, ARod needs 56 more RBIs to catch Manny.  I completely neglected to mention another career record which was broken last season.  Juan Pierre passed Kenny Lofton on that list during the 2010 season.  Now if only he could catch fly balls in the 9th inning…

  • DTBL v3.0

    The new main page is here!  It was a long time coming and I still have a lot of work to do, but at least I have something to show you just in time for Opening Day.  A few notes about what you are seeing…

    First of all, this main page is literally the only thing that has changed so far.  Every other page continues to use the same code, style and images.  Eventually, these pages will be replaced with something that looks similar to the main page, but I’ll be tackling them one at a time.

    Next, several of the links in the menu either don’t work or are simply placeholders for pages that don’t exist yet.  Specifically, there are two sub-menus that list all 10 teams:  Team Pages and Stats.  Currently, these take you to the same place:  the old team stats pages.  Eventually, “Team Pages” will point to a brand new feature of the site, which will be pages for each team containing all sorts of information besides just rosters/stats.  This is the part of the site I will be working on next, so hopefully I’ll have something ready to go in the next couple weeks.

    The content of the main page really isn’t much different than the old version, but I think it is more appealing and gives me a little more leeway to add new features in the future.  Even this main page isn’t really “done” because I have a few ideas in mind.  In particular, I have more things to add to the “DTBL Chatter” section, like the ability to add a quick reply, or even a new topic, straight from the main page.  I may add some more news feeds or widgets to the right hand column as well.

    The image you see on the home page (currently Buster Posey) is set to automatically pull the most recent image from the DTBL News feed.  So I will try to include photos in most of my posts to keep this fresh.  Soon you will all have the ability to create blog posts too, at which time I will encourage you to upload photos when you post a new story.

    You should be able to get to all of the old pages via the new menu system.  I should point out that the all important link to log in to the site is now in the upper right hand corner, along with links to the league’s Facebook group page, Twitter feed and RSS feed (DTBL News).

    So why am I calling this DTBL v3.0?  I’ve never really used a numbering system for the different versions of the league web site over the years.  But essentially, I consider this to be the third major iteration of the site.  It started as a very simple text based site back in the late 90s.  At that time, I used a desktop software program to update the stats and generate reports which were then uploaded to a web site.  Version 2 was the dynamic, database driven web site that we’ve been using since 2003.  This is the first major change since then, so I’m calling it 3.0.  Not many software developers get away with going 8 years between major releases, but my annual Commissioner’s salary of $0 isn’t quite high enough to justify much more work with that.  I’m enjoying this project though, so I hope you like the results.

    I don’t want to write a lengthy blog post every time I update a new page, so I’ll probably start a thread on the DTBL Forum to keep you updated on my progress.  Now that I have a main page tie-in to the DTBL Forum again, you might actually see these posts!  As always, I welcome your comments.  Feel free to post a comment on this post, or on the DTBL Forum.

    Only about 12 hours until first pitch.  Welcome to the 2011 season!