DTBL News

Category: Moonshiners

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 2010 DTBL All-Stars

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

    American Division

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

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

    National Division

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

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

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

    Voting Results

    American Division

    Catchers

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

    First Basemen/Third Basemen

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

    Second Basemen/Shortstops

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

    Outfielders

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

    Starting Pitchers

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

    Relief Pitchers

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

    National Division

    Catchers

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

    First Basemen/Third Basemen

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

    Second Basemen/Shortstops

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

    Outfielders

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

    Starting Pitchers

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

    Relief Pitchers

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