DTBL News

Category: Awards

  • Players of the Month: April


    Yes, I am continuing last year’s feature of naming a DTBL Batter and Pitcher of the Month following each month of the season.  Yes, we are more than a third of the way through May already.  No, I haven’t announced the April winners yet.  No, I don’t have a particularly good excuse for my tardiness.  Away we go…

    As a reminder, these Players of the Month selections are not subjective.  I am simply calculating each player’s PAR for the month and giving the awards to the batter and pitcher who led the league in that category.  I will also use these monthly posts to run down the list of players who won the weekly honors, which are also given to the players with the highest PAR during that week.

    Although the 2016 season is still quite young, it does seem fairly clear that we will not have a repeat of last season with one team running away from the competition right from the start.  April saw a bunch of teams swap the top spots in the standings.  At the end of the month, the top half of the standings looked like a bit of a flashback to the early years of the league more so than recent seasons.  The Choppers finished the month in first place, with the Gators and Kings in the mix as well.  The defending champion Jackalope appear to be quite strong again and the Mavericks are right there as usual.  As for individual player performances, April was dominated by a number of players.  Before we get to the best players of the month, here are the weekly award winners:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 1 (4/3 – 4/10) – Eugenio Suarez, Cougars
    Week 2 (4/11 – 4/17) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    Week 3 (4/18 – 4/24) – Welington Castillo, Gators
    Week 4 (4/25 – 5/1) – Victor Martinez, Mavericks

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 1 (4/3 – 4/10) – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    Week 2 (4/11 – 4/17) – Chris Sale, Choppers
    Week 3 (4/18 – 4/24) – Drew Smyly, Moonshiners
    Week 4 (4/25 – 5/1) – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks

    There are some pretty surprising names on that list of hitters.  But the one of them who won the monthly award is not hard to identify.  Kershaw won half of the weekly pitching honors, but was edged out for the monthly award.  Here are the award winners for April 2016:

    Batter of the Month:

    Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    .286 AVG, 9 HR, 24 RBI, 16 R, 5 SB, 2.17 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Chris Sale, Choppers
    1.66 ERA, 0.684 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 32 K, 3.41 PAR

    Harper, the reigning NL MVP, picked up right where he left off last season.  He actually faded a bit in the final week of April and almost lost this honor as a result.  But his first three weeks were simply awesome.  He finished April tied for the league lead in RBI and one behind the leader in home runs.  His five steals were just one short of his full season total in 2015.  Jose Altuve and Nolan Arenado also had great Aprils and I believe both passed Harper in PAR on the first day of May.

    Early in 2016, Chris Sale’s strikeouts are down a bit.  But the rest of his numbers are as good or better than ever.  He won every game he started in April and led the league in both wins and WHIP.  His numbers were nearly identical to his crosstown counterpart, Jake Arrieta.  But Sale gets the nod for this award by finishing with a PAR that was a couple hundredths of a point higher.

  • Donaldson Completes Jackalope Sweep


    It seems like 85% of the content I have written for this site this year has focused on the Jackalope. They were the talk of the league in March with their blockbuster trades. Then came a thoroughly dominating championship season in which they picked up individual player honors in almost every month. And now in awards season, they have already claimed both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards, thanks to Jake Arrieta. Which brings us to the Most Valuable Player award, an honor which the Jackalope figured to have not one, but two top candidates. Sure enough, those two players finished first and second in the vote. The award goes to one of the players they acquired in that pre-season shake-up. Josh Donaldson is the 2015 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

    Donaldson and his Jackalope teammate Paul Goldschmidt finished in a virtual tie atop the Batting PAR leaderboard. So it comes as no surprise that those two led the way in the MVP vote as well. The third baseman, Donaldson, had the edge in home runs, RBI and runs while Goldschmidt bested him in average and stolen bases. Donaldson led the league with 122 runs, came in second in RBI with 123 and finished fifth in home runs with 41. He is the only player in the league to finish in the top five of those three power categories. His .297 average wasn’t too shabby either.

    A breakout star last year in his DTBL rookie campaign, Donaldson proved that ’14 wasn’t a fluke. In fact, he significantly improved upon all of his numbers except stolen bases. The Moonshiners drafted him in the first round a year ago and he rewarded them with an All-Star season, finishing third in the Rookie of the Year vote. He was the key piece moving to the Jackalope in a deal that sent elite pitcher Felix Hernandez to the Moonshiners. The full deal was Donaldson and a fourth round pick for Hernandez and Ian Kennedy. Despite Hernandez having another terrific season, the first year edge clearly goes to the Jackalope in that swap. Donaldson helped lead the league’s best offense to an easy league championship. He was a key part in the team finishing in the top four of every offensive category.

    Goldschmidt had a very strong claim for this award as well, posting great numbers across the board (.321, 33 HR, 110 RBI, 103 R, 21 SB). As mentioned, the two Jackalope stars had virtually identical PAR numbers as well. In the end, it was probably Donaldson’s power edge that garnered him this award. The vote was relatively close, but Donaldson received a majority of the first place votes. He got six first place tallies, two seconds, a third and a fourth for 82 points. Goldschmidt had a pair of first place votes and four each for second and third. He came in second place with 68 points. NL MVP Bryce Harper also received strong consideration. The Darkhorses outfielder received two first place votes as well, but didn’t fair quite as well down ballot, and was left off one ballot completely. He finished with 55 points. Next, Nolan Arenado made sure two of the top four spots would go to third baseman. The Naturals’ slugger came in fourth with 38 points. Those four were head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. The fifth place spot went to a guy who actually didn’t finish higher than fifth on any ballot, but got five votes in that #5 spot. That player is the defending MVP, Mavericks outfielder Mike Trout. Trout has now finished in the top five of the MVP vote in all four of his DTBL seasons.

    Click here to view the full MVP voting results.

    With that, the Jackalope have swept all three of the major post-season awards. I don’t have complete records of the award winners from the league’s first decade to easily reference, but I believe this is the first time a team has won all three awards in the same season. Fitting, considering the 2015 Jackalope were unquestionably one of the best teams in league history.

    So that’s it for a while. I have several plans for the winter, but I’ll keep them to myself for now so that I don’t set any expectations that I will surely fail to live up to. One certainty is that I will continue to retroactively calculate PAR numbers for past seasons. Hopefully, I’ll have numbers going back to at least a decade ago before next season begins.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Arrieta Doubles Up With Cy


    2015 featured three of the greatest seasons by pitchers in league history.  Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw each would have won the Cy Young award with their ’15 numbers almost any other year.  But only one could win the award this year.  In the end, it was the Jackalope breakout star who captured the award to go along with his Rookie of the Year honor, which was announced last night.  Jake Arrieta is the 2015 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    There isn’t much left to say that I didn’t already cover last night, so let’s recap some of the highlights.  Arrieta led the league in wins with 22, which was three more than any other pitcher.  His minuscule 1.77 ERA and 0.865 WHIP were both second in the league behind Greinke.  He led the league in pitching PAR (16.32), which currently stands as the highest mark ever recorded (2010-present).  As shocking as all of those numbers are, he was not a likely winner of this award as recently as mid-season.  But his second half was simply as good as it gets.  The highlight of that incredible stretch was the no-hitter he threw against the Dodgers in late August.  He won the Pitcher of the Month award in August and nearly did it in September as well.  He earned three Pitcher of the Week honors too.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t give some special mention to the other pair of pitchers who would have won this award almost any other season.  Moonshiners righty Zack Greinke and Mavericks lefty Clayton Kershaw had as strong of seasons on the mound as any pair of MLB teammates you’ll ever see.  The Dodgers duo were huge assets to their DTBL teams as well, but in the end it was the guy on the championship squad who got the award.  Greinke’s 1.66 ERA and 0.844 WHIP both rank third on the all-time DTBL single season lists.  Greg Maddux is the only pitcher who has ever posted a better ERA in a season (1994 and 1995).  Meanwhile, Kershaw blew away the field in strikeouts with 301.  He is the first pitcher to reach the 300 mark since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling both did it 13 years ago.  The two time defending Cy Young winner, Kershaw was unable to make it three in a row, but has now finished in the top three of the vote an incredible five years in a row.  Greinke won the award back in 2009, but this is the first time he even received votes since.  Obviously, this is the first Cy Young for the DTBL rookie Arrieta.

    As expected, this was a very tight vote.  The three aforementioned pitchers received all of the first, second and third place votes.  Arrieta garnered five first place votes on his way to 81 points.  Greinke was just a little shy of that, finishing with 75 points and three first place tallies.  Finally, Kershaw got a pair of first place votes as well and accumulated 64 points.  Needless to say, there was quite a gap after those three.  The Kings’ Max Scherzer looked like a leading candidate for this award in the first half of the season, but an uneven second half dropped him to fourth place with 13 points.  Finally, Moonshiners lefty Dallas Keuchel, who came in second to Arrieta in the Rookie of the Year vote, finished fifth for Cy Young.  Gerrit Cole, Madison Bumgarner and David Price had pretty amazing seasons in their own rights, but didn’t come close to making a major play at this award.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    So the Year of the Jackalope continues with two major awards added to the trophy case.  Will they sweep all three?  The MVP race figures to be extremely tight too, so you’ll have to wait and see.  I probably won’t have time to announce that winner until either Sunday or Monday night, so check back next week.

  • Arrieta Named Top Rookie


    The Jackalope made several huge splashes in March, shaking up their roster with some blockbuster trades. But the transaction they made which most directly translated to them cruising to the DTBL title was selecting Jake Arrieta with the sixth pick in the draft. It was a very strong rookie crop, including the five players picked before Arrieta, but none of them came close to matching his DTBL debut. In an unanimous decision, Jake Arrieta is the 2015 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    Forget about rookies, Arrieta had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in league history. He led the league in wins with 22, but it is was his eye-popping 1.77 ERA and 0.865 WHIP that put him in very select company. Shockingly, he did not lead the league in either of those categories (second behind Zack Greinke in both), yet he now ranks fifth all-time in single season marks in those categories. His 16.32 PAR is the best ever among seasons I have calculated to date (2010 to present, although I should mention that I will be adjusting the PAR numbers to include league wide stats for ’15 in the near future, so he could lose the top spot back to 2011 Verlander). His 236 strikeouts ranked sixth in the league, but like the rest of his numbers, led the way among rookies. He is going to be a strong contender for the Cy Young award as well, though he faces some pretty stiff competition in that race.

    As mentioned, Arrieta was the sixth player taken in the March draft, but the first pitcher. He followed a first baseman and four outfielders, most of whom had very strong DTBL debuts, but not even close to Arrieta’s level. He immediately became the ace of the Jackalope staff which had just traded away their long-time ace Felix Hernandez. Along with newly acquired Gerrit Cole (trade with Mavericks) and second year Jackalope Sonny Gray, they put together a very young set of hurlers at the top of their rotation. The plan worked to perfection as they jumped ten points in the pitching standings on their way to their second DTBL title. Unless the Jackalope decide to mix things up again next spring, Arrieta, Cole and Gray figure to anchor this rotation for quite some time.

    The vote was unanimous. Arrieta received all ten first place votes. But this was not an indication of a weak class, but rather a reflection of just how great Arrieta was. Two other pitchers had seasons that probably would have earned them this award most years. The Moonshiners made the top free agent acquisition in quite some time when they signed Dallas Keuchel in early April. He finished second in the vote with 56 points, receiving six second place votes, and was the only player besides Arrieta to appear on every ballot. Coming in a distant third was another pitcher who had an incredible rookie campaign, the Darkhorses’ Jacob deGrom. He accumulated 33 points despite finishing no higher than third on any ballot. Arrieta, Keuchel and deGrom are about as strong of a rookie trio of pitchers as the league has ever seen. The top offensive rookie was Cougars first baseman Jose Abreu who received a pair of second place votes and 28 total points. Right behind him was his Cougars teammate, outfielder Charlie Blackmon. Blackmon also received two second place votes and a point total of 26. The rest of the rookies were well behind those five, leaving some players who had very strong debuts nowhere near winning the award.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    I plan to announce the winner of the Cy Young award tomorrow night. Will Arrieta win that one as well, or will it go to one of the Dodgers dynamic duo of Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw? Finally, the MVP award likely won’t be announced until early next wee.

  • Players of the Month: September


    We have reached the final weekend of the 2015 DTBL season! No, this hasn’t been the most thrilling pennant race we’ve ever witnessed. Yes, the Jackalope are going to cruise to their second league title in a matter of days. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worth watching in the season’s final weekend. For one thing, there is a heck of a race brewing on the other end of the standings. The Kings have found themselves in last place for most of the past few weeks, but their “lead” to get the first pick in next year’s draft is hardly safe. The Gators and Cougars are just a point ahead and seven of the league’s ten teams are within seven points of the bottom of the standings! Many years, teams would probably rather finish dead last than just a few spots higher. But with next year’s draft shaping up to possibly be the most loaded draft this league has ever seen, all ten teams should have an opportunity at picking up blue-chip young stars in the first round. But enough talk about the race to the bottom…

    With just four days of October games on the schedule, it probably would have made sense to save my last monthly awards article until after the season. But I figure I might as well get this out of the way now so I can focus on showering the Jackalope with praise next week. So here are the September Batter and Pitcher of the Month, with only stats in the month of September counting towards the award rankings.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 22 (8/31 – 9/6) – Nolan Arenado, Naturals
    Week 23 (9/7 – 9/13) – Yoenis Cespedes, Gators
    Week 24 (9/14 – 9/20) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    Week 25 (9/21 – 9/27) – Starling Marte, Gators

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 22 (8/31 – 9/6) – Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners
    Week 23 (9/7 – 9/13) – Masahiro Tanaka, Choppers
    Week 24 (9/14 – 9/20) – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks
    Week 25 (9/21 – 9/27) – Jake Arrieta, Jackalope

    A little more variety in terms of players and teams in the weekly awards for September. Interesting that Harper and Strasburg were the winners in the same week while their Nationals season was flushed down the drain. The monthly award winners are a second time honoree and a guy who has just missed the past few months. Here are the players of the month for September:

    Batter of the Month:

    Nolan Arenado, Naturals
    .339 AVG, 11 HR, 32 RBI, 19 R, 1 SB, 2.53 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    1.84 ERA, 0.818 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 58 K, 4.29 PAR

    Also the league’s best player in June, Arenado is the first/only player to win two monthly awards this year. His league leading 11 homers and 32 RBI in September have moved him into the MVP discussion. He leads the league in RBI and is in the top five in home runs and PAR. He won the award by a comfortable margin, but Shin-Soo Choo and Bryce Harper were his closest competition.

    After a bit of a slow start, by his standards, Kershaw is finishing the year in his usual form: as one of the best pitchers on the planet. His five wins and 58 strikeouts led the way in September. He easily leads the league in strikeouts for the season, and needs just six strikeouts on Sunday to become the first to reach 300 in a season since Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in 2002. Despite those absurd numbers, he just barely won this award over last month’s winner, Jake Arrieta. It will be a fascinating Cy Young race between those two and Kerhaw’s Dodger teammate Zack Greinke… not to mention several others having incredible years.

    Enjoy the final weekend and early congrats to Jay!

  • Players of the Month: August


    I have to be honest, this isn’t shaping up to be a particularly interesting DTBL pennant race. The Jackalope have continued their season-long reign of supremacy. After a nice run by the Mavericks in July, August may have been the best month yet for the first place Jackalope. On Tuesday, the lead had ballooned to 20 points. It’s not over, but it would take a pretty epic collapse for the Jackalope not to claim their second DTBL Championship. So what made their August so special? Well, you’re about to find out. First, here are the players who earned Player of the Week honors during the month of August:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 17 (7/27 – 8/2) – Lucas Duda, Kings
    Week 18 (8/3 – 8/9) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    Week 19 (8/10 – 8/16) – Adam Jones, Jackalope
    Week 20 (8/17 – 8/23) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    Week 21 (8/24 – 8/30) – Edwin Encarnacion, Darkhorses

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 17 (7/27 – 8/2) – Sonny Gray, Jackalope
    Week 18 (8/3 – 8/9) – David Price, Naturals
    Week 19 (8/10 – 8/16) – Madison Bumgarner, Cougars
    Week 20 (8/17 – 8/23) – Chris Archer, Cougars
    Week 21 (8/24 – 8/30) – Jake Arrieta, Jackalope

    Wow, that’s a lot of Jackalope! Yes, a Jackalope won either Batter or Pitcher of the Week every week in August.  So naturally, they will be taking home both of the monthly individual awards as well. Here are the award winners for August 2015:

    Batter of the Month:

    Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    .324 AVG, 11 HR, 35 RBI, 29 R, 2 SB, 3.05 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Jake Arrieta, Jackalope
    0.43 ERA, 0.685 WHIP, 6 W, 0 SV, 43 K, 4.93 PAR

    On the strength of two Player of the Week honors, Donaldson was a fairly obvious choice for Player of the Month. He accumulated an impressive 3.05 PAR in the month, moving him into first place in the league in Batting PAR, just ahead of Jackalope teammate Paul Goldschmidt. As long as they don’t split votes too badly, they appear to be the leading candidates for MVP too. Edwin Encarnacion was the runner-up and the only other real contender for this month’s honor.

    Arrieta made a pretty dramatic claim for the monthly award in his most recent start, throwing a no-hitter against the Dodgers in LA. You can’t really do much better than a 0.43 ERA and six wins in a single month. With his incredible August, Arrieta has vaulted right into the Cy Young mix. The August pitching award race wasn’t particularly close, but Madison Bumgarner was the runner-up.

  • Players of the Month: July


    As the temperature started to heat up this summer, so did the DTBL Championship race.  The Jackalope finished July in the same spot as all of the previous months:  first place.  But what was once a 20+ lead has been trimmed to single digits entering the season’s final two months.  This has had nothing to do with the Jackalope falling back to the pack.  They have steadily held around 85 standings points.  But what has changed is the total of their closest competition, the Mavericks.  The Mavs are closing in on the 80 point mark as well, thanks to their pitching staff starting to materialize the way most expected before the season.  Also, the offense has received a huge lift from a player that I will be touching on in just a bit.  Before we get to the players of the month, here are the guys who earned weekly honors in July:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/29 – 7/5) – J.D. Martinez, Demigods
    Week 14 (7/6 – 7/12) – Mike Trout, Mavericks
    Week 15 (7/17 – 7/19) – Adrian Gonzalez, Darkhorses
    Week 16 (7/20 – 7/26) – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/29 – 7/5) – Jordan Zimmermann, Naturals
    Week 14 (7/6 – 7/12) – Chris Sale, Choppers
    Week 15 (7/17 – 7/19) – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    Week 16 (7/20 – 7/26) – Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses

    The Batter of the Month race came down to two of the guys listed above while the pitching award was a four horse race won by a guy who has been nearly unhittable for two straight months.  Here are the award winners for July 2015:

    Batter of the Month:

    Mike Trout, Mavericks
    .367 AVG, 12 HR, 24 RBI, 20 R, 1 SB, 2.32 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Zack Greinke, Moonshiners
    0.95 ERA, 0.579 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 34 K, 3.69 PAR

    Trout and Carlos Gonzalez had nearly identical numbers in the month of July.  It wound up being the one home run and stolen base advantage that tilted this award to the Mavericks outfielder.  As mentioned above, Trout has been largely responsible for the Mavericks making a significant dent into the Jackalope lead.

    There were four pitchers who led the way in July, coming from just two MLB teams.  Greinke took the top spot, barely edging out his Dodgers teammate Clayton Kershaw.  And not far behind those two were a pair of Cubs:  Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester.  But in the end, Greinke’s incredible 43 inning scoreless streak, dating back to mid-June, sealed this honor.  Greinke allowed just four runs in the month of July and has allowed more than three runs in a start just once this entire season.  Plagued by poor run support early in the year, he was able to add four victories in the month too.

  • DTBL All Star Awards Outlook


    Welcome to a slightly delayed version of the All Star awards outlook.  These numbers are all culled from stats as of the All Star break, as the season’s midpoint is always a good time to look back on how the season has gone and look forward to exciting pennant races.  Well, perhaps not in DTBL itself, but one never knows!

    Without further ado, here are your category leaders at the break.

    »Batting Average: Miguel Cabrera, Naturals, .350
    »Home Runs: Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope: 27
    »RBI: Nolan Arenado, Naturals and Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope: 70
    »Runs: Mike Trout, Mavericks: 68
    »Stolen Bases: Billy Hamilton, Naturals: 44
    »ERA: Zack Greinke, Moonshiners: 1.39
    »WHIP: Max Scherzer, Kings: .780
    »Wins: Gerrit Cole, Jackalope: 13
    »Saves: Mark Melancon, Jackalope: 29
    »Strikeouts: Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks: 160

    On to the awards!

    Rookie of the Year:

    Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners – 0.997 WHIP, 2.34 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 107 K, 6.8 PAR
    Jake Arrieta, Jackalope – 0.986 WHIP, 2.66 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 123 K, 6.7 PAR
    Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses – 0.924 WHIP, 2.14 ERA, 9 W, 0 SV, 112 K, 6.6 PAR

    As with the Memorial Day outlook, the Rookie of the Year category is dominated by pitchers.  All three of Keuchel, Arrieta, and deGrom sat in the top 10 of pitching related PAR at the break.  And, really, a case could be made for any of these pitchers to be the front runner for the award.  deGrom holds a slight edge in WHIP and ERA; Arrieta and Keuchel are tied in wins;  Arrieta holds the edge in strikeouts; and PAR gives Keuchel the slight edge.  I don’t think anyone would be truly surprised if these three are at the top of the ballot come the postseason.

    Honorable mention goes to a trio of outfielders, Charlie Blackmon of the Cougars (who cracked the top 10 of hitter PAR at the break), Mookie Betts of the Kings, and George Springer of the Darkhorses.

    Cy Young:

    Max Scherzer, Kings – 0.780 WHIP, 2.11 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 150 K, 9.6 PAR
    Zack Greinke, Moonshiners – 0.843 WHIP, 1.39 ERA, 8 W, 0 SV, 106 K, 7.6 PAR

    Once again, Max Scherzer reigns supreme at the top of the Cy Young list.  A ridiculous WHIP and strikeout total lead to a PAR that’s two full points above Zack Greinke.  However, Greinke’s pre All Star break performance was nothing short of extraordinary in its own right, and makes him a worthy companion for Scherzer.  Greinke hurled 35 and 2/3 scoreless innings going into the break, dropping his ERA to a ridiculous 1.39.  With all the great pitchers in baseball this year, it remains to be seen if Scherzer and Greinke can stay on top of this list, or if any of the pitchers listed below can join the truly elite.

    Honorable mention goes to Gerrit Cole of the Jackalope, Sonny Gray of the Jackalope, Chris Archer of the Cougars, and the trio of ROY candidates discussed above.

    Most Valuable Player:

    Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope – .340 BA, 60 R, 21 HR, 70 RBI, 16 SB, 6.4 PAR
    Mike Trout, Mavericks – .312 BA, 68 R, 26 HR, 55 RBI, 9 SB, 5.4 PAR

    Given Bryce Harper’s otherworldly season, it’s a bit strange not seeing him at the top of the MVP race.  However, in fantasy baseball, stolen bases still matter, and while Harper mashes the cover off the ball, the speed simply isn’t there.  In contract, the speed is there for the two leaders at the midway point, Paul Goldschmidt and Mike Trout.  Surprisingly, Trout features the bigger power numbers, coming in at 26 homers to Goldschmidt’s 21.  Unsurprisingly, Trout also leads the league in runs with 68  However, Goldschmidt dominates most of the other categories, with a sparkling .340 batting average, a league leading 70 RBI, and a remarkable 16 stolen bases (to Trout’s 9).  In fact, the 16 steals for Goldschmidt are only two off his career DTBL high.  Trout is an amazing player, and it will take a lot for Goldschmidt to hold him off, but as of now, this MVP nod is well deserved, for both Goldschmidt and the Jackalope as a team.

    Honorable mention goes to Bryce Harper of the Darkhorses, Giancarlo Stanton of the Jackalope, and the surprising Todd Frazier of the Darkhorses.

     

  • Players of the Month: June


    June was another very good month for the Jackalope.  They maintained a healthy lead of near 20 points throughout the entire month.  They continue to lead the league in both batting and pitching points.  This is especially impressive since they haven’t exactly had a healthy roster at any point this season.  The latest injury will be their biggest challenge to date.  Giancarlo Stanton will miss at least a month with a broken hand.  A top MVP candidate prior to the injury, Stanton has been just one of several outstanding performers for the first place squad.  This injury might give other teams a little more hope though.

    Besides the Jackalope maintaining their comfortable lead, the other top stories of June involved a couple pitchers putting up historic runs of starts.  One led to a Pitcher of the Month honor, which I will get to in a bit.  But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Max Scherzer’s incredible run of three consecutive starts with a no-hitter (and near perfect game) sandwiched between two other near no-hitters.  Amazingly, that was not enough to earn Scherzer his second straight Pitcher of the Month award.  In fact, somehow, he didn’t even take home a Pitcher of the Week honor, despite being a hit batsman away from throwing a perfect game!  My method for selecting those honors makes it a near certainty that the weekly pitching award goes to the top starting pitcher who throws two quality starts in a week.  Unfortunately for Scherzer, those three starts came in separate weeks.  Anyway, it was a pretty impressive month for him.  Here are the weekly award winners from June:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 9 (6/1 – 6/7) – Jose Bautista, Choppers
    Week 10 (6/8 – 6/14) – Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope
    Week 11 (6/15 – 6/21) – Manny Machado, Mavericks
    Week 12 (6/22 – 6/28) – Nolan Arenado, Naturals

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 9 (6/1 – 6/7) – Chris Archer, Cougars
    Week 10 (6/8 – 6/14) – Chris Sale, Choppers
    Week 11 (6/15 – 6/21) – Anibal Sanchez, Kings
    Week 12 (6/22 – 6/28) – Collin McHugh, Cougars

    The races for the monthly awards were both extremely tight with a lot of deserving candidates narrowly missing.  Here are the award winners for June 2015:

    Batter of the Month:

    Nolan Arenado, Naturals
    .304 AVG, 12 HR, 33 RBI, 24 R, 0 SB, 2.57 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Chris Sale, Choppers
    1.83 ERA, 0.812 WHIP, 2 W, 0 SV, 75 K, 3.77 PAR

    You know the Naturals must have a pretty good infield when Troy Tulowitzki is only their second best Rockies infielder.  Nolan Arenado had an incredible month of June and finished with a flourish.  His 33 RBI easily led the league and were the most in a month since Miguel Cabrera had 34 last May.  Arenado just barely edged out a pair of Mavericks for this award:  Manny Machado and Albert Pujols.

    It is very hard to win the Pitcher of the Month award with only two wins in the month.  But when the rest of your numbers are setting records, you can overcome criminally poor run/bullpen support.  That’s what Chris Sale did in June.  He is currently riding an eight start streak of striking out at least 10 hitters.  He is only the second player in the past 100 years to accomplish such a feat.  His 75 strikeouts in 44.1 June innings looks like a misprint.  It is also a DTBL single month record, surpassing the 72 whiffs Pedro Martinez recorded in June of 1997.

  • Pair of Nats Win May Honors


    The season’s second month saw the Jackalope open a small lead over several close pursuers into a gigantic lead which could take an extended run of good fortune for other teams to close.  When the calendar turned to June yesterday, the Jackalope lead was 18 points over the Darkhorses.  Incredibly, no other team was within 28 points of first place.  Obviously, there is more than enough time for other teams to get back into the race.  But for now, the Jackalope are sitting pretty.

    Since I still haven’t gotten around to putting together the new awards pages where all of the weekly and monthly winners will be listed, here are the players who have been named the batters and pitchers of the week since last month’s update:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 4 (4/27 – 5/3) – Josh Reddick, Naturals
    Week 5 (5/4 – 5/10) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    Week 6 (5/11 – 5/17) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    Week 7 (5/18 – 5/24) – A.J. Pollock, Kings
    Week 8 (5/25 – 5/31) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 4 (4/27 – 5/3) – Sonny Gray, Jackalope
    Week 5 (5/4 – 5/10) – Michael Pineda, Darkhorses
    Week 6 (5/11 – 5/17) – Max Scherzer, Kings
    Week 7 (5/18 – 5/24) – Cole Hamels, Demigods
    Week 8 (5/25 – 5/31) – Carlos Martinez, Mavericks

    Unlike last month, the award winners from May do appear on the lists above.  Here are the best of May 2015.

    Batter of the Month:

    Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
    .360 AVG, 13 HR, 28 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.87 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Max Scherzer, Kings
    1.67 ERA, 0.907 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 56 K, 4.07 PAR

    Besides the Jackalope, there were two other unstoppable forces in the month of May, and both play for the Washington Nationals.  Darkhorses outfielder Bryce Harper had the best month of his young career on the way to winning Player of the Month.  Meanwhile, Kings ace Max Scherzer seems to be adjusting well in his return to the National League.  He is the Pitcher of the Month.  Neither of these awards were very closely contested.  Harper and Scherzer were almost indisputably the best two players in baseball in May and are certainly among the favorites for the MVP and Cy Young awards too.

    Only two players in DTBL history have met or exceeded Harper’s five monthly stat totals from above:  Barry Bonds in May of 2001 and Jeff Bagwell in June of 1994.  That’s some pretty exclusive company.