DTBL News

Category: Naturals

  • No Clowning Around

    Darkhorses outfielder Bryce Harper

    Who should the Darkhorses have picked with the first selection in the 2013 DTBL Draft?  That’s a clown question, bro.  With one of the clearest cut decisions in recent memory, the Darkhorses selected 20 year old outfielder Bryce Harper.  The Nationals young phenom burst onto the scene last summer at the ripe age of 19 and proceeded to win the National League Rookie of the Year award.  He bounced back from a mid-summer slump to tear the league apart on his way to a .270 average with 22 home runs and 18 stolen bases.  The home run total was the second most by a teenager in MLB history.

    A year after most of the league made the mistake of allowing Mike Trout to slip to the second round, the Darkhorses ensured that the same wouldn’t happen this time around.  Of course, Harper has much higher expectations heading into this season than Trout did a year ago since he has a roster spot locked up and is even expected to hit third in the lineup for one of the top World Series contenders.  Although both are legitimate five tool players, Harper does have a slightly different skill set than Trout.  Harper is projected to be the bigger power threat while Trout has unmatched speed on the bases and in the outfield.  The sky is the limit for Harper, and his bust potential seems extremely low.

    Harper is only the second player to become a first overall selection in both the MLB and DTBL drafts.  Alex Rodriguez is the other, which makes it interesting that Harper is entering the league at the exact same time as ARod’s 16 year career with the Kings is coming to an end.  I’m sure the Darkhorses would be happy to get at least a decade and a half of service out of Harper.  I’m 99% positive that Harper was the youngest player to ever be drafted by a DTBL team in the first round (maybe any round), an honor he held for less than 24 hours (more on that later).  The Darkhorses are looking to bounce back from two straight disappointing, injury-riddled seasons.  Harper has the potential to quickly accelerate the rebuilding process, much like Trout did for the Mavericks a year ago.

    Last year, the Gators had the tall order of trying to rebuild without the benefit of a first or second round pick.  This year, they held onto those picks and wisely used them to pick up a few of the best young players in the draft.  With the second overall pick, they selected Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes who made an immediate impact in his first big league season, hitting several prodigious home runs early in the season.  He somewhat quietly proceeded to have an outstanding season that surely would have earned him a Rookie of the Year nod if it weren’t for some guy named Trout.  Cespedes slugged 23 home runs with 82 RBI and 16 steals.  Like Harper, he has big time power potential with the ability to add a bunch of stolen bases too.

    If Kris Medlen can come anywhere close to matching his 2012 numbers, the Cougars might suddenly have one of the league’s top pitching staffs.  Medlen, a Tommy John surgery survivor, started last season in the bullpen, but then became nearly unhittable after moving into the rotation.  He won 10 games with a miniscule 1.57 ERA and a sub 1.00 WHIP.  The Cougars selected him with the third pick in the draft.  The Demigods then followed with another starting pitcher, Yu Darvish.  Along with Cespedes, Darvish was the other key foreign import to the big leagues last season.  He displayed overpowering stuff, striking out 221 hitters in just 190 innings.  He should help the Demigods recover from a season that was largely derailed by a shaky pitching staff.  The Choppers took the Cubs young first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, with the fifth pick.  Rizzo had been a highly touted prospect for a number of years, before finally breaking through with a solid season for his third MLB organization.  Rizzo figures to be a centerpiece in the Cubs lineup for some time to come.

    For the most part, the top five picks were fairly clear cut.  I know those five players were the top five on my draft board, and I suspect I’m not alone.  But I felt there was a significant drop-off in available talent after those five.  Which was kind of fitting because the next five teams all came within an eyelash of winning the championship last year anyway.

    For the second straight year, the Jackalope were the first team to select a non-DTBL rookie.  With the sixth pick, they took second baseman Danny Espinosa, who spent the last two seasons with the Kings.  Espinosa spent almost the entire ’12 season on the Kings bench, but only because he was at a log jammed position.  He actually had a very solid year and provides significant power and speed for a middle infielder.  He seems to be getting better each year too.  Next, the Moonshiners selected closer Fernando Rodney, the obvious #1 relief pitcher on the board.  Rodney re-emerged as an elite closer for the Rays, saving 48 games with a ridiculous 0.60 ERA.  Seventh is the earliest a relief pitcher has been selected since 2010.  But the Moonshiners were in desperate need of a second closer and only had two picks in the first rounds with which to acquire one.

    For the fourth straight years, the Mavericks had multiple first round picks.  This time, they didn’t acquire the second one until just before they were on the clock with the eighth pick.  They dealt one member of their stable of first basemen, Ike Davis, to the Kings for the ninth overall pick.  So with two consecutive picks, the Mavericks did what has become their trademark:  they selected two young prospects, second baseman Jurickson Profar and third baseman Manny Machado.  Both have big upside, but Machado figures to make a more immediate impact since Profar is temporarily without a position in Texas, behind Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler.  Of course, this is a similar situation that Mike Trout was in a year ago.  Profar just turned 20 a few weeks ago, which is notable for a couple reasons.  First, I believe it makes him the youngest player in DTBL history (he’s a few months younger than Harper).  Next, he is the first DTBL player to have been born after the inaugural DTBL Draft in January of 1993.  So he’s actually younger than this league!  (Damn, we’re getting old)

    For the second straight year, the Kings used the first round to try to fill their gaping hole at first base.  But this time, they did so by trading their pick for Ike Davis.  Davis got off to a horrific start in 2012, due in part to his slow recovery from valley fever, which he contracted during spring training.  But he rebounded in the second half of the season and turned into one of the leading home run hitters after the break.  He finished the season with 32 bombs.  Finally, the Naturals used the last pick of the first round to re-acquire catcher Victor Martinez.  Martinez missed all of last season recovering from a torn ACL suffered over the previous winter.  The Naturals were clearly reluctant to let him go after holding him on the roster for the entire season.  However, when the opportunity came to pick him up again, they jumped all over it.  Although his catching days may be over, he will likely produce stellar numbers at a position that is extremely difficult to fill.

    For the most part, there were few surprises in the first round.  And I honestly can’t criticize any of the picks.  The top five teams went with the best players available, while the second half of the round featured last year’s contenders fill holes and/or proceed with their successful draft strategies.

    The pace of the draft has been great so far too.  We’re already into the fifth round at the four day mark, so I’d say we are well ahead of schedule.  Keep up the good work!

  • Cabrera Crowned MVP

    Naturals first baseman Miguel Cabrera

    Since the World Series ended a few weeks ago, the biggest debate in baseball has been Miguel Cabrera vs. Mike Trout, who should be the American League MVP?  It’s been dubbed “Old School” vs. “New School” in terms of player evaluation.  “Old School” being traditional statistics like batting average, home runs and RBI and “New School” methodology using stats like WAR, OPS+ and UZR.  This isn’t the first time this debate has popped up.  Statheads claimed victory in 2010 when Felix Hernandez won the AL Cy Young award despite only recording 13 wins that season, a total which many believe would have disqualified him in years past.

    So this year we have Cabrera, who led the league in those traditional batting stat categories, thus earning him the first Triple Crown in 45 years.  And then we have Trout, whose base running and defensive prowess helped him put together what the advanced metrics would tell us was the greatest non-Barry Bonds steroid-aided season in at least 20 years.  The debate for DTBL MVP was similar, except in fantasy baseball, we don’t care about defense.  Nonetheless, the same two players figured to be the top contenders for the award.  In the end, and quite surprisingly to yours truly, Miguel Cabrera wound up winning both awards in fairly comfortable fashion.  He is the 2012 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

    The Naturals path to the DTBL Championship has been well documented by now.  But Cabrera’s contribution to that title cannot be overstated.  The Naturals offense took some huge blows, dating back to last winter when Victor Martinez tore his ACL, causing him to miss the entire 2012 season.  It continued throughout the year when they lost several other key players to injuries, most notably Troy Tulowitzki.  However, the offense was just good enough to keep them in the race, almost entirely thanks to Cabrera.  He hit .330 with 44 home runs, 139 RBI and 109 runs scored.  He led the DTBL in HR and RBI, but did not win the Triple Crown in this league, finishing fourth in batting average.  Only Trout scored more runs than him, so Cabrera finished in the top four of every offensive category except stolen bases.  Needless to say, he led the Naturals in all four of those categories as well, with only Andrew McCutchen even coming close to him in most of them.

    Cabrera was a first round selection of the Naturals back in 2004 and won the DTBL Rookie of the Year award that season.  He has now won three DTBL titles.  Carl Crawford is the only other player who has contributed to all three of the Naturals championships, though Crawford’s contributions were quite limited this year.  Cabrera has bounced around at three different positions for the Naturals (OF, 3B, 1B), but his hitting has remained consistently solid.  Albert Pujols is probably the only other player who has consistently produced at such a high level for almost a full decade now.  This is his first DTBL MVP award though.  Cabrera has an incredible .321 career average.  He passed the 300 home run milestone late in this season (now has 309 in his DTBL career).  He also surpassed the 1,000 RBI mark this year too.  He is the Naturals’ franchise record holder in every offensive category except stolen bases.  Having played almost entirely at third base this year, next year he will shift back to 3B in the DTBL as well, creating some exciting possibilities for the Naturals.

    So that brings us to Trout.  The DTBL Rookie of the Year easily could have won this award too.  He led the league in runs and stolen bases, and even edged out Cabrera in batting average in this league since the Mavericks missed out on his first few MLB games of the year.  Trout bested Cabrera in three of five fantasy categories.  Also, the Triple Crown wasn’t in play here either.  So how exactly did Cabrera win this award?  Well, one crucial tie-breaker could have been the fact that the Naturals finished one point ahead of the Mavericks, making them the league champions.  In extremely tight races, team success can certainly enter into the equation.  Personally, I think the Tigers making the playoffs and the Angels missing out was a poor reason to vote Cabrera over Trout in the AL race considering the Angels actually won more games than the Tigers.  But it is a totally justifiable reason to give the nod to Cabrera in this league.  Also, some may have decided that Rookie of the Year was enough of an honor for Trout this year.  Surely, there will be other MVP opportunities for him down the road.

    What surprised me was the way the DTBL (and AL) vote turned out.  Not only did Cabrera win, but it wasn’t really that close.  In fact, Trout was closer to finishing third than he was to winning the award.  Cabrera received seven first place votes, two seconds and one fourth for a total of 87 points.  Trout was only at the top of two ballots and received 66 points.  Jackalope outfielder Ryan Braun received a first place vote as well and finished just seven points behind Trout.  Braun was barely even in the NL MVP discussion, but that is almost certainly due to what many believed to be his tainted 2011 NL MVP award.  He had another terrific season but was bested by a pair of players who had historic years.  Cougars outfielder Josh Hamilton finished in fourth place and another Natural, Andrew McCutchen, finished fifth.  So second through fifth places were all occupied by outfielders.  NL MVP, and Demigods catcher, Buster Posey came in sixth.

    Click here to view the full MVP voting results.

    Before I wrap this up, I want to go back to the Cabrera/Trout debate and add some of my personal thoughts.  First of all, I have been amused/amazed by the fallout from yesterday’s announcement.  Some statheads are in complete bewilderment, thinking this result is a slap in their faces.  On the other hand, some “traditionalists” are using this opportunity to mock these people they view as “new-age nerds”.  I think both sets of people are acting ridiculously.  A vote for Cabrera OR Trout is completely justifiable.  They both had tremendous seasons.  Personally, I voted for Trout in this league and would have done the same if I had an AL MVP vote, but I completely understand Cabrera winning this award, and actually expected it.

    One thing people need to keep in mind is that there is no 100% foolproof way of judging a player’s value with statistics.  WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is probably the best metric at our disposal today to do that, but even WAR is flawed.  First of all, there isn’t even an agreed upon formula for calculating WAR.  The two most cited WAR producers (FanGraphs and Baseball Reference) use different formulas, and thus have different results.  Also, one major piece of the formula is defense.  While defensive stats are getting better every day, they still need to be taken with a grain of salt.  For example, am I supposed to believe Alfonso Soriano was the 12th most valuable defensive player in baseball this year?  That’s what FanGraph’s UZR rankings tell me.  Anybody who watched Trout and Cabrera play can tell you that Trout was a far, far superior defensive player.  However, judging exactly what the difference between the two players was, in terms of value to their teams, is nearly impossible.  Personally, I believe the defensive ratings for those two players are fairly accurate, but this is only my opinion and is very much open to debate.

    On to the rest of the post-season!  I still have one more season recap to write (covering the non-contenders), so look for that soon.  Then we’ll start focusing on 2013.  By the way, I am definitely implementing the suggested rule change to push back the roster cut deadline.  I haven’t set the official deadline yet, but it will probably be in early February.  You still will not be able to trade players until cuts have been made, so we are in a bit of a roster freeze period until the winter ends.  At the moment, this is the only rule change I have decided upon for next year, but that may change.  Further dialogue is encouraged.

  • Price is Right

    Naturals pitcher David Price

    A year ago, the Naturals had a mediocre pitching staff and wound up finishing 10 1/2 points behind the champions.  This year, that staff suddenly turned into one of the league’s best and the Naturals won their third DTBL Championship.  They had a roster full of pitchers who had great seasons, but one player clearly led the way:  David Price.  In a result that turned out to be almost identical to the AL Cy Young race, Price just barely edged out Justin Verlander to win the 2012 DTBL Cy Young award.

    In his young career, Price has established himself as one of the most dominating pitchers in the game.  Few can match his raw stuff, especially from the left side.  He has been able to produce stellar numbers despite pitching in the grueling AL East.  2012 was his best season yet though.  He finished just a hair behind Clayton Kerhaw with the league’s second best ERA at 2.56.  He was second in wins as well, reaching the 20 win mark for the first time in his career.  His 1.10 WHIP was the fourth lowest in the league and he struck out 205.  The wins, ERA and WHIP numbers were career bests.

    A second round pick of the Naturals in 2009, Price has had four quality seasons with the club in a stretch where they have never finished lower than third place.  He has now been a member of two DTBL Championship teams:  2010 and 2012, which also happened to be his personal best seasons to date.  Currently 27 years old, I’m sure he has quite a few more good years in him.  Along with Zack Greinke and Matt Cain, the Naturals don’t expect to have any trouble remaining near the top of the points table in the near future, particularly on the pitching side.

    As mentioned up top, this was an incredibly close vote.  Verlander just barely missed winning his second straight Cy Young award.  The Kings ace led the league in strike outs and had nearly identical ERA and WHIP numbers to Price (slight edge to Price in ERA and Verlander in WHIP).  What probably made the difference though was the three extra wins for Price.  Verlander finished with 17 victories.  Price received five of the ten first place votes, compared to three for Verlander.  However, Verlander almost made up for that difference with his five second place votes to just one for Price.  Neither were placed lower than third on any ballot though.  In the end, Price eked out the prize with 77 points, two ahead of Verlander.

    Those weren’t the only two players who received serious consideration for this award.  Another lefty, Clayton Kershaw of the Mavericks also received a pair of first place votes.  Kershaw led the league in ERA and WHIP and was second in strike outs.  But his downfall was just 14 wins.  While baseball people are willing to overlook low win totals in these days of advanced statistics, they can’t really be ignored in fantasy baseball since that category counts just as much as any other.  Kershaw was completely left off three ballots, but racked up 35 points to finish third in the vote.  Meanwhile, the Cougars Gio Gonzalez rode his league leading 21 wins to 30 points and a fourth place finish.  Rounding out the top five is Craig Kimbrel who earned 23 points as the highest finishing relief pitcher.  The Choppers closer had one of the most dominating seasons you will ever see from a relief pitcher, but had little chance of winning this award with so many strong starters in the field.  Not included in this top five are several other pitchers who had incredible seasons:  Matt Cain, Johnny Cueto and R.A. Dickey, to name a few.  In the case of Dickey, the NL Cy Young winner probably would have had a good shot at this award in the DTBL too had he been on a roster at the beginning of the season.  Cain will console himself with his MLB and DTBL championship rings.

    Click here to view the full details of the incredibly close vote.  Had any of the ten voters moved Verlander up a spot, or pushed Price down a level, we would have had a different winner.

    Check back on Friday evening when the Trout/Cabrera MVP debate will be settled once and for all…. or will Ryan Braun crash the party?

  • Naturals Grab Third Title

    Naturals pitcher David Price

    The World Series is over and the DTBL season wrapped up almost a month ago, so I suppose it is about time I write about the Naturals title winning season.  Actually, I may have skipped this altogether, except I suddenly find myself with some unexpected free time thanks to Hurricane Sandy.  Hopefully I won’t lose power before I finish this…

    Perhaps when it became obvious that we were headed for a chaotic sprint for the finish line, the Naturals should have been the clear favorite to finish first.  They have now come out on top of the two best finishes in league history and have never won the title by more than 3 1/2 points.  Their 2005 title now looks like a cakewalk as they bested the Moonshiners by 3 1/2.  Then in 2010, we had the unforgettable first place tie between the Naturals and Darkhorses, with two other teams within 5 points of first.  But the finishes to those seasons were nothing like 2012.  As I covered in the last article, five teams had a legitimate chance to win the championship heading into the final day of the season.  But in the end, Nick’s Naturals captured the 2012 Dream Team Baseball League Championship.

    With their third DTBL title, the Naturals are now tied with the Cougars for the third most titles in league history, just one behind the Darkhorses and Kings.  Not bad for the league’s youngest franchise.  Since the Darkhorses four-peat, the Naturals have been the league’s most dominating team.  They have finished no lower than third place since 2009, including two titles and a second place finish in 2011.  Despite finishing a distant second to the Jackalope a year ago, they were absolutely considered one of the favorites headed into 2012.  But the manner in which they went about winning the title was not what most predicted.  Previously a hitting dominated team, it was the Naturals pitching staff that led them to the title.

    In 2011, the Naturals finished 10 1/2 points behind the Jackalope, but it was a shaky pitching staff that kept them from making a serious title run.  They led the league with 45 batting points, but only earned a mediocre 25 1/2 pitching points.  That put them 23 1/2 pitching points behind the champion Jackalope, obviously too big of a margin to make up on offense.  But in 2012, it was almost the opposite situation.  The offense slipped to just 29 batting points, ranking fifth in the league.  A vastly improved pitching staff earned them 41 1/2 points, just 1/2 point behind the Jackalope for most in the league.  When put together, those numbers earned them a one point advantage over the Kings and Mavericks.

    Although the offense was largely disappointing, one player in particular kept the team afloat:  Miguel Cabrera.  Cabrera famously won the first league triple crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.  He did not win the same honor in the DTBL though since Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey and Mike Trout bested him in batting average.  In case you were wondering about Melky Cabrera and Trout finishing ahead of him, our league uses 400 at bats as the minimum qualifying mark, so Cabrera was able to qualify despite the PED suspension and wound up winning the DTBL batting title.  Meanwhile, although he finished behind Miguel Cabrera in the AL batting title race, Trout finished just ahead of him in our league because the Mavericks did not have him active for his first week in the MLB this season.  But anyway, that does not take away from the impressive season by Miguel Cabrera.  He hit .330 and led the DTBL in home runs (44) and runs batted in (139).  Only Trout scored more runs than his 109.  Just like in the American League, it should be a fascinating race between him and Trout for the MVP award.

    Cabrera was not the only standout offensive performer for the Naturals though.  Andrew McCutchen appears to have reached superstar status.  He joined the 30-20 club with 31 home runs and 20 stolen bases while hitting for a .327 average.  He also figures to garner some MVP consideration.  Chase Headley and Chris Davis were the biggest surprises on the roster, coming out of relative obscurity to have big seasons.  Both were very shrewd early season free agent signings by the Naturals.  Joey Votto was another player who was having a huge season, until a mid-season injury derailed him and he was never quite the same in the second half.

    In some ways, the Naturals offense wasn’t really that huge of a disappointment when you consider what they had to overcome.  Injuries ruined most/all of the season for some of their key contributors from years past:  Troy Tulowitzki, Carl Crawford, Victor Martinez and a late season injury to Nick Markakis.  6th round pick Mat Gamel was lost extremely early in the season as well.  So the fact that the Naturals slipped up in batting points this season was not at all surprising.  Fortunately for them, they had a pitching staff to pick up the slack.

    David Price, Matt Cain, Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann and Jon Lester teamed up to create a starting rotation as good as anybody’s, except possibly the Jackalope.  In fact, those five were so steady that Homer Bailey found himself in the minors almost the entire season despite a huge breakout season for him too.  Lester’s season was slightly disappointing, but the other four were among the best pitchers in the league this year.  Price will probably be the team’s top Cy Young candidate.  He finished second in the league in wins (20) and ERA (2.56) and was also among the league leaders in WHIP (1.10) and strike outs (205).  Cain threw a perfect game in ’12 and led the Naturals in WHIP (1.04) while winning 16 games.  Greinke had another steady season, though he tailed off a bit after the trade to the American League.  And Zimmermann had a breakout year, posting an impressive 2.94 ERA.

    The Naturals bullpen was a strength as well, finishing second in the league in saves despite finishing the season with just two closers.  Jason Motte and Chris Perez finished third and fifth respectively in the league in saves.  Jonathan Broxton contributed 27 saves as well, most of the coming before he was traded to Cincinnati.  It was a nice showing by a group that lost one of its key pieces in spring training, when Joakim Soria was lost to Tommy John surgery.

    The 2012 season will be best remembered for the unbelievable championship race.  But when it was all said and done, the Naturals claimed a well deserved DTBL Championship.  Next year, they will attempt to tie for the most titles in league history, and there is no reason to think they won’t be one of the favorites to do just that.

    Later this week, I will recap the season of the other title contenders and will then wrap things up with the teams that finished in the bottom half of the standings.  If I get another day off of work, perhaps that second article will come tomorrow.  Also look for the 2012 DTBL awards ballot to be posted later this week.  Those award winners will be announced in November.

  • The Chaos Ends, Naturally

    Naturals first baseman Miguel Cabrera

    In the two decades this league has existed, we’ve had our fair share of exciting finishes to DTBL seasons, but nothing quite like this year.  The final week of the 2012 season featured five teams within at least two points of first place at some point in the week.  In fact, if you count incremental progress within each date, most of the five found themselves in first place at some point.  For a brief moment on Wednesday night, it looked like we may have been headed to an absurd three way tie for the league championship.  However, when the dust settled, only one team came out on top.  Congratulations to Nick’s Naturals, the 2012 Dream Team Baseball League Champions!

    As usual, I intend to write about the league champion with a full recap of how they earned the title.  But that is going to have to wait until next week.  Tonight, I want to focus on the absurdity of the title race, describe just how things went down on the final night, and describe just how close we were to the most unlikely result in any fantasy league I have ever been a part of.

    As the summer progressed, it seemed quite likely that we were headed towards an exciting finish.  At no point in the season had any team run away from the pack; at least not for more than a few days at a time.  The lead constantly changed hands.  Seven teams looked like legitimate title contenders.  The Cougars and Choppers faded a bit in July and August, setting up a five team race to the finish.  With exactly one week to go, here is how the top five looked:

    1. Moonshiners, 73.5 points
    2. Kings, 72.5 (-1)
    3. Naturals, 67 (-6.5)
    4. Jackalope, 66.5 (-7)
    5. Mavericks, 65 (-8.5)

    It was fairly noteworthy that the top two teams had separated themselves from the others by more than five points, because that was rarely the case in September.  But it was clear when analyzing the standings that more change was likely to come.  There was also a great deal of uncertainty heading into the final transaction deadline.  Would the teams who had already clinched MLB playoff spots rest their starters?  Skip spots in the rotation?  Or even completely shut down some guys?  This was particularly troubling for teams worried about getting as many starts from their starting pitchers as possible.  The Moonshiners appeared to be in very good shape, not only because they held the top spot, but they had most of their starting pitchers slated to start twice in the final week.  Meanwhile, the Kings were dealing with several nagging injuries to their outfielders and uncertainty about Max Scherzer’s availability in the final week.  The other three challengers were just trying to hang on.

    Three days later, the Moonshiners lead grew to four points.  The four challengers were all within a point of each other, but needed to make up ground quickly.  By the next morning (Monday), the lead was down to 1 1/2 points and the sprint to the finish was on.  On the second to last day of the season, the Moonshiners lost the lead completely as the Kings and Naturals moved into a tie for first entering the final day.  The Moonshiners slipped to 1 1/2 points back.  The Jackalope’s dream of a repeat seemed unlikely, 3 1/2 points behind.  And finally, the Mavericks looked to be in big trouble, 5 1/2 points off the pace.  But the Mavericks had one thing going for them that the other challengers did not:  multiple starting pitchers scheduled to take the mound, including their ace, Clayton Kershaw.  Actually, that’s not quite true.  The Moonshiners were also supposed to get three starts on the final day of the season.  However, the Brewers elected to scratch Yovani Gallardo and the Angels pulled Jered Weaver after just one inning.  This essentially ended the Moonshiners hopes of gaining a point in strike outs and decreased their movement possibilities in ERA and WHIP.

    I won’t rehash all of the events of the final day, as most of them can be found in my live blog from yesterday.  But one part of the story must be repeated.  During the 10 o’clock hour, I was frantically updating my spreadsheet with all of the stats from the completed 7 p.m. games as well as most of the stats from the last batch of games.  At one point, I calculated a three way tie for first place.  Had the season ended at that instant, the Kings, Mavericks and Naturals would have shared the title.  But some later shifts in RBI and saves moved the Naturals back into the final position they claimed.

    The three way tie scenario was actually a lot closer to happening than I realized last night.  The WHIP category was the craziest to follow on the last day.  Only three of the league’s ten teams ended the day where they started in that category.  The margins between most of the teams were miniscule, but especially between the Gators and Naturals.  When it was all said and done, the Naturals edged out the Gators for second place in WHIP by two ten-thousandths of a point.  To put that in perspective, had any Naturals pitcher finished the season with one more base runner allowed via hit or walk, the Gators would have finished ahead of them and we would be talking about three co-champions.  I bet I wouldn’t have to try very hard to find a questionable scoring decision somewhere over the course of the season where a Naturals pitcher benefited from an error rather than a hit.  But that’s not to say the Naturals got lucky.  In fact, they were well positioned to gain points in a whole host of other categories.  They were one offensive hit away from passing the Kings in batting average, for example.  I only illustrate this to show you just how ridiculously close this race was.

    Of the ten categories, all but two of them saw points change hands during the final day.  This is incredibly unusual at the six month mark of the season, especially in high value counting categories like RBI and runs.  Based on what we saw yesterday, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that we would have had four or five different leaders if the season had extended a few more days, just as we saw the lead change hands several times over the final weeks.  But the season has to end sometime, and the Naturals were fortunate enough to come out on top.

    I’m sure all four of the teams who came up just short have been thinking about decisions they made that may have cost them a title.  With the way things ended up, it wouldn’t be very hard to point to a single transaction each team made (or could have made, but didn’t), which would have shifted the standings in their favor.  But such is life when a season ends as this one did.  There is always next year for the rest of us!

    What is it with the finishes in Naturals championship seasons?  They earned their third DTBL title this year, and the two most recent ones have come in the two craziest finishes in league history.  Of course, the other season I speak of was 2010 when they shared the title with the Darkhorses.  It certainly makes their 3 1/2 point victory in 2005 look like a cakewalk.

    Look for a full review of the Naturals championship season next week, as well as a glimpse at the other contenders who fell just short.

  • Live Blog: Season Finale

    Mavericks pitcher Clayton Kershaw

    After sending the email to the group list last night, I realized that it can be difficult to fully describe what is going on with just 140 characters at a time, so I’ve decided to start a running blog post to summarize the championship race this evening.  I will continue to tweet updates as well, but feel free to keep refreshing this post to see my updates throughout the night.

    With one day remaining on the schedule, we have five teams within three points of first place.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  There are points to be gained or lost in almost every category.  I will let you know every change as close to real-time as possible, via Twitter, and with occasional updates here.

    Time for me to get caught up on the afternoon games.  There were some very interesting developments, but it remains to be seen if there were any changes to the standings.  I’ll have an update shortly.  Stay tuned!

    7:50 pm

    Well, I’ve finished updating things through the completed afternoon games.  Thanks to a rough outing by Jonathan Papelbon, the Kings dropped a point in ERA, falling behind the Choppers.  Meanwhile, the Jackalope also fell one further down as the Choppers passed them in WHIP.  Plenty of categories tightened as well.  The Kings picked up two home runs (Zimmerman and Morse) and are now just one behind the Mavericks for the league lead.  However, the standings are now as follows:  Naturals (71 points), Moonshiners (70), Kings and Mavericks tied (69), Jackalope (67).  Not looking good for the defending champs.  Now I’ll work on updating the games in progress.

    8:40 pm

    Okay, trying to keep this “live” is virtually impossible, but one thing is starting to become clear.  It appears the Naturals will win the 2012 DTBL Championship.  They now lead the league with 72 1/2 points.  The Mavericks have moved up to 2nd place, but are 3 points back.  Moonshiners have dropped to 3rd (69).  Kings and Jackalope are 4th and 5th respectively, and are leaking points all over the place.  Still way too many close categories to call this thing, but not looking good for anyone other than the Naturals.

    9:00 pm

    Did they really have to schedule this Presidential Debate on the last night of the MLB season?  Don’t they know there are fantasy league titles on the line tonight?  May not be many updates from me for a while…  Still looking good for the Naturals, though Robinson Cano’s big night has pushed the Kings into the league lead in HR and has them back into 2nd place overall.  2 1/2 point lead for the Naturals though.

    10:51 pm

    Way too many changes since my last update to list, but we have a major development.  I now have the Kings, Mavericks and Naturals in a three way tie for first at 69.5 points, with the Moonshiners 1/2 point back and the Jackalope 2 points behind the leader.  The main reasons for the change:  great start by Clayton Kershaw gave the Mavericks a boost, especially since another Mavericks pitcher (Ryan Vogelsong) also had a good outing in that same game.  Robinson Cano went 4 for 4 with a pair of home runs, boosting the Kings in HR and batting average.   Finally, I have the Naturals and Jackalope tied in RBIs now, which also cost the Naturals 1/2 point.  Needless to say, it is way too close to call right now.

    11:11 pm

    Jason Motte’s save puts the Naturals back into the lead.  Ironically, it was another Naturals pitcher that helped set up the save opportunity.  Jonathan Broxton gave up a run and took the loss.  He didn’t cost the Naturals in the WHIP category, yet.  They are thousandths of a point ahead of the Gators at the moment, according to my calculations.  Kings, Mavericks and Moonshiners are all within a point, so a change in any category could tip the title in a different direction.

    11:47 pm

    The 2012 season is now over.  I have compiled all of today’s results.  The gap between teams in almost every category is so small that I do not trust my final results and sort of wish I hadn’t chosen to do this “live” updating because the chances I have it wrong are quite high.  Anyway, according to my numbers the 2012 DTBL Champions are Nick’s Naturals!

    The Naturals have 70 1/2 points.  The Kings and Mavericks tied for second place, just one point behind.  The Moonshiners fell to fourth place with 69 points and the Jackalope came in 5th with 67.

    I urge you to check in again tomorrow morning around 8:15 a.m. EDT when I will post the official results.  This could be a “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, but if not, congratulations Nick!

  • Mad Dash to the Finish

    Moonshiners first baseman Prince Fielder

    For most of the month of September, as many as five teams have been within a couple points of first place, setting up the potential for one of the craziest finishes in league history.  I wish I had taken the time to write this article a few days ago when all five of the contenders were within two points of each other.  In the last couple days, the gap has widened a bit.  But the fluctuation in those couple days just goes to show you how quickly things could change again.  With less than a week to go in the 2012 DTBL season, the league title isn’t even close to being decided.

    Here is a team-by-team overview of the five contenders, looking at the state of each team and what needs to happen for them to finish on top.

    Jackalope

    Although at no point this season have the defending champions held a commanding lead, I really felt they were the team to beat in the late summer.  They were showing signs of the same form that led them to the title last year.  But their offense has been a huge disappointment most of the season, and especially lately.  Ryan Braun has been trying to carry the load, but he has had virtually no help.  The injury to Giancarlo Stanton couldn’t have come at a worse time, although he is back in the lineup tonight.  The Jackalope’s nine point deficit may be too much to make up in such a short period of time, especially since the offense has shown no signs of life.  It would seem likely that we will have a new champion in 2012, but don’t count the Jackalope out just yet.

    Mavericks

    The surprise team of the year appears to be running out of gas.  It is a pretty notable accomplishment for them to have remained in the race this long.  Due to exhausting all of their free agent signings well over a month ago, they have been unable to field replacements for players who have been injured/shelved in recent weeks.  Prior to Clayton Kershaw’s return earlier this week, the Mavericks were stuck with just three healthy/active starting pitchers.  The Stephen Strasburg shutdown was expected, but the Johan Santana and Kershaw injuries were not.  Perhaps their strategy of burning through their free agent signings could be questioned, but I think the Mavericks figured their rebuilding plan was at least a year ahead of schedule, so they were playing with house money.  This will be a tough team to beat in 2013.

    Naturals

    Many of the things stated in the Jackalope section also apply here.  The Naturals have remained in the title chase despite a slightly disappointing offense.  Miguel Cabrera and Andrew McCutchen have been doing their part, but the Naturals still find themselves in the middle of the pack in batting points.  The good news is they are situated in striking distance of their nearest competitor in a whole bunch of categories.  They have a decent shot at picking up as many as three points in home runs alone.  In fact, I believe they have the best chance of anyone to catch the Moonshiners.  Their pitching staff is the best in the league right now.  If the Moonshiners slip up at all, expect the Naturals to be right there on the final day of the season.

    Kings

    The second half turnaround of the Kings pitching staff has been extremely impressive and season saving.  Burried in 9th place in ERA most of the season, their deficit appeared to be too much to make up.  But the Tigers’ duo of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer has propelled them up to a more respectable spot.  However, the Kings title hopes may have been dashed when news came out that Scherzer would miss his start this weekend and may not pitch again in the regular season.  Kings management learned of this just hours after the final transactions of the year had been processed.  So if Anibal Sanchez winds up throwing another gem this weekend, the failure to keep him in the lineup could be the dagger to the Kings.  The other problem is that they have pretty much reached their point ceiling.  Most likely, the only way they will make up the current 3 1/2 point deficit is if the Moonshiners fall back a bit.

    Moonshiners

    Usually, a team would feel pretty good about a 3 1/2 point lead with less than a week to go.  But considering the Moonshiners weren’t even in first place earlier this week, obviously a lot can happen in just a couple days.  Unlike the other four title contenders, the Moonshiners don’t have an obvious weakness.  They are the only team in the league with 30+ batting and pitching points.  In fact, they are over 35 in both.  It’s pretty simple for the Moonshiners.  All they need to do is hold serve.  No other team is going to reach the mid-70’s point mark.  So as long as they don’t start dropping points, they will win their first DTBL title.  However, that’s not exactly a sure thing.  They are in danger of losing points in home runs, WHIP, wins, strike outs and possibly even batting average.  The fat lady hasn’t even started warming up her vocal chords.

  • American Dominance

    All-Star Game MVP Carlos Ruiz

    Just like the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, there was little drama in the DTBL All-Star Game on Thursday evening.  In the 19th annual mid-summer game, the American Division cruised to a 12-1 victory over their National Division counterparts.  The game even started eerily similar to the MLB game with Justin Verlander getting torched in the top of the first.  The National All-Stars didn’t record their first hit until the fifth inning.  Gators catcher Carlos Ruiz was named the MVP, going 3 for 3 with a home run and four runs knocked in.  The game was played at the Demidome, home of Dom’s Demigods.

    The game got off to an ominous start for the National Division with Verlander hitting Andrew McCutchen with the first pitch of the game.  McCutchen came around to score on a base hit by Jose Bautista.  David Wright followed with another RBI single.  Later in the inning, Ruiz got his big night started with a two run single to give the American team a quick 4-0 lead in the first.

    The American starting pitcher, Matt Cain, was far more effective.  He pitched two scoreless, hitless innings and was followed by David Price who pitched two innings without giving up a hit either.  Stephen Strasburg was the second pitcher into the game for the National squad, but he was only slightly more effective than Verlander.  He gave up a two run home run to Miguel Cabrera in the top of the second, which increased the American lead to six.  They were on cruise control from there, but were definitely not done scoring.

    In the top of the fifth, Cole Hamels came in to pitch for the National Division and promptly gave up extra base hits to the first three hitters he faced.  Doubles by Mark Trumbo and Ian Kinsler proceeded a two run home run by Ruiz.  Half way through the game, it was 9-0 American with the National All-Stars still looking for their first hit.  That hit finally came in the bottom of the fifth when Buster Posey hit a solo home run to end the no-hitter and shutout.

    The American Division still had more runs in them.  They scored three more in the top of the seventh to push the score to 12-1.  The big hit of the inning was a bases clearing three run double by Ryan Braun.  Neither team scored the rest of the way.  Craig Kimbrel finished things off in the ninth with a pair of strike outs, including one of A.J. Pierzynski to end mercifully end the game.

    There were plenty of offensive stars for the American Division, but Ruiz was the obvious choice for MVP.  Ruiz and Braun both had three hits and at least three RBIs (four for Ruiz).  Cabrera, Bautista and Kinsler each had multiple hits as well.  All told, the American All-Stars recorded 12 runs on 16 hits.  Meanwhile, the National team only recorded four hits, with Posey’s home run being the only hit by a National starter.  Jason Kipnis had a pair of hits off the bench.

    Cain and Price were the pitching stars of the game.  Although the OOTP box score credits Price with the win, that distinction actually belongs to Cain since we don’t have a minimum inning requirement for earning a victory in an All-Star Game.  Verlander took the loss.  The defensive star of the game was probably McCutchen.  He had six putouts in six innings in center field.  Interestingly, he made catches to end five of the six innings he played.

    As usual, the game was played using the Out of the Park Baseball simulation game.  For the second straight year, there was a live webcast of the game on LiveStream.  Check out the link below if you would like to watch the archived video.  Congrats to Jay for managing his team to an easy win and thanks for taking the time to take part in the game.  Here’s to an exciting second half!

    Box Score

    LiveStream Channel (with archived video)

  • Around the League

    Moonshiners savior R.A. Dickey

    We’re only in the last week of June, but I’m ready to declare that we have quite a pennant race brewing.  At no point has any team in the league asserted its dominance, thus leaving us with a situation where seven out of the ten teams are in a very good position to win the championship.  Those seven teams are all within 10 points of first place, with the top five separated by just four points.  Somehow, the Mavericks have managed to hold the top spot most of the year, but it has been by the thinnest of margins at most times, including today when they are just 1/2 point clear of the Jackalope.

    As we near the half way point of the season, I’m going to take a quick look at each of the ten teams, highlighting some of the key stories for each team.  I will start with the three teams who are not currently in the thick of the race and then work my way up to the top of the standings.

    Darkhorses

    Only a year and a half removed from four consecutive championships, it would be fair to say things have gone downhill since then.  While last year was a shocking disappointment for the Darkhorses, this season has been an absolute nightmare.  Injuries have been the story of the league this season, but no team has had their season completely ruined by injuries like the Darkhorses.  They sit in last place with just 18.5 points, so they are in serious jeopardy of breaking the league’s all time low water mark of 20 points since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1998.  If you look at their roster, there is no way they should be this bad.  Besides the injuries, incredibly disappointing seasons from Adrian Gonzalez and Tim Lincecum haven’t helped either.  If those guys can turn it around and Chris Carpenter, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner return soon, maybe they can gain a little momentum and avoid a historically bad season.

    Gators

    Still a work in progress, and not really a threat this year, but things are looking up for the Gators.  Their ridiculously bad offense from ’11 has improved a bit and their pitching staff is respectable.  But there is still a lot of work to do.  Their huge pre-draft trade with the Mavericks hasn’t really worked out.  Nelson Cruz has been so-so and Mark Reynolds has provided virtually nothing.  They could have used those picks to improve in other areas, but what’s done is done.  The first draft pick they did make, Melky Cabrera in round three, has been a huge surprise, currently third in the league with a .355 average.  The Gators appear to be headed for another high draft slot next season.  With some exciting young players coming into the league again next year, maybe they will have an opportunity to grab one of them.

    Demigods

    The third team not currently in the title race is the Demigods.  At the beginning of the year, they looked like a team ready to make a run at the championship.  But like the Darkhorses, the Demigods have been sabotaged by injuries.  One in particular:  Matt Kemp.  In April, Kemp appeared to be a shoe-in for his second straight DTBL MVP award and a possible Triple Crown.  But since then, he has missed the better part of the last two months.  Who knows what he will provide when he returns?  But a healthy Kemp and Evan Longoria could get the Demigods back into contention.

    Cougars

    Although they are only in seventh place, this is the best Cougars team in a long time.  They are just 9.5 points behind the Mavericks and could get even closer if a couple of their pitchers turn things around.  Josh Hamilton has carried the offense, despite slowing down a bit of late.  Jason Kipnis has been one of the biggest steals of the draft, providing big time power and speed at a weak second base position.  Many were surprised when the Cougars passed on Stephen Strasburg with the first pick of the draft.  That may not have been a wise decision, but the Cougars made up for it by grabbing his Nationals teammate Gio Gonzalez in the second round.  Gonzalez’s numbers are pretty similar to Strasburg’s and you have to figure the Cougars would not have taken Gonzalez if they had gone with Strasburg in round one.

    Choppers

    The transformation of the Choppers has been quite remarkable.  Last year they were all offense with a questionable pitching staff.  This year, it is just the opposite.  They are second in the league with 40 pitching points, but only have 20 batting points.  One player is mostly responsible for the pitching turnaround:  Chris Sale.  Over the years, many teams have benefited from an extra starting pitcher in a relief pitching slot.  But normally, that pitcher doesn’t put up All-Star caliber stats like Sale is doing this year.  He’s keeping together a staff whose starting rotation is bandaged up with a bunch of free agent signings to fill in for other injured starters.  The injuries to the Choppers rotation could be a huge problem in the upcoming weeks/months.  But there is certainly reason to believe the offense will pick it up.  Jose Bautista is heating up, now in a tie for the league lead in home runs.  He could help the Choppers pick up some offensive points to move even closer to first place.

    Kings

    It is hard to say that a team four points out of first has been a huge disappointment, but to some degree, I think that can be said about the Kings.  The pitching staff has been atrocious as a whole.  They are ninth in the league in ERA and near the bottom in WHIP and wins too.  Justin Verlander needs some help.  Recently, the Kings have done a poor job of rotating their extra starting pitchers into the lineup.  In the last eight days, they missed out on a one hit shutout by Ervin Santana and seven great innings from Edwin Jackson last night.  If they could ever start picking the right five starting pitchers for a given week, they could be on to something.  For the most part, the offense has been great, leading the league in batting points.  But the lack of production from two Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, has been troubling.  The Kings are still in pretty good shape despite being in fifth place though.

    Naturals

    Much of what I wrote about the Choppers also applies to the Naturals.  They have transformed from an offensive juggernaut with a mediocre pitching staff to a team with a disappointing offense and the best pitching staff in the league.  Matt Cain, Zack Greinke and David Price have been outstanding for the Naturals rotation.  Jordan Zimmermann would be right there too if he would ever get run support and win some games.  The Naturals have to be considered one of the most dangerous teams heading into the second half because you  have to figure their offense will improve.  Having said that, the recent injury to Troy Tulowitzki could be extremely costly.  He’s expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks and they don’t have an obvious candidate to pick up the slack.

    Moonshiners

    The Moonshiners are perhaps the league’s most intriguing team right now.  They have suffered some very costly injuries to their pitching staff, with the most devastating one coming this past week when Brandon Beachy was lost for the season with a torn UCL.  Beachy was leading the league in ERA and had a sub 1.00 WHIP.  But one free agent signing may have saved their season.  Since joining the Moonshiners a month ago, R.A. Dickey has not allowed an earned run.  Read that again.  Dickey has a 0.00 ERA, 0.495 WHIP, four wins and 42 strike outs in just 34.1 innings with the Moonshiners.  The 37 year old knuckleballer has been the league’s best story this year and may have a huge say in determining if the Moonshiners can win their first DTBL championship.

    Jackalope

    It really can’t get any tighter at the top of the standings.  As of today, the defending champions sit one half point behind the Mavericks.  Batting points:  35.5 for the Mavericks, 35.0 for the Jackalope.  Pitching points:  both have 33.  So both teams are holding their own in batting and pitching.  The Jackalope got off to a bit of a slow start, but ever since their two biggest stars, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun, have started to heat up, so has this team.  I think they have to be considered the favorites at this point, especially if they are able to get anything out of Ryan Howard in the second half.  Their dominating rotation from last year hasn’t been quite the same this season.  But Felix Hernandez has been better of late, Cliff Lee will eventually win a game and Roy Halladay should provide he boost when he gets healthy.  As long as they keep it close, I like their chances down the stretch.

    Mavericks

    This has been a pretty remarkable season for the Mavericks, following two consecutive eighth place finishes.  Despite the incredible tightness of the race, they have managed to hold onto first place most of the year.  Their strategy of stockpiling draft picks is paying off.  Their pre-draft trade with the Gators may alter the course of this league for years to come.  The two players they acquired with the draft picks they received in that trade:  Stephen Strasburg and Mike Trout.  Strasburg leads the league in strike outs and is not far behind in ERA, WHIP and wins too.  What the Nationals decide to do with him when he reaches that magical 160 IP mark could have a dramatic impact on this league.  I’ll probably write about this more when that date gets closer because I have a strong opinion on the matter.  Meanwhile, I’ll be honest, I thought Trout was a bit of a gamble in the early second round because I wasn’t so sure the Angels would be able to make room for him this season.  Boy was I wrong.  He is hitting .351 and will probably be leading the league in stolen bases before June is over.  If Adam Dunn, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Jones keep hitting home runs at their current rates, the Mavericks are going to be tough to catch, despite all the teams nipping on their heels.

  • Cain is Able

    Naturals pitcher Matt Cain

    It’s almost getting to the point where no hitters aren’t even worth discussing, and perfect games aren’t terribly rare either.  But nonetheless, Natruals right hander Matt Cain pitched the 22nd perfect game in MLB history last night, arguably one of the most dominating pitching performances of all time.  In addition to not allowing a base runner, Cain also struck out a career high 14 hitters during the Giants 10-0 victory over the Astros.  The 14 strike outs matched Sandy Koufax for the most K’s in a perfect game.

    Using Bill James’ Game Score statistic, Cain’s outing was tied for the second best pitched game of all time, trailing only Kerry Wood’s 1 hit, 20 strike out game in 1998.  By the way, Wood’s game was also against the Astros, but a lineup that featured a couple possible future Hall of Famers.  The same cannot be said of the Astros lineup last night.  But that should not diminish Cain’s accomplishment.

    While there have only been 22 perfect games in MLB history, five of them have occurred in the past four seasons, including two this year.  Cain is the first DTBL player to do it this year tough since Phil Humber is not on the league roster.  The last DTBL perfect game before last night belonged to Roy Halladay in May of 2010.

    The history of perfect games is quite fascinating.  There had been a gap of 34 years without one before Don Larsen threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series.  Then there was another 13 year drought between 1968 and 1981.  13 of the 22 have occurred in the past 32 years and nine since this league was formed in 1993.  There have been a lot of theories as to why they have been so frequent in recent years.  Some are fairly obvious:  there are a lot more teams, and therefore more games played than there were in the first half of the 20th century.  The end of the steroid era has led to better pitching numbers across the board in the last half dozen years or so.  One theory I like is more about the increase in no hitters than perfect games:  it could have a lot to do with the diminished focus on batting average as a significant stat.  Strike outs are way up in the current era.  It stands to reason that with fewer balls being put into play, fewer hits will fall in.  But this is only a partial explanation since the MLB-wide batting average is not even close to historical lows.  Whatever the reasons may be, perfect games are still extremely impressive achievements.

    With his outing last night, Cain moved into the DTBL lead in WHIP with a miniscule 0.853 mark.  Although he’s not likely to keep it there all season, only two DTBL players have finished a full season with a lower WHIP.  His 2.18 ERA, eight wins and 96 strike outs are all in the top three of the league as well.  Cain has been a solid performer for the Naturals since 2007.  His highest ERA was a very respectable 3.57 in his DTBL rookie season (’07).  Yet wins have been hard to come by, mostly due to the Giants anemic offense in recent years.  Cain has never reached the 15 win mark, though he seems to be a pretty good bet to do it this year since he’s already more than half way there.  He leads the Naturals in all pitching categories except for saves, so he deserves most of the credit for their league high 41 pitching points.  The Naturals are currently in fourth place, but just eight points out of first.  Their batting/pitching numbers are almost reversed from last year when it was their hitting that led them to a second place finish.

    Cain was only one of several pitchers who put up extremely impressive numbers on Wednesday night.  The Cardinals’ Lance Lynn matched Cain’s strike out total of 14, allowing three hits in 7+ scoreless innings.  And R.A. Dickey nearly made it two no hitters in one night.  He allowed just one infield hit in a complete game.  The Mets are appealing to try to get the scoring of the one hit changed to an error, but I would be absolutely shocked if the appeal is upheld.  Dickey has been an amazing story all year.  Last night, he broke the Mets team record for consecutive scoreless innings before allowing an unearned run in the ninth.  But since the Moonshiners signed him as a free agent a few weeks ago, he is yet to allow an earned run in 25 1/3 innings.  He has won 10 games this year (three with the Moonshiners).

    Finally, following my last blog post a few weeks ago, there were a few comments about possible rule changes for next season.  I decided to start a Forum thread to get a discussion going.  If you haven’t read it yet, please check it out and provide any feedback you may have.