DTBL News

Category: Jackalope

  • 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!

  • Close Only Counts In…

    Mavericks outfielder Jason Heyward

    When a season ends like this year’s DTBL campaign did, there is always going to be a lot of second guessing.  One move here or there.  One umpiring or official scorer decision gone bad.  One unlucky bounce of the ball could have been the difference between a league championship and also-ran status for four different teams.  The Naturals won the DTBL Championship, but four other teams came oh so close.  Here’s a look back at 2012 for the Kings, Mavericks, Moonshiners and Jackalope.

    While a second place finish is always a little disappointing, it was a step in the right direction for the Kings.  This was their highest finish since 2007 and only the second time they were a legitimate title contender since their reign of championships ended in 2003.  Like the champion Naturals, the Kings went through a bit of a transformation this season, albeit in the opposite direction.  Previously a pitching dominated team, this year they led the league in batting points and failed to win the league primarily due to a disappointing pitching staff.  Their starting pitching was a mess most of the season with Justin Verlander being the only consistent performer.  A second half surge, led by Max Scherzer, nearly won the league for them though.  The offense was solid all season, but faded a bit due to a poor second half by Carlos Beltran and a late season injury to Carlos Gonzalez.  Robinson Cano was the steady hand throughout.  The Kings are going to have some very difficult roster decisions to make because they may have more keeper-worthy players than any other team.  In this year’s draft, we saw a bunch of ex-Demigods picked in the early rounds.  That could be the Kings next year.

    For my money, the most interesting team in the league in 2012 was the Mavericks.  Their youth movement finally paid off in a big way.  Although they expected to be at least one more year away from being a serious contender, one move in particular shifted that time table way up.  What might some day go down as the biggest coup in league history, the Mavericks were able to steal Mike Trout in the second round of this year’s draft.  As I’ve mentioned before, I thought it was a huge reach at that point of the draft, but boy was I wrong.  Trout finished third in the league in hitting at .330, easily led the league in runs scored (128) and stolen bases (48) and hit 30 home runs.  He did all of this despite not making his DTBL debut until May.  He almost won the league for the Mavericks, though he did have some help.  Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Jones and Jason Heyward were some of the huge breakout stars for this club.  The pitching staff took a hit when Stephen Strasburg was shut down in September and they had no free agent signings remaining to replace him.  But Clayton Kershaw had another great season.  The Strasburg/Kerhsaw/Trout combination makes this one scary team for the foreseeable future.  Following two disappointing seasons, 2012 was just the beginning of the Mavericks resurgence.

    The Moonshiners may have been the team that suffered the most disappointment in the final week of the season.  Early in the week, they appeared to be well positioned to win their first DTBL title.  But they wound up settling for fourth place, albeit just a point and a half out of first.  That is actually down a spot from their third place finish in 2011, though 2012 was clearly a better season for them.  They were the league’s most balanced team; the only team to finish with 30+ batting and pitching points.  They were third in the league in both sub-sets.  While they lacked huge seasons from anyone, especially on the offensive side of things, they had incredible depth.  Prince Fielder and David Wright led the offense.  Jared Weaver was probably their top pitcher over the course of the full season, but the key free agent signing of R.A. Dickey was also one of the biggest moves of the year.  Although the fourth place finish was disappointing, it may have been just as well that the Moonshiners finished a half point behind the Kings and Mavericks because they will now have the opportunity to pick before those two clubs in the draft.  One of the steadiest teams in the league, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before the Moonshiners break through with their first title.

    Finally, we have the defending champions.  Dropping from first to fifth is obviously a huge disappointment for the Jackalope, but it wasn’t necessarily all that surprising.  Rarely are teams able to catch all the breaks two years in a row.  While the ’11 Jackalope cruised to the title thanks to an unbeatable pitching staff and virtually no significant injuries, the ’12 squad wasn’t so lucky.  They still managed to lead the league in pitching points, but the rotation led by Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee and Ian Kennedy just wasn’t as dominating as a year ago.  Lee was especially unlucky, not winning his first game until June despite pretty decent peripheral numbers.  But the real problem was the offense.  Ryan Howard missed the first half of the season and wasn’t particularly effective after he returned.  Several of their youngsters had disappointing seasons.  Albert Pujols wasn’t even close to his usual elite self.  The two bright spots were Ryan Braun and Giancarlo Stanton.  The rest of the offense is going to need some work in the offseason.  But expect the pitching to bounce back next year, which should keep them in the hunt once again.

    The rest of the league has some work to do to catch these top five teams.  But history has shown that breakthrough seasons are likely again next year.  I will recap the disappointing 2012 season for the bottom five teams later this week.

  • 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.

  • A Crowded Infirmary

    Choppers relief pitcher Mariano Rivera

    Memorial Day is usually a good point in the season to take stock in how the baseball season is going and examine where it may be headed.  As usual, there are hitters and pitchers who are vastly exceeding expectations, and have done so for long enough to make you think it may not be a fluke.  Some of those players are helping to put their DTBL teams at or near the top of the standings.  However, there seems to be a much bigger factor in determining a team’s success (or lack there of) this season:  injuries.

    Almost daily, there is another key player going down to an injury, whether it be a minor day-to-day issue, or one that has the player headed to season ending surgery.  We’ve had torn ACLs, torn UCLs, sprained knees, torn hamstrings, broken hands, blurred vision, chronic illness, you name it.  It started in spring training when two closers were lost for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery (Naturals’ Joakim Soria, Jackalope Ryan Madson).  Two DTBL first round draft picks are yet to play a game this season (Kings’ Michael Morse, Choppers’ Michael Pineda).  It is never a good sign when two of the most mentioned names in baseball are Tommy John and Dr. James Andrews.

    Even the previously indestructible players are falling victim to this plague.  The surest thing in baseball, Choppers’ Mariano Rivera, tore his ACL while shagging fly balls.  And just yesterday, the always reliable Roy Halladay (Jackalope) was lost for 6-8 weeks due to a lat strain.  Halladay wasn’t the only ace to go down yesterday either.  Jered Weaver (Moonshiners) was pulled from his start in the first inning with a back problem.  Fellow Moonshiner starting pitcher Ted Lilly hit the DL as well, as did red hot Kings catcher Jonathan LuCroy who suffered the freakiest injury of the season, breaking his hand due to a falling suitcase in a hotel room.

    In those last two paragraphs, I named nine different players, and that didn’t even begin to scratch the surface.  Every DTBL team has been affected, some more than others.  I probably need to take a closer look at each roster to see if this is still the case, but prior to this most recent string of injuries, there were three teams in particular who had been absolutely decimated:  the Darkhorses, Choppers and Demigods.  All three are around the double digit mark in total number of players who have spent time on the DL, including some very critical losses.  I suspect the Moonshiners are moving close to this list as well after losing 40% of their rotation yesterday.  The Darkhorses injury problems were so bad, for a while they were fielding a major league roster with at least three disabled players.  The Choppers and Demigods minors are/were filled with virtually nothing but injured players.

    The Mavericks have been in first place virtually the entire season.  In large part, that is because they had been the healthiest team in the league.  Until about a week ago, their only injured player was 12th round draft pick, and projected bench player, Lorenzo Cain.  But now the Mavericks have joined the rest of the league after having lost Neftali Feliz and Austin Jackson.  Still, they are in better shape than most.  With the exception of two pre-season injuries (Madson and Ryan Howard), the Jackalope had been relatively healthy as well, which helped guide them past the Mavericks for a couple days last week.  But now this Halladay injury could be a major problem for the defending champions.

    On a positive note, these injuries have certainly restrained any one team from running out to a huge lead, keeping most of the league very much in the mix.  Half of the league is within 10 points of first place and two others are within 20.  So if any of these teams can get relatively healthy, there are plenty of points to be gained.  But that “healthy” term seems inconceivable for some teams at this point.

    It was suggested to me by one league member that we look into adding additional DL slot(s) to our rosters in the future.  I am not necessarily opposed to this idea, but keep in mind that such a change would require a number of other adjustments as well, like the total number of players on the league roster and maybe a change to the free agent signing limit too.  This is a conversation I’m willing to have though if the consensus is that change is needed.  Obviously, no change will be made for this season though.  In the mean time, hopefully some of this madness will come to an end and we’ll be able to determine a champion based on player performance rather than healthy body tallies.

    Hopefully my next article will be about player(s) who are actually contributing to their DTBL squads!

  • Jackalope remain, Darkhorses return to elite status

    Mike Moustakas, 3B

    Jackalope

    Projected Finish: Third

    2011 Finish: First

    AVG: C … HR: A … R: C … RBI: B … SB: B … W: A … ERA: F … WHIP: F … K: B … SV: A

    Marc’s favorite draft pick: Sean Marshall, Round 12 – Mr. Irrelevant could be a gem with the injury to Ryan Madson

    Jay’s favorite draft picks: Mike Moustakas, Round 3 / Paul Goldschmidt, Round 4 – A pair to tidy up the corners as well as provide some pop while Ryan Howard nurses his Achilles.

    Overview: The Jackalope broke through last year from being a team with a great SP staff to simply a great team. The addition of Mike Stanton provided a much-needed power boost to move the Jackalope to the fourth-best offense and top overall team in the league in 2011.

    The 2012 Jackalope are ready to pick up where the 2011 squad left off. Howie Kendrick (Round 1) and Chris Young (Round 2) were among the best veteran DTBL players in the draft pool. By drafting every RP with ties to the Reds, the Jackalope ensured they will get any save opportunity to emerge from the Queen City – unless the Red lose, of course.

    Darkhorses

    Projected Finish: Second

    2011 Finish: Seventh

    AVG: A … HR: D … R: B … RBI: C … SB: A … W: B … ERA: A … WHIP: C … K: C … SV: A

    Marc’s favorite draft pick: Zack Cozart, Round 10 – seemed like a lot of publications were down on him following surgery on his non-throwing arm

    Dave’s favorite draft pick: Matt Moore, Round 1 – An expected ace who could help drive the Darkhorses’ SP staff back to prominence; Moore and Strasburg stood a tier above the rest of the SP pool

    Overview: After four consecutive DTBL titles (including one tie), the Darkhorses finally took a step back in 2011.

    Other than in the first round, the 2012 draft saw the Darkhorses follow their regular blueprint of drafting more established players rather than splurging on DTBL rookies. Among the rookies drafted by the D’horses, Jordan Walden entered the year looking like one of the top up-and-coming firemen in the league.

    (note: Injuries have taken a serious toll on the Darkhorses already this year, with the losses of Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Carpenter and Brian Wilson)

  • Jackalope Win First Title

    Jackalope outfielder Ryan Braun

    Two bold moves in March may have changed the course of history for one franchise.  Over the past several seasons, Jay’s Jackalope have had the league’s best starting pitching staff.  If you put together a list of the top ten starting pitchers over the past three years, the list would probably contain all five primary starters from the ’09-’10 Jackalope.  However, a below-average offense kept them from being a serious championship contender in those seasons.  So the Jackalope decided to do something about that.  Two premier starting pitchers were traded away for one of the game’s biggest sluggers and a coveted draft pick which turned into another young slugger.  These two moves, along with a couple other sly draft picks, directly led to a near perfect season.  Jay’s Jackalope are the 2011 Dream Team Baseball League Champions.

    Entering the 2011 season, the Jackalope were the longest tenured DTBL franchise without a championship.  They entered the league as an expansion team in 1998 and had some immediate success, finishing a very respectable sixth.  Since then, no franchise has had more ups and downs than this one.  In 2002, they finished in second place, but fell all the way to ninth the following season and tenth the year after that.  They made it back up to second again in 2006, but plummeted to last place again the next year.  It has been a steady climb to the top since then.  Last season, they finished in third place, but were just three points behind the co-champions.  In retrospect, the disaster of ’07 may have been the turning point for the franchise.  It allowed them to draft Ryan Braun with the first pick of the 2008 draft, giving them a second legitimate star on offense to compliment Albert Pujols.  Hunter Pence was their second pick in ’08 too, a draft which, by the way, Jay did not take part in due to an overseas deployment.  So a little bit of credit is also due to my friend Jeff who filled in for Jay in both the ’08 and ’10 drafts.

    While it was that 2008 draft which got things moving in the right direction, it was the two moves made this past March that turned the Jackalope into champions.  In the middle of the first round of the 2011 DTBL Draft, the Jackalope made two enormous trades within minutes of each other.  First, they dealt stud starting pitcher, and eventual Cy Young candidate, Jered Weaver and a fifth round pick to the Moonshiners for the sixth overall pick in the draft.  This trade came to be when a young slugging outfielder named Mike Stanton happened to slip through the first five picks of the draft.  The Jackalope immediately used the acquired pick to grab Stanton, giving them a much needed power boost.  But they were hardly done improving their team in that area.  They traded another one of their elite pitchers, Zack Greinke, to the Naturals for a proven power source in first baseman Ryan Howard.  These two trades should go down as two of the best win/win trades this league has ever seen, but I’ll get to that some more when I review the Moonshiners and Naturals seasons.  These three teams all managed to improve themselves, and the result was a top three finish for each.

    With two newly created holes in the rotation, the Jackalope had little concern because the staff still figured to be as good as any in the league considering Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez were still around.  But someone had to fill those two open slots, and boy did the Jackalope hit home runs with those selections.  They picked three starting pitchers in the draft, and all three wound up being major contributors.  Steady Shaun Marcum was the third round selection and stuck with the Jackalope rotation all season.  Then they picked Jhoulys Chacin in the sixth round.  Chacin proceeded to have an All-Star caliber first half.  But the biggest steal of the 2011 DTBL Draft came when the Jackalope selected Ian Kennedy in the eleventh round.  This NL Cy Young candidate won 21 games, but amazingly, the Jackalope had nowhere to put him for the first half of the season, so only 11 of those wins were recorded to his Jackalope stat line.

    Despite trading away Weaver and Greinke, the Jackalope somehow wound up with a better rotation in 2011 than the incredible crew from 2010.  They set a new DTBL record with a team total of 49 pitching points.  They finished in first place in every pitching category except wins, which they probably would have won as well had the Kings not been working with an extra starting pitcher in a RP slot.  So obviously it wasn’t just the starting pitching that was good.  The bullpen led the league in saves, thanks mostly to John Axford and Heath Bell.  Even Ryan Madson (10th round pick) added an unexpected 32 saves.  Axford’s 46 saves were the second most in the league.  It is hard to pick the best starting pitcher for the Jackalope since they were all so good.  Halladay was second in the league in ERA at 2.35, and won 19 games (3rd in league).  Lee was right behind Halladay in ERA (2.40), but had more strike outs (238, 3rd in league).

    It didn’t take much of an offense to ride along with that pitching staff for a title run, and honestly the Jackalope offense wasn’t spectacular.  They finished with 32 batting points, good for fourth in the league.  But that was a big step up from the past few years and was the Jackalope’s highest total since ’08.  The key to winning the title was to have a respectable offense, instead of one of the league’s worst like they were in ’09 and ’10.  They finished in the middle of the pack in every offensive category except stolen bases, which they finished on top.  As usual, the Jackalope offense was led by Pujols, but it was actually a bit of a down year by his standards.  He failed to drive in 100 for the first time in his career (98 DTBL RBIs).  He hit .300 with a team high 37 home runs, despite missing time with a broken wrist.  Actually, the offense was really led by Braun who had a MVP caliber season.  Braun hit .332 and made it to the 30/30 club with 33 home runs and stolen bases.  He drove in 111 and scored 109 times.  In addition to those two, the two players acquired via the March trades (Stanton and Howard) hit 30+ home runs as well (33 for Howard, 34 for Stanton).  Meanwhile, the Jackalope’s other first round pick, outfielder Michael Bourn, paid dividends too, leading the league with 61 stolen bases.  Basically, every draft pick the Jackalope made this year turned to gold.

    It was pretty smooth sailing for the Jackalope.  After the usual April/May fluctuation of the standings, the Jackalope had a firm grasp on first place by Memorial Day and never gave it up.  The Naturals made a nice run in August, at one time closing the gap to 1/2 point.  But the Jackalope remained steady in September while the Naturals went on a bit of a slide.  The Jackalope finished the season with 81 points and a 10 1/2 point margin of victory.  It was the largest margin of victory since 2008, and quite a contrast from 2010 when the top four teams finished within five points of each other.  There were a lot of tight races further down the standings, but I will get to that in my next article.

    As mentioned, this was the first DTBL championship for the Jackalope, leaving the Moonshiners and Demigods as the only active franchises without a title.  It ended an amazing four year title run for the Darkhorses, who remain tied with the Kings for the most championships.

    This was part one of what will be a three part review of the 2011 season.  In part two, which will hopefully come later this weekend, I will recap the season for the other nine franchises, covering what went right and what went wrong for each.  Finally, next week, I will delve into the numbers to show what a truly remarkable, and record breaking, season this was.  All year, I have been writing about what a pitching dominated season this has been.  But I want to gather some numbers to prove it.  Here is a bit of a preview.

    Congratulations, Jay!