DTBL News

Category: Kings

  • Someone Old, Someone New

    Embed from Getty Images Five weeks into the 2019 season, it is apparent that we will not have a repeat of 2018 in the DTBL where a single team dominated the league nearly from start to finish.  The Jackalope broke out to an early lead in the first couple weeks of the season, but since then, first place has been a revolving door.  The month of April ended with the Jackalope on top, but five other teams were within nine points of the lead.  It has been a rough start to the season for the Demigods and a couple other teams need to pick it up. But for the most part, everybody is well positioned as we move into May.

    On a macro level, the early season trends in baseball have been fewer hits (lower batting averages), more strikeouts and a lot more home runs.  The current league batting average of .260 would break last season's low water mark of .262.  But overall, offense is up, with the league ERA soaring to 3.89, which is higher than any full season league ERA since 2006.  The league WHIP is up as well.  So while pitchers are allowing fewer hits, they are actually surrendering more base runners due to a spike in walks.

    As you might expect with some of these extreme statistical increases, several individual players are off to record breaking paces as well.  Komodos outfielder Cody Bellinger and Darkhorses outfielder Christian Yelich each slugged 14 home runs in March/April.  That ties a league record for most home runs in the first month of the season, matching Albert Pujols in 2006 and Alex Rodriguez in 2007.  Bellinger's 37 RBI are an April record and his 32 runs also ties the record.  Spoiler alert, Bellinger will be mentioned again below.  Jackalope pitcher Gerrit Cole struck out 65 batters in the first month, which also ties a league record set by Curt Schilling in April of 1998.

    Again this year, I'm going to write monthly posts like this one, recapping the weekly and monthly award winners.  Here are the batters and pitchers of the week for the first five weeks of the 2019 season.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 1 (3/20 - 3/31) - Cody Bellinger, Komodos Week 2 (4/1 - 4/7) - Anthony Rendon, Jackalope Week 3 (4/8 - 4/14) - Austin Meadows, Demigods Week 4 (4/15 - 4/21) - Christian Yelich, Darkhorses Week 5 (4/22 - 4/28) - Luke Voit, Naturals

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 1 (3/20 - 3/31) - Jose Berrios, Darkhorses Week 2 (4/1 - 4/7) - Mike Clevinger, Naturals Week 3 (4/8 - 4/14) - Blake Snell, Cougars Week 4 (4/15 - 4/21) - James Paxton, Naturals Week 5 (4/22 - 4/28) - J.A. Happ, Komodos

    Unfortunately, April was a rough month from an injury perspective for players who were off to hot starts.  Exactly half of the players listed above wound up hitting the injured list shortly after earning their weekly honor.  Rendon and Meadows would have been in the conversation for Batter of the Month if not for their injuries.  Bellinger and Yelich, on the other hand, have remained healthy and are off to historically fast starts.  But only one of them can win the month's top honor.  That goes to...

    Batter of the Month:

    Cody Bellinger, Komodos .431 AVG, 14 HR, 37 RBI, 32 R, 5 SB, 4.64 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Justin Verlander, Kings 2.45 ERA, 0.864 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 53 K, 3.31 PAR

    An old guy and a (relative) newcomer.  23 year old Cody Bellinger not only had arguably the best month of April in league history, but on the short list for best months at any point of the season.  He is only the fourth player to ever hit 14+ homers with an average over .400 for an entire month (or a month and 4 days, in this case).  The others were Juan Gonzalez in July of 1996, Albert Belle in July of 1998 and Barry Bonds in September/October of 2001.  But Bellinger had a higher average than all of them, scored the most runs of the foursome and easily stole the most bases.  I don't have monthly PAR calculations going back that far, but I would guess Bellinger's was the best in league history.  While his rookie campaign of '18 was slightly disappointing for the Komodos, it appears they are getting everything they could have hoped for out of him this season.  It was unfortunate for Yelich to not have won this award because his numbers were insane as well.  Moonshiners shortstop Tim Anderson came in third.

    Justin Verlander's late career resurgence has continued into his age 36 season.  Last year's third place finisher in the Cy Young vote has started this season on top of the Pitching PAR leaderboard.  His 0.86 WHIP led all starting pitchers in March/April.  With 53 strikeouts in 44 innings, he's also maintaining an impressive strikeout ratio.  He is currently keeping the Kings pitching staff afloat, as no other starting pitcher on the team has a PAR over 1.  Verlander last won this monthly honor last June.  This award could have gone to a bunch of different pitchers.  Verlander barely edged out the Jackalope duo of Tyler Glasnow and Luis Castillo and Choppers righty Trevor Bauer.

  • 2019 Season Preview: Part IV

    Embed from Getty Images The final part of the 2019 DTBL season preview will cover the three teams projected to be the cream of the crop.  Two of the three were among the worst teams in the league a year ago.  However, a close examination of their rosters indicates that their struggles in 2018 were not due to a lack of talent.  Also, those rosters have been enhanced with some key additions via draft and trade.  The third team is less surprising, as they are the defending champions.  In the projected standings, there is an eight point gap between these teams and all of the ones covered previously, but only three points separate this trio.  In fact, spoiler alert, there is a projected tie for the top spot.  If you would like to skip to the bottom to see the full standings projections, be my guest.  But here are the three teams projected to be the top championship contenders in 2019.

    Nick's Naturals

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 5th (5th)

    • Home Runs - 5th (10th)

    • Runs Batted In - 8th (10th)

    • Runs Scored - 6th (10th)

    • Stolen Bases - 2nd (10th)

    • Earned Run Average - 2nd (2nd)

    • WHIP Ratio - 3rd (3rd)

    • Wins - 9th (4th)

    • Saves - 2nd (4th)

    • Strike Outs - 2nd (2nd)

    • Total Batting Points - 4th (10th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 3rd (2nd)

    • Total Points - 3rd (8th)

    Summary:

    Last year was a huge disappointment for the Naturals.  In this preview series a year ago, they were picked to finish second.  Poor performances and injuries knocked them out of contention early though.  It is safe to say they were not fielding their most capable lineup down the stretch either, causing them to finish in eighth place, their worst finish since 2008.  That allowed them to select Juan Soto with the third pick in the draft, who they immediately traded to the Mavericks for Andrew Benintendi.  Benintendi should be one of their best all around players right from the start.  He will provide a boost to an offense that was kind of a disaster a year ago, finishing in last place in all of the counting categories.  Nolan Arenado and Trea Turner are their top returning hitters.  They do not appear to be as deep as the other top offenses in the league, but any improvement over last season will be much welcomed.  Some of that improvement could come from a bunch of their young guys who could be breakout candidates, including Yoan Moncado, Victor Robles and Amed Rosario.  The Naturals don't need to be the best offense in the league.  But as long as they bounce back to at least the middle of the pack, they should be in good shape.  While the '18 offense was a train wreck, the pitching staff was not.  They finished third in pitching points and enter this season with the core of the staff remaining intact.  Carlos Carrasco, Noah Syndergaard and James Paxton give them an excellent top of the rotation.  The bullpen is one of the league's best, headlined by Felipe Vazquez and Raisel Iglesias.  But the main man is Josh Hader, who provided impressive value to the Naturals last year despite not being a closer.  With Corey Knebel out for the season, Hader figures to add plenty of saves to his resume as well.  One thing that stuck out to me when reviewing the Naturals 2018 roster is how many of their castoffs were coveted by other teams and drafted relatively early.  You don't see that much from a team that finished near the bottom of the standings.  It indicates that this team is loaded with talent.  A jump from eighth to third place would be pretty impressive, but the pieces are there for it to be a realistic expectation.

    Jay's Jackalope

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 7th (8th)

    • Home Runs - 2nd (8th)

    • Runs Batted In - 2nd (9th)

    • Runs Scored - 3rd (9th)

    • Stolen Bases - 3rd (8th)

    • Earned Run Average - 7th (8th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 9th (8th)

    • Wins - 2nd (8th)

    • Saves - 3rd (7th)

    • Strike Outs - 3rd (7th)

    • Total Batting Points - 2nd (9th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 4th-T (8th)

    • Total Points - 1st-T (10th)

    Summary:

    While the five place jump projected for the Naturals is impressive, it pales in comparison to the Jackalope forecast.  The team that finished dead last in 2018 is now projected to tie for a league championship a year later.  If you are scoffing at this possibility, you shouldn't be.  This league has a history of teams bouncing from the bottom to the top in short order.  Just last year, the Kings won the championship a season removed from finishing ninth.  Also, it has basically been the story of the Jackalope franchise history.  They are almost never mediocre.  They either contend for the championship or finish near the bottom.  After three straight years of the latter, it would seem this season could see them return to the former.  The main reason for the optimistic outlook is the difference-making talent they added in the draft.  The two players in the draft pool with the highest projected PAR for this season were Ronald Acuna and Adalberto Mondesi.  They added both.  Acuna was the first pick in the draft and they traded up to grab Mondesi at the end of the first round.  Only two players are projected for a higher batting PAR than Mondesi (Mike Trout and Mookie Betts), who combines power with elite speed.  Acuna figures to be a five category stud himself.  But it isn't just the newcomers who have impressive projections.  Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rendon and Gary Sanchez are all among the best players at their positions.  Barring terrible injury luck, this will almost certainly be one of the best hitting teams in the league.  Whether or not they can actually contend for the championship will depend on the pitching staff, which was also not very good last year.  Gerrit Cole is the staff ace and should be one of the best pitchers in the game again this year.  His running mate from a year ago, Luis Severino, is a bit of a wild card this season though as he begins the season on the injured list with a bum shoulder.  It is paramount that they get him back sooner than later.  Otherwise, they will be counting on guys like Luis Castillo and Tyler Glasnow to have huge breakout years.  Their bullpen should be pretty good, but Wade Davis is the only safe bet to tally big save numbers.  The pitching staff should be better than last year, but there is not much room for error.  One thing is pretty clear though:  2019 is going to be a much better season for the Jackalope.

    Kevin's Kings

    Category - Projected Rank (2018 Rank)

    • Batting Average - 8th (9th)

    • Home Runs - 4th (4th)

    • Runs Batted In - 4th (3rd)

    • Runs Scored - 9th (5th)

    • Stolen Bases - 5th (5th)

    • Earned Run Average - 1st (5th)

    • WHIP Ratio - 1st (1st)

    • Wins - 4th (1st-T)

    • Saves - 4th (3rd)

    • Strike Outs - 1st (1st)

    • Total Batting Points - 6th-T (5th)

    • Total Pitching Points - 1st (1st)

    • Total Points - 1st-T (1st)

    Summary:

    It is not surprising to see the defending champion picked to win it all again (in a tie, in this case).  However, the 2018 Kings weren't your typical champions.  They won the league in large part because they had historically good seasons from three players, built what seemed to be an insurmountable lead in the first half, but then hung on for dear life as most of the roster struggled badly in the second half of the season.  This was not a deep roster.  But the Kings do believe the roster will be better from top to bottom this season.  The projections point towards similar results as last year:  a mediocre offense and the best pitching staff in the league.  On the pitching front, it was all Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander a year ago.  The rest of the rotation was kind of a disaster and the bullpen wasn't great either.  Their first place ranking in pitching points was a testament to just how good Scherzer and Verlander were.  They return this year, of course, but are obviously both another year older.  They do have some interesting complementary pieces this time around though.  Zack Wheeler and Andrew Heaney were early round draft picks and both should be able to improve upon the non-Scherzer/Verlander parts of the Kings rotation.  The bullpen features three closers, at least to start the season, in Sean Doolittle, Will Smith and Arodys Vizcaino.  This has a chance to be the league's best pitching staff again this year.  In order to repeat though, the Kings will probably need a better offense than these projections portend.  Defending league MVP Mookie Betts is the only Kings hitter on the shortlist of the best players in the league.  But there are a handful of under the radar players who could be key contributors this season:  Rhys Hoskins, David Dahl, Adam Eaton and Mike Moustakas (I would have had Matt Olson on this list as well had he not broken his hand last week).  If enough of these guys can provide at least slightly above average production, the Kings offense should be good enough to contend again.  They will likely get a more spirited charge from other teams though, as at least half of the teams in the league could be championship contenders.

    Here are the full 2019 projected standings.  The three teams covered above appear to be the top championship contenders, but certainly a whole bunch of other teams could make a charge as well and render these numbers meaningless.  It should be another fun season!

  • Acuna, Soto Highlight Round One

    Embed from Getty Images The first round of the DTBL Draft almost always features a crop of young up-and-coming stars.  But this year's group is especially notable for their youth.  Eight of the ten players selected in the first round are under 25 years old, including the first seven picks of the draft.  And two players, Ronald Acuna and Juan Soto, are among the most accomplished players at their age to ever enter the league.  Acuna and Soto just turned 21 and 20 respectively over the offseason.  All ten first round selections are DTBL rookies.  A trade of two marquee players also highlighted an excellent start to the 2019 DTBL Draft.

    For the second straight year, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year was the first pick of the draft.  Ronald Acuna joins the Jackalope coming off a stellar rookie campaign.  He hit .293 with 26 home runs and 16 stolen bases, flashing all of his plus tools.  The Braves outfielder became a star almost immediately upon promotion and helped lead his team to an unexpected division championship.  He could help the Jackalope make a similar jump in the standings this year.  The Jackalope offense was especially disappointing a year ago, but the pieces are still there to be one of the best teams in the league.  Acuna was a pretty clear choice here.

    Last year, the Komodos took a young Dodgers star with the first pick of the draft (Cody Bellinger).  This year, they took another young Dodgers star with the second pick.  Walker Buehler should give a significant boost to a pitching staff that really struggled a year ago.  Buehler was pretty clearly the best pitcher available in this draft.  In 137 big league innings, he struck out 151 while posting an impressive 2.62 ERA and 0.96 WHIP.  That ERA is a full point lower than any Komodos starting pitcher posted in '18, when they finished dead last in the league in that category, by a healthy margin.  Buehler will immediately become the Komodos best pitcher.

    Juan Soto has already put himself in rarefied air based on his accomplishments in the big leagues as a teenager.  Nobody was expecting Soto to reach the majors for another year or two, but a series of injuries to Nationals outfielders caused them to bring him up last May. He was an immediate success and made it impossible to send him back down.  He was so good in his rookie campaign that the Nationals decided to only make a halfhearted attempt to retain Bryce Harper this winter.  Soto hit .292 with 22 homers in just 414 at bats.  The Naturals selected him with the third pick and he could have joined his Nationals teammate Victor Robles to form an exciting young duo for the Naturals as well.  But Soto was immediately traded to the Mavericks in a blockbuster swap of outfielders.  In return, the Naturals acquired Andrew Benintendi.  These are two of the best outfielders in the game, so this is quite a swap.  Benintendi is more established and is a little more well-rounded, offering a stolen base threat as well.  But Soto has a nearly unlimited upside in the power categories.  It will be very interesting to compare these players as their careers progress.  For the Mavericks, an outfield of Soto, Mike Trout and Aaron Judge is pretty darn scary.  But the Naturals have no shortage of young star hitters either.

    With the fourth pick, the Moonshiners selected this year's most interesting player, two-way star Shohei Ohtani.  Coming over from Japan, Ohtani was expected to be an immediate star on the mound, but many questioned if he would really be able to hit big league pitching.  In fact, some thought if he truly wanted to be a two-way player, he may need some time in the minors.  Well, turns out he can hit major league pitching.  He hit .285 with 22 home runs in just 326 at bats.  An injury limited him to just 51 innings on the mound, where he struck out 63 with a 3.31 ERA.  Unfortunately, he needed Tommy John surgery and will not pitch in 2019.  He does intend to hit, but probably won't see action in a big league game until May.  The Moonshiners have all sorts of options with Ohtani.  First, they can use him at 1B or OF this year since he didn't play a non-pitching field position last year.  And looking forward, they will have the option to use him as either a pitcher or hitter next year, assuming he is a keeper.  The sky is the limit with this pick, but the Moonshiners probably won't get their money's worth until next year and beyond.

    The Mavericks aren't used to picking in the first half of the first round, at least not with their own pick.  Last year was the first time they finished in the bottom half of the standings since 2011.  They took advantage of the rare positioning to acquire two of the top five players selected in this draft.  In addition to the trade for Soto, they selected pitcher Jack Flaherty with the fifth pick.  The Mavericks have an absolutely loaded offense, but the once undisputed top pitching staff in the league was anything but that a year ago.  Injuries destroyed the staff and caused them to finish dead last in pitching points.  Flaherty is the first step to try to rebuild that group.  Overshadowed a bit by the players already mentioned above, he had a rather dominant rookie campaign as well.  182 strikeouts in 151 innings is great for any pitcher, much less a 22 year old rookie.  The Cardinals hurler also had a strong 3.34 ERA and 1.11 WHIP.  He should provide stability for this revamped staff.

    The Cougars have had a pretty good recent track record of selecting hitters in the first round.  Second baseman Gleyber Torres is the next in line.  The Cougars will likely open the season with their offensive lineup featuring their past five first round picks.  Torres is younger than all of his predecessors though at the time of joining the squad.  He hit .271 with 24 home runs during his age 21 rookie season.  That combination of ability and age should make him a fixture on the Cougars roster for a very long time.  The Yankees have a lot of options in their infield this year, but one thing is certain.  Torres will be playing virtually every day, whether it be at second base or shortstop.

    Speaking of impressive young Yankees infielders, another one was selected with the seventh pick, with the Choppers taking third baseman Miguel Andujar.  Andujar hit .297 with 27 homers and 92 RBI, to finish second in the American League Rookie of the Year vote, behind Ohtani.  The only knock on him is his glove, but that matters not at all in fantasy.  The Choppers will look to Andujar to replace team legend and future Hall-of-Famer Adrian Beltre, who retired over the winter.  If Andujar can provide a spark to the Choppers offense, they could have a chance of ending their 20 year title drought.

    For the second straight year, the Demigods took the old guy of the first round.  But in this case, it is still a league rookie.  Jesus Aguilar started the 2018 season as a bench player for the Brewers.  But the first baseman immediately showed off his incredible power, quickly earned a starting job, and then made the NL All-Star team.  He slugged 35 homers with 108 runs batted in.  He did cool off a bit in the second half of the season, with only 11 of those homers coming after the All-Star break.  Outside of maybe Acuna and Soto, he was probably the safest bet for power in this draft.  The Demigods finished eighth in home runs last year, the biggest weakness for an otherwise strong offensive team.

    The Darkhorses selected Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz with the eighth pick, making this the first time since 2015 that more than two pitchers were taken in the first round.  Foltynewicz had a breakout season a year ago, which earned him an All-Star appearance.  He struck out 202 hitters in 183 innings with a sparkling 2.85 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.  His previous best ERA season was 4.31, so '18 saw quite a dramatic improvement.  While he has spent parts of five seasons in the majors, he is still just 27 years old.  The Darkhorses barely missed winning the championship last year, with a mediocre pitching staff holding them back.  Foltynewicz could be exactly what they need to get over the hump.

    Sitting with the last pick in the first round, the Kings believed there was one player remaining who was clearly the best available, but he was at a position in which they were already well stacked.  So instead, they swung a trade with the Jackalope to move up a spot to grab that player.  The Kings received the Jackalope 2nd round pick (11th overall) along with a swap of 4th round slots.  The Jackalope then took Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to close out the first round.  Mondesi is a rare breed in that he is an elite base stealer, but also has surprising power.  He managed to steal 32 bases and hit 14 home runs despite not making his big league season debut until late June.  While he's unlikely to maintain a pace like that for a full season, he still could be an above average contributor to the power categories while potentially leading the league in steals.  Once considered an elite prospect, Mondesi had slipped under the radar a bit before his 2018 breakout.  Slight spoiler alert for my upcoming season preview articles, but you definitely won't see the Jackalope projected to finish last again.  They managed to acquire the two players with the highest projected PAR in the entire draft pool.  So the Jackalope started and finished the first round with a bang.  Meanwhile, the Kings selected starting pitcher Zack Wheeler with that pick they acquired from the Jackalope, the first pick of the second round.

    Thanks to all of you for the excellent pace to the first half of this draft.  At this rate, we'll be done with plenty of time to spare before the Japan openers.  Let's keep up the good work!

  • 2018: Year of Mookie

    Embed from Getty Images
    In 2016, the Kings won the DTBL Championship, a Cougars player (Kris Bryant) won Rookie of the Year, Kings pitcher Max Scherzer won the Cy Young award and Kings outfielder Mookie Betts won the Most Valuable Player award.  This year, the Kings won the DTBL Championship, a Cougars player (Blake Snell) won Rookie of the Year, Kings pitcher Max Scherzer won the Cy Young award, and… yes, you have figured out where this is going.  History has repeated itself.  Perhaps no offensive player in league history has been more solely responsible for his team winning a championship than Betts was this season.  Mookie Betts is the 2018 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

    For the first time in his young, but highly productive career, Mookie Betts joined the 30/30 club this season.  He notched career highs in both home runs (32) and stolen bases (30).  Those numbers alone put him in pretty elite company, but his league leading .346 average took things to another level.  Only one player in league history has had a higher average while joining the 30/30 club.  Larry Walker’s insane 1997 season featured a .366/49/33 line.  Oh, Betts also led the league in runs scored with 129.  Somewhat surprisingly, he was not on top of the Batting PAR leaderboard.  His 11.3 was awfully impressive, but was topped by Christian Yelich’s 11.6.  As an entire team, the championship winning Kings accumulated 22.2 Batting PAR.  So yes, Betts was responsible for more than half of that!  No other Kings hitter reached 5 PAR. Not a bad year for him: AL MVP, World Series champion, DTBL MVP and DTBL champion.

    The Kings drafted Betts with the fifth pick in the 2015 draft.  Two of the players taken ahead of him:  Corey Dickerson and Jorge Soler (sorry, Mike).  So far, Betts has won the MVP in half of his DTBL seasons, taking home the honor in 2016 as well.  His numbers from this season were slightly better in most categories, except RBIs, the only category where he didn’t set a career high.  In addition to joining the 30/30 single season club, he also reached the 100/100 HR/SB club for his career this season, now sitting at 105/100 with an average of .303.  He is the only player in the league with 100 homers and stolen bases since 2015.  And only Mike Trout can top Betts’ career PAR of 34.7 since ’15.  There is no question that Betts has established himself as one of the best all around players in the game.

    Despite the gaudy numbers, this award did not come easily for Betts.  As mentioned, he didn’t lead the league in PAR, so it is unsurprising that he wasn’t the clear choice for this award either.  But he did receive a majority of the first place votes:  seven to be exact.  Interestingly, one person did not have him on the ballot.  He compiled 82 points, besting the runner-up by nine.  Finishing second was the PAR leader, Darkhorses outfielder Christian Yelich.  Yelich was insanely hot over the last two months of the season, easily claiming the NL MVP award.  Like Betts, he was a strong five category player, beating Betts in home runs and RBIs, but falling a bit behind in average, runs and steals.  Yelich was the only player who appeared on all ten ballots.  But he received just one first place vote, along with nine seconds, leaving him a bit short of Betts.  While those two were the clear leaders, several others received strong consideration as well.  Betts’ Red Sox teammate and Demigods outfielder J.D. Martinez hit .330 with 46 home runs.  Martinez got a first place vote and earned 42 points to finish third.  Right behind him was Komodos third baseman Jose Ramirez, who proved his breakout ’17 season was no fluke.  Ramirez actually looked like the favorite to win this award before struggling a bit down the stretch.  He also received a first place vote and compiled 40 points.  His Indians teammate rounded out the top five.  Demigods shortstop Francisco Lindor had a pretty great five category performance as well, but was overshadowed a bit by the guys mentioned above.  Lindor made a majority of the ballots (six) and totaled 14 points.  Any of these five guys could have won this award with their numbers in a different season. Although he failed to make the top five for the second straight season, I think it is worth pointing out that Mavericks outfielder Mike Trout has now received MVP votes all seven years of his DTBL career.  Even his worst seasons are elite.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    And that’s a wrap on the baseball award season.  Now it is time to start jumping into my offseason work.  There will be plenty of enhancements, but I’ve learned not to make any promises on what I will actually accomplished.  So stay tuned.  Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Scherzer Wins Another Cy Young

    Embed from Getty Images On a year-to-year basis, you know exactly what you are going to get from Max Scherzer:  a sub 3.00 ERA, a sub 1.00 WHIP, 15-20 wins, over 200 innings and at least 250 strikeouts.  His stat lines from each of the past six seasons have been astonishingly similar.  But 2018 may have been his best season yet.  He failed to win his third consecutive National League Cy Young award due to the historically great season that Jacob deGrom had, but from a roto perspective, Scherzer's year was better.  This is the fifth time in the past six years that Scherzer has finished in the top five of this league's Cy Young vote and the second time he has come out on top.  Kings starting pitcher Max Scherzer is the 2018 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    It is hard to pick out Scherzer's best career season, but I would make the case that 2018 is the new leader.  He posted the highest PAR of his career, a league leading 14.0.  He easily set a career high in strikeouts, finishing at exactly 300.  (As an aside, I was in the park for his 300th strikeout.  It was a pretty cool moment in an otherwise extremely disappointing Nationals season.)  He is the sixth different pitcher to record a 300 strikeout season in DTBL history.  Among qualified pitchers, his 2.53 ERA ranked seventh and his 0.911 WHP was third best.  Three other pitchers were ahead of his 18 wins.  In addition to PAR and strikeouts, he also led the league in innings pitched with 220 2/3.

    The Kings acquired Scherzer in a trade with the Jackalope back in 2010.  That trade continues to pay dividends for the Kings, who have now won three championships with Scherzer on the roster.  This is the second time that he has won both a DTBL Championship and the Cy Young award in the same season, repeating what he accomplished in 2016.  The Kings won the title this year mainly on the strength of three players:  Scherzer, Mookie Betts and Justin Verlander.  While Scherzer faced stiff competition for this league-wide award, you could make a decent case that he wasn't even the best pitcher on the Kings staff as his and Verlander's numbers were nearly identical across the board.  Scherzer won a couple more games and had ten more strikeouts, but Verlander had the slight edge in ERA and WHIP.  They combined for 27.0 Pitching PAR, which was an incredible 75% of the team's total Pitching PAR of 36.1.  Needless to say, the Kings would not have been champions without either of these guys.

    As expected, the Cy Young vote was kind of all over the place as there were a whole bunch of players who made compelling cases.  Scherzer did win by a decent margin, but was far from unanimous.  He received seven first place votes, two seconds and a third for a point total of 89.  He was the only pitcher to appear on all ten ballots.  Finishing second was Cougars lefty, and 2018 DTBL Rookie of the Year, Blake Snell.  Snell received nine votes, including two firsts and two seconds, for 53 points.  The league's win leader had quite a rookie campaign and now adds a second place finish for the Cy Young to his resume.  Verlander finished right behind Snell.  He was the third and final player to receive a first place vote (one) and had a pair of second place votes as well.  Like Snell, he appeared on nine of ten ballots and totaled 42 points.  Coming in fourth was the most interesting case of the year, Darkhorses ace Jacob deGrom.  I think most people would agree that deGrom was the best pitcher in baseball this season, compiling a ridiculous 1.70 ERA, which was the fourth best mark in league history.  But wins do matter in fantasy baseball and he only had 10 of them.  He received a second place vote and racked up 32 points.  Those four were well ahead of the rest, but several other pitchers received strong consideration as well.  Moonshiners reliever Edwin Diaz only received three votes, but two of them were second place nods, so he finished fifth in the voting with 15 points.  Diaz appeared to be well on his way to breaking the league's single season save record.  But his pace slowed a bit down the stretch and he finished with 57 saves, falling five short of Francisco Rodriguez's total ten years ago.  57 did put him in the second spot on the single season saves list though.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    On Tuesday, I plan to announce the third and final award:  Most Valuable Player.  Like the Cy Young, there appear to be plenty of strong contenders for MVP, so expect to see a similar scattering of votes.  Until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

  • Kings Enter Seventh Heaven

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    The past seven seasons have been a roller coaster ride for the Kings.  During that span, they have reached the top of the summit multiple times and the depths of the valley as well, with little in between.  Two seasons ago, they made the improbable jump to winning a league championship just a year removed from finishing dead last.  Last year, they dropped all the way down to ninth place.  But this season, they pulled off another improbable rebound, winning the championship for a record extending seventh time.  Kevin’s Kings are the 2018 Dream Team Baseball League Champions.

    At the halfway mark of the season, it looked like a forgone conclusion that the Kings would win the league.  They had a double digit advantage through most of the first half.  But then they started to cool off in July and August, briefly losing the lead in early September.  Fortunately for them, the bats caught fire in mid-September, just in time to hold off an impressive charge by the Darkhorses.  There was still some doubt heading into the final days of the season, but in the end, the Kings held on to win by 2 1/2 points.  The Demigods and Choppers also finished in shouting distance, 9 and 12 1/2 points back respectively.

    Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were three of the best players in baseball this season.  That is almost indisputable.  Having the three of them put together those amazing seasons for the same team would obviously make you think that team was pretty good.  In this case, those three were almost the only reasons why the Kings won the league.  The Kings probably had more players who failed to meet expectations, due to injuries or poor performances, than those who exceeded expectations.  But Betts, Scherzer and Verlander were so good that it didn’t matter.

    Betts finished the season with 11.3 PAR and would have led the league if not for a red hot stretch run by Christian Yelich.  His 2018 was almost identical to his 2016 campaign, which produced a MVP award and also another championship for the Kings.  Betts joined the 30/30 club for the first time this year, reaching career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (30).  He also won the batting title, hitting .346, and tied Francisco Lindor for the league lead in runs scored with 129.  It was an all-around great season for Betts who will be a strong contender to win his second MVP award.

    Scherzer and Verlander have been leading the Kings pitching staff for many years.  They are both former Cy Young award winners and have each had several elite seasons in the past.  But this was easily their best combined campaign as Kings teammates.  They finished first and second in the league in pitching PAR (14.0 for Scherzer, 13.0 for Verlander) and had very similar stat lines across the board.  Scherzer:  2.53 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 18 wins, 300 strikeouts.  Verlander:  2.52 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 16 wins, 290 strikeouts.  Here are their league ranks in those four categories:  ERA – 6th/7th, WHIP – 2nd/3rd, W – 4th/9th, K – 1st/2nd.  Scherzer joins Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw as the only pitchers to reach 300 strikeouts since 2002.  Verlander smashed his career high in that category as well and had his best overall season since winning the Cy Young in 2011 with one of the all-time great pitching seasons.

    Hardly any other Kings players are even worth mentioning beyond those three.  Rhys Hoskins, the second overall pick in this year’s draft, had a solid rookie campaign.  But he was the only Kings position player besides Betts to top 4 PAR.  Second round pick Matt Olson was decent as well.  A.J. Pollock was solid when healthy, but once again missed significant time due to injuries.  Betts was the only Kings player to finish in the top 10 of any offensive category.  He was almost literally a one man show with the bat.  This is the second straight year that a team has won the league with just 29 batting points.  But unlike the star-studded ’17 Mavericks, the Kings got to that number on the back of just one superstar.

    The pitching staff was a little more well-rounded, leading the league with 43 1/2 pitching points.  But again, Scherzer and Verlander were responsible for most of that.  The rest of the rotation was a revolving door of guys who were okay, but not great.  Lance McCullers and Eduardo Rodriguez were having nice seasons before they got hurt.  Kevin Gausman proved to be a solid pickup in the second half.  The bullpen was rock solid in the first half of the year, but was decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness down the stretch.  Sean Doolittle was easily their best reliever over the course of the season, but even he missed a couple months with a foot injury.

    So how exactly did the Kings win the league with so few great performances?  Well, to be honest, they got a little lucky.  The league as a whole was not terribly strong this season.  I may cover this in another season recap article, but the league-wide PAR was below 400 for the first time in any season I’ve calculated to date.  Granted, that should go up when I do the off-season update to incorporate 2018 numbers into the calculations.  There are several reasons why this number was so low.  But it does shine some light on how the Kings were able to win with less than spectacular numbers across the board.  I believe the Kings dominant first half played a significant role as well, potentially leading other teams to feel like they were out of the race by the start of summer.  Had a couple teams been more aggressive in those summer months, the Kings could have been in big trouble down the stretch.  This will not go down as one of the all-time great championship teams.  But you know what?  Championship pennants fly forever.  And now the Kings have seven of them.  No other team has won more than four.

  • Kings, Darkhorses Vie For Title

    Embed from Getty Images As usual, I have gotten lazy with my DTBL News articles as the season has worn on.  I thought about skipping this one altogether, but decided it would be good to get a least some of the following out of the way before the season ends.  Scroll to the bottom of the article if you have been waiting weeks to find out who the best players of August were, as we near the end of September.  But first, a brief look at what is in store for the final weekend of the season.

    The Kings have been in first place all but four days this season.  The only time they were lower than second place was the day after Opening Day.  They held a share of the lead every single day from April 18 through September 16.  And yet, with just three full days remaining on the calendar, they are hardly a sure thing to win their seventh DTBL Championship.  They dominated the league for the first three months, but faded badly in July and especially August.  It was not a huge surprise when the Darkhorses finally caught them a couple weeks ago.  But the Kings picked a good time to get hot again as their offense has had its best stretch in several months over the past week or so.  With one weekend to go, the Kings lead over the Darkhorses is four points.  That is, by no means, a safe lead.

    The final week began with the Kings leading the Darkhorses by 1 1/2 points.  The Demigods were just five back and the Choppers were in striking distance as well, seven points behind.  But since then, the Kings have picked up 3 1/2 points and have increased their lead over all of the challengers.  I think it is safe to say that the Choppers and Demigods are probably out of it now, barring something miraculous.  But the Darkhorses have several paths to claiming the title.

    The categories that present the best opportunities for the Darkhorses to pick up points are batting average, ERA and maybe home runs.  If Jacob deGrom were slated to pitch one more time, I might have thrown strikeouts in there too.  But realistically, 71-72 points is probably the Darkhorses' ceiling.  In other words, they are going to need a little help as the Kings sit at 73 points.  But the Kings could very easily spit back some points they've gained this week.  They are very vulnerable in home runs, RBIs and ERA.  The game I will have my eye on will be Jon Gray facing a resurgent Nationals offense at Coors Field on Saturday night.  If Gray were to get lit up, a loss of an ERA point would be very possible for the Kings.  On the flip side, the Kings have some suddenly hot power hitters, like David Dahl and A.J. Pollock.  The Darkhorses will be rooting for a power outage from the Kings this weekend.

    Keep in mind that our league does count stats from tie-breaker games.  There is a very good chance that at least one tie-breaker will be required to settle the National League playoff races.  So this thing may not be over on Sunday.  However, no roster moves will be processed before Monday, so the current active rosters will remain in effect until the season is officially over.  If the championship remains up for grabs on Monday, I'll be live blogging the action.

    Now it is time to play catch-up on all of the weekly and monthly awards I missed.  Since I'm so late with these, I'm not going to bother with write-ups.  But here are the weekly award winners from August and September (so far).

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 19 (7/30 - 8/5) - Matt Carpenter, Choppers Week 20 (8/6 - 8/12) - J.D. Martinez, Demigods Week 21 (8/13 - 8/19) - Justin Turner, Darkhorses Week 22 (8/20 - 8/26) - Javier Baez, Mavericks Week 23 (8/27 - 9/2) - Christian Yelich, Darkhorses Week 24 (9/3 - 9/9) - Trevor Story, Cougars Week 25 (9/10 - 9/16) - Whit Merrifield, Choppers Week 26 (9/17 - 9/23) - Tommy Pham, Cougars

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 19 (7/30 - 8/5) - Jon Gray, Kings Week 20 (8/6 - 8/12) - Trevor Bauer, Choppers Week 21 (8/13 - 8/19) - Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses Week 22 (8/20 - 8/26) - Kevin Gausman, Kings Week 23 (8/27 - 9/2) - Corey Kluber, Demigods Week 24 (9/3 - 9/9) - Robbie Ray, Moonshiners Week 25 (9/10 - 9/16) - Justin Verlander, Kings Week 26 (9/17 - 9/23) - Hyun-Jin Ryu, Choppers

    And now, here are the Batter and Pitcher of the Month from August 2018.

    Batter of the Month:

    Matt Carpenter, Choppers J.D. Martinez, Demigods .373 AVG, 7 HR, 25 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.69 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses 1.24 ERA, 0.985 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 60 K, 3.29 PAR

    FYI, Carpenter Martinez just barely edged out the Darkhorses' Christian Yelich, who is probably a strong contender for this award again in September.  Speaking of guys who are strong contenders for September honors, deGrom's unbelievable '18 season was finally rewarded in August.

    It should be an exciting final weekend, both in the DTBL and MLB.  May the best teams win!

    TWO YEARS LATER EDIT:  When going through these articles to retroactively populate the honors table with past monthly award winners, I discovered I completely botched this one.  J.D. Martinez was the actual Player of the Month for August 2018.  My spreadsheet of monthly stats clearly states that, and I verified that the stat line above matches what Martinez produced in 8/18, not Carpenter.  I do not know how I got this wrong.

  • Pair of Kings

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    June is more than half over, so I suppose I should probably get around to announcing the DTBL May award winners.  Sorry for the ridiculous tardiness of this article.  There are a couple of reasons for the delay though.  First, I forgot to run my script to capture the monthly stats on the first of the month, so I had to come up with a slightly different way of computing the numbers for May.  But that didn’t take too long to do.  The main reason for the delay is because I’ve spent most of the past couple weeks watching and celebrating the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup championship.  As you may know, we don’t get an opportunity to celebrate sports championships very often here in the nation’s capital.  The Caps victory came at the expense of the Vegas Golden Knights, so I became accustomed to reading article headlines that were plays on gambling terms.  So, why not one more here?

    Not a whole lot has changed since last month’s article.  The Kings are sill in control at the top of the standings.  However, things started to look a little dicey for them a few weeks ago when a whole bunch of their outfielders got hurt at the same time.  They seem to have weathered that storm though, as they still hold a comfortable lead.  The Darkhorses and Demigods have been putting together solid seasons as well and currently sit in second and third places.  Meanwhile, the Mavericks have been absolutely decimated by pitching injuries, turning what has been their strength for many years into a considerable weakness.  They currently have the fewest pitching points in the league.

    The Kings have been chugging along thanks to spectacular numbers from some of their biggest stars.  In April, Kings ace Max Scherzer won Pitcher of the Month honors and still leads the league in pitching PAR well into the season’s third month.  But it is a teammate of his who was the league’s best pitcher in May.  And another teammate topped the May batting PAR leaderboard.  But before we get to that, here were the weekly award winners in May.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 6 (4/30 – 5/6) – Eddie Rosario, Komodos
    Week 7 (5/7 – 5/13) – Scooter Gennett, Demigods
    Week 8 (5/14 – 5/20) – Brandon Belt, Mavericks
    Week 9 (5/21 – 5/27) – Jose Altuve, Demigods
    Week 10 (5/28 – 6/3) – Edwin Encarnacion, Darkhorses

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 6 (4/30 – 5/6) – Gerrit Cole, Jackalope
    Week 7 (5/7 – 5/13) – Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners
    Week 8 (5/14 – 5/20) – Lance McCullers, Kings
    Week 9 (5/21 – 5/27) – J.A. Happ, Komodos
    Week 10 (5/28 – 6/3) – Michael Wacha, Kings

    Well, that list of pitchers is pretty interesting for a couple reasons.  First, if you couldn’t tell, May was a pretty good month for Astros pitchers.  Three of them won weekly honors (Cole, Keuchel, McCullers), yet their pitcher who had the best month is not one of those three!  Secondly, if you couldn’t tell, May was a pretty good month for Kings pitchers.  Two of them won weekly honors (McCullers, Wacha), yet their pitcher who had the best month is not one of those two!  Yes, I’m talking about the same pitcher in both cases.  Here are the DTBL monthly award winners for May 2018.

    Batter of the Month:

    Mookie Betts, Kings
    .372 AVG, 9 HR, 19 RBI, 23 R, 10 SB, 3.65 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Justin Verlander, Kings
    0.86 ERA, 0.696 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 50 K, 3.67 PAR

    Using Baseball-Reference’s Play Index, I was only able to find two other monthly stat totals in DTBL history that were comparable to Betts’ five category stat line:  Mike Trout in July of 2012 and Ryan Klesko in May of 2001.  Had I tightened my search criteria to Betts’ exact stat line, he would have been the only result.  So Mookie had one of the best five category months in league history.  Unfortunately for him, he suffered an injury to his side at the beginning of June which shelved him for a bit, but he is back at it now and trails only Mike Trout in batting PAR for the season.  It is still relatively early, but right now, it looks like a two person race between those two for MVP honors.  A pair of Indians were Betts’ closest competition for this monthly award, however.  Komodos third baseman Jose Ramirez and Demigods shortstop Francisco Lindor also had great months of May.

    Verlander saw a bunch of Astros and Kings teammates win weekly honors in May, but he was clearly the league’s best pitcher in the month.  The modest win total (3) was all that kept him from blowing away everyone else for this award.  The Naturals’ James Paxton and the Kings’ Max Scherzer were in striking distance.  Scherzer and Verlander sit first and second in the league in pitching PAR, which goes a long way towards explaining why the Kings are crushing the rest of the league in pitching points.  They currently have at least a share of the lead in all five pitching categories.

  • Contact Problems

    Embed from Getty Images The first month of the 2018 baseball season is in the books. Early indications are that the recent surge of the three true outcomes (home runs, walks, strikeouts) is far from over. Perhaps most troubling is that MLB saw more strikeouts than hits in the first month of the season. That had never previously happened over a full month in the history of baseball. In our league, I don't keep track of hitters' strikeouts, so I am not certain if that was the case for DTBL hitters. But it definitely was for pitchers. Through Friday's games, DTBL pitchers have recorded 2,663 strikeouts compared to 2,059 hits allowed. To be clear, DTBL pitchers recording more strikeouts than hits allowed isn't new. It has happened over each of the past six full seasons. But the current K/H ratio of 1.29 would blow away last year's record high of 1.14. Because home run rates are still historically high, overall scoring in baseball is only slightly down from the last couple years and still higher than it was a few years back. But the current DTBL league batting average of .259 is eight points lower than the league's record full-season low of .267 (2015). Average tends to rise as the weather warms up though, so I'm not going to read into that too much. The big takeaway from the first month numbers is clearly the rise in strikeouts and drop in hits. Fewer balls in play tends to make for a less interesting game. So let's hope this trend doesn't continue much longer.

    In the DTBL, March/April was dominated by the Kings, who are looking to bounce back from an awful 2017 season.  They finished April with a double digit lead.  They held onto first place most of the month.  The Darkhorses and Mavericks are in pretty good shape as well.  Interestingly, it is the Mavericks' usually reliable pitching staff that has kept them from leading the league in the early stages of the season.

    As for the players, the leaderboards are topped by a lot of familiar names with a bunch of impressive rookies mixed in as well.  Below are the Players of the Week and Players of the Month for March/April.  Please note that the games from March were included in determining the April Player of the Month awards.  Also, there is going to be one extra set of weekly award winners as I did separate that season opening weekend (Thursday through Sunday) into its own week.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 1 (3/29 - 4/1) - Adam Eaton, Kings Week 2 (4/2 - 4/8) - Didi Gregorius, Jackalope Week 3 (4/9 - 4/15) - Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope Week 4 (4/16 - 4/22) - Manny Machado, Mavericks Week 5 (4/23 - 4/29) - Gary Sanchez, Jackalope

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 1 (3/29 - 4/1) - Jose Berrios, Darkhorses Week 2 (4/2 - 4/8) - Jameson Taillon, Cougars Week 3 (4/9 - 4/15) - Max Scherzer, Kings Week 4 (4/16 - 4/22) - Patrick Corbin, Darkhorses Week 5 (4/23 - 4/29) - Masahiro Tanaka, Choppers

    It was a good month for Jackalope hitters as three of them won weekly honors.  It was an up-and-down month for several of the players listed above, particularly the pitchers.  But at least two of them were strong throughout the month and are recipients of the Player of the Month awards.  As a reminder, these are not subjective choices on my part.  These are the players who accumulated the highest batting and pitching PAR for the month.  Again, "month" isn't entirely accurate in this case as the last few days of March were included as well.  Here are the award winners for April 2018.

    Batter of the Month:

    Didi Gregorius, Jackalope .327 AVG, 10 HR, 30 RBI, 24 R, 2 SB, 2.55 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Max Scherzer, Kings 1.62 ERA, 0.821 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 57 K, 3.69 PAR

    Didi Gregorius had the unenviable task of replacing a legend at shortstop for the Yankees.  But since taking over for Derek Jeter in 2016, he has been nothing short of spectacular.  This year, it seems he may be reaching a new level though.  He finished April with 10 home runs.  His career high is 25, which he recorded last season.  The Jackalope nabbed Gregorius in the fourth round last year and have been rewarded handsomely ever since.  Gregorius edged out A.J. Pollock for this award.  Five of the top nine finishers were Mavericks, led by first round pick Ozzie Albies.

    Pitcher of the Month awards are nothing new for Max Scherzer.  This is the third time he has won it since I officially started tracking this in 2016:  (June '16, May '17).  At this point, I think it is safe to say that Scherzer is the most consistently dominant pitcher in baseball.  The two time reigning NL Cy Young award winner is the early leader for that award again this season.  His closest competition for this monthly award was his Kings teammate, Justin Verlander.  Corey Kluber and Gerrit Cole had tremendous opening months as well.

  • 2018 Season Preview: Part III

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    Opening Day is in the books.  Matt Davidson is on pace to hit 486 home runs this season.  That would be a record.  It is great to have baseball back in our lives.  This should be a fun opening weekend, paired with Easter celebrations.  There are four teams remaining in this DTBL preview series.  Today I’ll cover the teams projected to finish in third and fourth places.  These particular teams have been among the most volatile squads in the league in recent years.  Both have won championships in the past three seasons and both have finished near the bottom of the league as well.  In fact, these were two of the three worst teams in the league just last season.  So things would appear to be trending up, if these projections prove accurate.  Unlike all of the previous six teams that I have covered, we have now reached the teams that appear to be at least average in both batting and pitching.  Here is a preview of a couple teams who figure to be in the championship hunt.

    Jay’s Jackalope

    Category – Projected Rank (2017 Rank)

    • Batting Average – 8th (3rd)
    • Home Runs – 1st (1st)
    • Runs Batted In – 1st (3rd)
    • Runs Scored – 4th (5th)
    • Stolen Bases – 10th (10th)
    • Earned Run Average – 6th (6th)
    • WHIP Ratio – 7th (6th)
    • Wins – 8th (9th)
    • Saves – 1st (8th)
    • Strike Outs – 5th (10th)
    • Total Batting Points – 4th-T (3rd-T)
    • Total Pitching Points – 5th-T (9th)
    • Total Points – 4th (8th)

    Summary:

    After a season away, Jay is back in charge of the Jackalope.  While ’17 was a little disappointing for the Jackalope on the whole, they did exert their power, leading the league in home runs.  They are projected to repeat that this season, maintaining a strong offense supported by an improved pitching staff.  They focused heavily on rebuilding the pitching staff in the draft, selecting a pair of starting pitchers named Luis, Severino and Castillo, in the first two rounds.  Those two join Jake Arrieta, Sonny Gray and Gerrit Cole to make up a rotation that has the potential to be very good.  While the bullpen looks to be pretty good as well, I’m not sure I’m buying the first place in saves projection.  Mark Melancon’s health is a big concern.  Wade Davis is definitely the stud in the pen.  Kelvin Herrera and Blake Parker could be nice additions, but they come with questions as well.  Overall though, this does appear to be a much improved pitching staff.  The Jackalope remain powerful with the bats.  New Yankee and reigning DTBL MVP Giancarlo Stanton has the highest batting PAR projection in the league.  Paul Goldschmidt is in the top five as well.  Gary Sanchez is probably the best hitting catcher in the game right now.  Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rendon are near the top among third basemen as well.  An interesting addition to the slugging Jackalope is Rougned Odor.  If he can rebound from a pretty poor ’17 season, he’ll provide another big power boost to the Jackalope infield.  Outside of Stanton, the outfield is less impressive.  But on the whole, the Jackalope should have an above average offense.  With an improved pitching staff, the Jackalope should finish much higher in the standings than they have the past couple seasons, and a championship drive is a possibility as well.

    Kevin’s Kings

    Category – Projected Rank (2017 Rank)

    • Batting Average – 3rd (7th)
    • Home Runs – 2nd (8th)
    • Runs Batted In – 2nd (7th)
    • Runs Scored – 3rd (7th)
    • Stolen Bases – 6th (9th)
    • Earned Run Average – 5th (7th)
    • WHIP Ratio – 6th (4th)
    • Wins – 7th (4th)
    • Saves – 6th (7th)
    • Strike Outs – 3rd (4th)
    • Total Batting Points – 1st (8th)
    • Total Pitching Points – 5th-T (4th-T)
    • Total Points – 3rd (9th)

    Summary:

    2017 was a disaster for the Kings.  They nearly pulled off the embarrassing feat of going from first to worst, narrowly finishing ahead of the Gators for ninth place.  Not to make too many excuses, but this team was completely decimated by injuries, especially to their hitters.  The talent from the ’16 championship squad is still mostly there, so it seems reasonable to expect better results this year, provided they have better luck on the health front.  The projections show massive improvement on the offensive side of things.  The Kings first three draft picks were all sluggers:  Rhys Hoskins, Matt Olson and Evan Gattis.  Gattis could be a particularly key addition, occupying a usually weak catcher slot while accumulating regular at bats as a DH for the Astros.  Mookie Betts and Carlos Correa remain the Kings two best offensive players, but Hoskins has the potential to be right up there with them.  Three outfielders who were hurt for significant portions of last season could be the key to the Kings success this year:  A.J. Pollock, Adam Eaton and Ian Desmond.  Pollock, in particular, is an elite fantasy player when healthy.  The Kings are projected to accumulate the most batting points in the league.  That may be a tad optimistic, but they certainly appear to be stronger than the ’17 version.  The pitching staff hasn’t changed much.  Max Scherzer is still the undisputed ace.  It will be interesting to see how Justin Verlander fares in a full season in Houston.  Marcus Stroman, Jon Gray and Lance McCullers are three relatively young pitchers who could be poised for breakout campaigns.  The bullpen might actually exceed these projections as 12th round pick Brad Boxberger was named the Diamondbacks closer to begin the season.  He joins Sean Doolittle, Arodys Vizcaino and Jeurys Familia to give the Kings four closers to start the season.  Nate Jones is waiting in the wings as well.  It is reasonable to think that ’17 was a blip on the radar for a team that has championship aspirations.  The Kings have a very good chance of being in the pennant race this season.