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Scherzer Wins Another Cy Young

Sunday, November 18th, 2018

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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.

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Kings Enter Seventh Heaven

Saturday, October 13th, 2018

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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.

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Kings, Darkhorses Vie For Title

Thursday, September 27th, 2018

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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.

Posted in Awards, Darkhorses, Demigods, Kings | 1 Comment »

Pair of Kings

Sunday, June 17th, 2018

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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.

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Contact Problems

Saturday, May 5th, 2018

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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.

Posted in Awards, Jackalope, Kings | No Comments »

2018 Season Preview: Part III

Friday, March 30th, 2018

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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.

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Komodos Nab Bellinger

Monday, March 19th, 2018

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The 2018 DTBL Draft kicked off Thursday, March 8.  The first pick belonged to the league’s newest member, Kat’s Komodos.  Inheriting a Gators roster that was well stocked with hitters but very much lacking in pitching, the biggest question going into the draft was if they would select a player based on need or take the best player available.  The Komodos did the latter, picking the consensus top player in the draft pool, Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger.  As usual, the first round as a whole skewed young with nine DTBL rookies selected, four of whom didn’t make their MLB debuts until after the All-Star break last season.  The first round was light on pitching this year as eight of the top ten were hitters.

In retrospect, the decision to take Bellinger with the first pick was probably pretty easy for the Komodos.  The reigning National League Rookie of the Year will give them a huge power boost and may even position them as one of the deepest offensive teams in the league.  Bellinger made his presence known right from the start.  He was a NL All-Star as a rookie.  He hit 39 home runs with 97 RBI and 87 runs despite not making his debut until late April.  His .267 average was quite respectable for a slugging rookie and he even stole 10 bases.  Bellinger should be a star for the Komodos for a long time to come.

In many ways, the Kings faced a similar predicament to the Komodos with the second pick and made the same decision, taking the player they believed to be the best available despite it not being a position of great need.  With that pick, the Kings selected first baseman turned outfielder Rhys Hoskins.  The Phillies young slugger came up through the minors as a modestly rated prospect who did nothing but mash at every level of the minors.  That continued in the majors, despite also having to learn a new position at the big league level.  Hoskins slugged 18 homers in just 50 major league games, pumping out a ridiculous 1.014 OPS.  With the Phillies signing Carlos Santana this winter, it appears they will continue to deploy Hoskins to the outfield.  Even if that goes poorly, Hoskins’ bat will force its way into the lineup on a daily basis.

With the third pick, the Jackalope were able to do both of the things mentioned above:  pick the best player available and fill a glaring hole in the roster.  They selected Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino.  Severino is technically a DTBL rookie, having never appeared on an active roster before.  But this is the second time he has been drafted.  The Naturals picked him in the 5th round in 2016, but he started the season in the minors and was released in May.  After that disappointing ’16 campaign, he was removed from the league last year, causing us to miss out on his breakout season.  In 2017, he became one of the most dominant pitchers in the league, posting a 2.98 ERA, 1.04 WHIP with 14 wins and 230 strikeouts.  The Jackalope pitching staff really struggled a year ago, making Severino a perfect fit.  They are also quite heavy on Yankees now, employing Severino, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius, Sonny Gray and Dellin Betances.  Not a bad group.

The top three of the draft seemed pretty clear cut.  Predicting who would go fourth and beyond was a bit more challenging.  The Choppers had the fourth pick and used it on second baseman Whit Merrifield who went from relative obscurity to fantasy monster during the course of the 2017 season.  The Royals infielder hit .288 with 19 home runs, 34 stolen bases, 80 runs and 78 RBI.  He was a plus contributor to all five categories, but especially stolen bases.  The Choppers had the worst offense in the league last year (in terms of batting points), so adding a do-it-all infielder makes plenty of sense.  It remains to be seen if the power was real, but in today’s home run climate, it seems quite possible it was.

Last year, the Moonshiners somewhat regretted passing on a young Red Sox up-and-comer in the first round in Andrew Benintendi.  They ensured that the same mistake wouldn’t be made again this year, grabbing third baseman Rafael Devers with the fifth pick.  Devers was just 20 years old when he made his MLB debut last summer.  But he earned his promotion by demolishing every level of the minors on his way up.  And the hitting continued when he reached the big leagues.  He hit .284 with 10 homers in 58 major league games.  Considering his age, the sky is the limit with this guy.  Early signs are that he is going to be a great hitter with above average power.  That should make him a fixture at hot corner for the Moonshiners for a very long time.

While hitters took most of the spotlight of the first round, there were a couple very intriguing pitchers selected as well.  The second of those was Twins starter Jose Berrios, picked sixth by the Darkhorses.  Berrios earned elite prospect status on his ascension up the minor league ladder, but a rocky MLB debut season in 2016 dampened expectations a bit.  But in 2017, he regained his status as an exciting young hurler.  He posted a solid 3.89 ERA and 1.229 WHIP with 14 wins and 139 strikeouts in 145 innings, helping lead the Twins to a surprising Wild Card berth.  He should immediately boost a Darkhorses pitching staff that finished last in ERA, WHIP and wins last season.

The Demigods selected the lone non-DTBL rookie of the first round with pick number seven.  Outfielder Ender Inciarte continues to be one of the more underrated all-around players in baseball.  With a weak Braves team around him last year, he managed to hit .304 with 11 homers, 93 runs scored and 22 stolen bases.  What a difference a year can make to a player’s stock.  The Darkhorses drafted Inciarte for the second time last year, in the 12th round.  Now he’s a first rounder.  For the record, the Darkhorses also drafted him in the fourth round in 2016.  With the investment of a first round pick, I have a feeling he will stick around for a while this time with the Demigods.

Following that selection of a DTBL “veteran”, the Cougars picked an outfielder who will be a rookie in this league, but is actually almost three years older than Inciarte.  Now 30 years old, Tommy Pham broke out big time for the Cardinals in ’17.  He hit .306 with 23 home runs and 25 stolen bases, becoming a legitimate five category force, seemingly out of nowhere.  This has become a consistent trend in the Cardinals organization:  late blooming non-prospects becoming excellent major league contributors.  There are plenty of reasons to believe Pham’s breakout is sustainable, most notably that he has been able to harness his degenerative vision problems.

For the second straight year, the Naturals used their first round pick on one of the top prospects in baseball who probably will spend a bulk of the upcoming season in the minors.  With the ninth pick, they selected young Nationals outfielder Victor Robles.  Considered the possible heir apparent to Bryce Harper in the Nats outfield, should Harper decide to take his talents elsewhere next winter, Robles has elite hitting, fielding and running skills.  Though not a big time slugger to this point of his career, scouts believe that will come as well.  MLB.com has him ranked as the #6 prospect in baseball and #1 among those who have already made their MLB debuts.  Robles is just 20 years old, so this is a long-term play for the Naturals.

Finally, the defending champion Mavericks closed out the first round by selecting another young hitter who splashed onto the scene late in the 2017 season, Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies.  Albies hit .286 with six home runs and eight stolen bases in 57 big league games, basically replicating the numbers he posted in AAA as a 20 year old.  So for those of you scoring at home, that’s three first round picks on guys who will enter the ’18 season at age 21 or younger (Albies, Devers, Robles).  The Mavericks don’t really have any holes, but Albies will slot in nicely at 2B.

The first round didn’t feature any trades this year, but there have been three separate deals since the first round ended, involving six different teams.  First, the Mavericks continued a revamp of their bullpen, dealing Aroldis Chapman to the Komodos for their second round pick (11th overall).  That pick was used on a very interesting pitcher, Alex Reyes.  Reyes should return from Tommy John surgery in May.  While his exact role remains a mystery, there are a few intriguing possibilities including closer or spot starter.  The fact that he will be designated as a reliever for this season could make him extremely valuable once he is healthy.  Meanwhile, Chapman gives the Komodos a reliable anchor in their bullpen which had no such commodities on the returning roster.

The next trade saw the Choppers flip their second round pick (14th overall) to the Naturals for outfielder Andrew McCutchen.  Once one of the best players in the league, McCutchen quietly put up pretty strong numbers across the board last year and will now be applying his craft in San Francisco.  As mentioned above, the Choppers needed a boost to their offense, so McCutchen should help to that end.  The Naturals used the acquired pick on the top closer in this draft, Pirates lefty Felipe Rivero, a former teammate of McCutchen’s.  Rivero had a dominant debut as a closer in ’17, saving 21 games with a 1.67 ERA and 0.889 WHIP.

The third deal was a swap of power hitters, in an attempt to clear position log jams on both ends.  The Kings dealt their longtime slugging outfielder Jay Bruce to the Cougars for first baseman Justin Bour.  On the Kings side, this was mostly a move to clear an overcrowded outfield, but also to get younger.  Trading away Bruce allowed them to select rookie outfielder Willie Calhoun with their subsequent pick, in the fifth round.  Of course, hours after they drafted Calhoun, he got sent to the minors.  But this was a future value play anyway.  Meanwhile, the Cougars didn’t have much use for Bour after drafting Justin Smoak and Bruce fills a need for a power hitting outfielder.

With four rounds remaining in the draft, we should easily finish up with time to spare before Opening Day.  Thanks to everyone for keeping things moving.  I hope to start my season preview articles this upcoming weekend.  Until then, keep up the good work!

 

 

Posted in Choppers, Cougars, Darkhorses, Demigods, Draft, Jackalope, Kings, Komodos, Mavericks, Moonshiners, Naturals | No Comments »

Still a Two Team Race

Sunday, August 6th, 2017

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It’s been a two team race for the DTBL Championship for several months now.  Despite the fact that the Mavericks and Naturals have been dealing with injuries to several of their most important players and neither team has truly put it all together yet, no other team besides these two has come close to sniffing first place in recent months.  At the end of July, the Mavericks and Naturals were tied for first place, but the Mavericks have moved into a 1 1/2 point lead at the time of writing.  It is still very much possible for other teams to get back into the race since the gap between the top two and the rest of the pack is just over ten points.  But we just haven’t seen any other team make a run yet.

Two teams looking to make such a run struck a deal a couple weeks ago.  The Moonshiners and Kings completed a trade that was intended to solve roster problems created by injuries.  But as it has turned out so far, this trade has only created further problems as both teams seemingly received damaged goods.  The Moonshiners traded shortstop Zack Cozart and pitcher Jon Gray to the Kings in exchange for outfielder Avisail Garcia and pitcher Jeff Samardzija.  At the time, the Kings were in desparate need of a shortstop to replace the injured Carlos Correa while the Moonshiners were looking for an outfielder to fill in for Gregory Polanco and Keon Broxton.  Of course, within a week of the trade, both Cozart and Garcia hit the disabled list.  This marks the second trade between these teams that appears to have been a bit of a bust for both sides.  The March swap of Polanco for Kyle Seager hasn’t been terribly productive for either team.

This seems like a good time to remind you that the DTBL trade deadline is coming up on August 15.  That is a Tuesday, meaning any trades must be confirmed by both sides before midnight on the 15th even though they will not be processed until the following Monday.  Now, onto the award winners for July 2017.

Batters of the Week:

Week 14 (7/3 – 7/9) – Jose Altuve, Demigods
Week 15 (7/14 – 7/16) – Anthony Rendon, Jackalope
Week 16 (7/17 – 7/23) – Nolan Arenado, Naturals
Week 17 (7/24 – 7/30) – J.D. Martinez, Demigods

Pitchers of the Week:

Week 14 (7/3 – 7/9) – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
Week 15 (7/14 – 7/16) – Jose Quintana, Gators
Week 16 (7/17 – 7/23) – Jon Lester, Choppers
Week 17 (7/24 – 7/30) – James Paxton, Naturals

The way these weekly honors usually work is that my weekly transaction processing program will create a database record for the players with the highest batting and pitching PAR for the week at the time of processing.  But because of the All-Star break, I wasn’t able the capture who had the highest PAR for Week 14 (7/3 through 7/9).  So instead, I used the FanGraphs’ splits leaderboard to eyeball the stats for that week and decided Altuve and Kershaw were the likely PAR leaders for the week.  It could be wrong though, particularly in the case of Altuve who had stiff competition from his Astros teammate George Springer.  There wasn’t particularly stiff competition for the monthly awards though.  Here are the winners.

Batter of the Month:

Jose Altuve, Demigods
.485 AVG, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 22 R, 8 SB, 3.38 PAR

Pitcher of the Month:

James Paxton, Naturals
1.37 ERA, 0.788 WHIP, 6 W, 0 SV, 46 K, 4.08 PAR

Jose Altuve nearly hit .500 in July!  He went 48 for 99, which penciled out to a .485 average for the month.  It is the highest monthly batting average since recently inducted Hall-of-Famer Ivan Rodriguez hit .500 in June of 2004 and the fourth highest total in league history:  https://www.baseball-reference.com/tiny/i0mzo.  It wasn’t just the average though.  He also hit four homers, scored and drove in over 20 runs and stole eight bases.  Altuve’s hot month has inserted the Demigods second baseman right into the thick of the MVP conversation.  He won this award easily.  Following him were a bunch of closely packed players, with Bryce Harper leading the way.

On the pitching side, another pretty rare feat was achieved by the Naturals’ James Paxton.  He won six games in the month, becoming the first DTBL player to do that in a single month this season.  Along with all those wins came a very impressive 1.37 ERA and 0.788 WHIP.  The Canadian left-hander has become the de facto ace for the Naturals in their championship hunt, replacing the injured Noah Syndergaard.  It was a comfortable win for Paxton, but the Choppers’ Chris Sale was the runner-up.

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Trout Injury Dampens Mood

Saturday, June 3rd, 2017


You never want to see any player lose significant time due to injury, but especially not the elite players who make the game so fun to watch.  So when Mike Trout hit the disabled list earlier this week with a torn ligament in his thumb that figures to sideline him for a couple months, the whole baseball world took a hit.  Obviously, there are ramifications in this league as well.  The Mavericks have held a small but consistent lead almost the entire season so far.  But that will be put to the test in a big way in the upcoming months.  Can a team that was already mediocre offensively tread water long enough until Trout returns?

The list of teams that figure to benefit from this opportunity is long.  In fact, at the 1/3 mark of the season schedule, all ten teams are legitimately still in the race.  Even before Trout went down, the Mavericks weren’t blowing away the competition.  And no team has completely tanked to this point either.  Due to an issue with my stats source, the stats haven’t been updated through Friday’s games yet, so I’m writing this looking at the numbers through Thursday.  At that time, the Mavs held a slim 1/2 point lead on the Naturals and just a point ahead of the Moonshiners as well.  Meanwhile, even the last place Choppers were only 20.5 points behind.  Making up that much ground in four months is certainly doable.

The month of May saw 1,060 home runs hit across MLB, the second highest single month total in history.  Yet, shockingly, the DTBL Batter of the Month went to a guy who hit one measly homer.  But first, here are the guys who won the weekly honors in May.

Batters of the Week:

Week 5 (5/1 – 5/7) – Billy Hamilton, Mavericks
Week 6 (5/8 – 5/14) – Mookie Betts, Kings
Week 7 (5/15 – 5/21) – Corey Dickerson, Gators
Week 8 (5/22 – 5/28) – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars

Pitchers of the Week:

Week 5 (5/1 – 5/7) – Chris Sale, Choppers
Week 6 (5/8 – 5/14) – Zack Greinke, Moonshiners
Week 7 (5/15 – 5/21) – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks
Week 8 (5/22 – 5/28) – Lance McCullers, Kings

No big surprises on the pitching list as some of the best pitchers in baseball were at the top of their games in May.  Even though pretty much all of the players listed above were strong contenders for Pitcher of the Month, the award went to someone else.  With the exception of Hamilton, the weekly award winners were certainly part of the huge power surge in May.  But as I hinted at earlier, it wasn’t a gaudy home run total that clinched the Batter of the Month honor.  Here are the players of the month for May 2017:

Batter of the Month:

Billy Hamilton, Mavericks
.288 AVG, 1 HR, 14 RBI, 27 R, 18 SB, 3.10 PAR

Pitcher of the Month:

Max Scherzer, Kings
2.27 ERA, 0.824 WHIP, 3 W, 0 SV, 60 K, 3.19 PAR

Safe to say Hamilton had the green light in May.  He stole 18 bases, which was six more than any other player.  He currently leads the league in steals with 28, which is twice the total of the next highest player!  He is on pace to blow past the DTBL single season stolen base record which is held by Jose Reyes who stole 78 bags in 2007.  Nobody has reached the 60 plateau since 2011, which Hamilton seems close to a lock to achieve, barring injury.  The rest of the offensive numbers were solid in May for Hamilton too.  It will be important for him to keep up the respectable hitting numbers while keeping the Mavericks offense afloat without Trout.  The race for this award wasn’t as close as you might have thought, but the runner-up was Jackalope first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

I had to do a double-take when I saw Scherzer atop the May pitching PAR leaderboard.  He had a couple very poor outings in the month, by his standards, including a game I saw in person in Atlanta in which his velocity was down and his command was off.  Yet he rebounded in a big way, striking out 24 batters in his final two starts of the month, one which was a complete game and another that was one out shy of that.  In total, he led the league with 60 strikeouts in the month.  He just barely won this award, edging out Kings teammate Lance McCullers and the Darkhorses’ Carlos Martinez.  This is the second time in three years that Scherzer has won this award in the month of May.

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2017 Season Preview: Part IV

Tuesday, April 4th, 2017


Everybody wants to be first… except when it comes to first place in the DTBL season preview series.  In all the years I’ve been doing these projections, no team that has been tabbed as the preseason favorite has ever actually gone on to win the league championship.  On top of that, no team has repeated as DTBL champions since the Darkhorses won a share of their fourth consecutive title back in 2010.  So that’s two trends the Kings will need to buck this season.  While they have received top billing in these projections, it is by the thinnest of margins over the Choppers and not far ahead of the Mavericks and other as well.  Since we are now in day three of the 2017 MLB season, it is time to start focusing on the games at hand.  So here are the final two team previews, for the teams expected to finish at the top of the standings.

Charlie’s Thunder Choppers

Category – Projected Rank (2016 Rank)

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

Summary:

Quietly, the Choppers have finished in the top four in the league for four straight seasons.  However, last season was the first time that they were truly in a pennant race in 15 years.  Finishing 2 1/2 points out was their closest margin of defeat since winning their last title in 1999.  This year, they would like to take the final step and win the whole thing.  It would be no surprise if they did just that.  If it weren’t for the Mavericks, we’d be gushing with superlatives for the Choppers pitching staff.  They finished just 1/2 point behind the Mavs in pitching points last season and are only projected to be two points behind them this year.  Chris Sale and Jon Lester will be joined by Danny Duffy to create a dynamic trio of southpaws at the top of the rotation.  Righties Danny Salazar and Masahiro Tanaka aren’t too shabby either.  They are a pretty good bet to lead the league in saves with four very good closers who all have decent job security at the moment (Craig Kimbrel, Ken Giles, A.J. Ramos and Kelvin Herrera).  The Choppers will probably need to beat these batting projections to win the title, however.  It is worth noting though that they are hurt a bit in these numbers by carrying three catchers on their roster, one of whom won’t play until later this summer (Wilson Ramos).  In the draft, they added several proven veterans to their existing cast with the likes of Dustin Pedroia (a re-acquisition), Carlos Gomez and Troy Tulowitzki.  The core of the offense remains Anthony Rizzo, Adrian Beltre, Jose Bautista and the defending home run champion, Mark Trumbo.  This is a team loaded with proven hitters.  Can they deliver one more time?  If so, the Choppers have an excellent shot at ending their 18 year championship drought.

Kevin’s Kings

Category – Projected Rank (2016 Rank)

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

Summary:

The Kings have proven to be a hard team to project in recent years, in part because the previous season never seems to have any bearing on what will happen next.  The Kings past four finishes:  1st, 6th, 10th, 1st.  So predicting them to finish in the same spot two consecutive years seems like a losing bet.  Yet here we are.  Which Kings offense will we see in 2017?  The one that dominated the league through the All-Star break a year ago, or the one that completely fell apart down the stretch and nearly cost them the title?  The projections lean more towards the former.  They made some key moves to fill the one obvious weakness on offense:  corner infield.  They traded Gregory Polanco to the Moonshiners for Kyle Seager and used draft picks on Ryon Healy and Victor Martinez.  Reigning MVP Mookie Betts is the main man in a very good outfield that should be able to overcome the loss of Polanco with the return to health by A.J. Pollock.  First round pick David Dahl will join his two Rockies teammates, Ian Desmond and Carlos Gonzalez, in the Kings outfield as well, once all are healthy.  Robinson Cano, Carlos Correa and Aledmys Diaz make up a pretty strong middle infield.  A Kings repeat will likely come down to the pitching staff.  Last year, it was basically a two man show with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.  They hope for great years from that duo again, but would like to get more from Marcus Stroman and Jeff Samardzija as well.  The key man in the rotation may be second round pick Lance McCullers, who has put up solid numbers early in his career, but has not been able to stay healthy.  The bullpen features four closers, but only the currently suspended Jeurys Familia would be considered above average.  Repeating their first place finish in saves seems unlikely.  The Kings certainly have the pieces in place to win the championship again this year, but their recent lack of consistency makes them anything but a safe bet.

Posted below are the full projected standings.  These numbers point to an extremely tight race, particularly at the top of the standings.  It would be very easy to make a case for any of the top five teams to win the title, and even beyond that, there are reasons for hope.  It should be an extremely entertaining season.  So, to paraphrase Hawk Harrelson, it is time to sit back, relax and strap it down.  The 2017 DTBL season is upon us!

Posted in Choppers, Kings | No Comments »

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