Just like the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, there was little drama in the DTBL All-Star Game on Thursday evening. In the 19th annual mid-summer game, the American Division cruised to a 12-1 victory over their National Division counterparts. The game even started eerily similar to the MLB game with Justin Verlander getting torched in the top of the first. The National All-Stars didn’t record their first hit until the fifth inning. Gators catcher Carlos Ruiz was named the MVP, going 3 for 3 with a home run and four runs knocked in. The game was played at the Demidome, home of Dom’s Demigods.
The game got off to an ominous start for the National Division with Verlander hitting Andrew McCutchen with the first pitch of the game. McCutchen came around to score on a base hit by Jose Bautista. David Wright followed with another RBI single. Later in the inning, Ruiz got his big night started with a two run single to give the American team a quick 4-0 lead in the first.
The American starting pitcher, Matt Cain, was far more effective. He pitched two scoreless, hitless innings and was followed by David Price who pitched two innings without giving up a hit either. Stephen Strasburg was the second pitcher into the game for the National squad, but he was only slightly more effective than Verlander. He gave up a two run home run to Miguel Cabrera in the top of the second, which increased the American lead to six. They were on cruise control from there, but were definitely not done scoring.
In the top of the fifth, Cole Hamels came in to pitch for the National Division and promptly gave up extra base hits to the first three hitters he faced. Doubles by Mark Trumbo and Ian Kinsler proceeded a two run home run by Ruiz. Half way through the game, it was 9-0 American with the National All-Stars still looking for their first hit. That hit finally came in the bottom of the fifth when Buster Posey hit a solo home run to end the no-hitter and shutout.
The American Division still had more runs in them. They scored three more in the top of the seventh to push the score to 12-1. The big hit of the inning was a bases clearing three run double by Ryan Braun. Neither team scored the rest of the way. Craig Kimbrel finished things off in the ninth with a pair of strike outs, including one of A.J. Pierzynski to end mercifully end the game.
There were plenty of offensive stars for the American Division, but Ruiz was the obvious choice for MVP. Ruiz and Braun both had three hits and at least three RBIs (four for Ruiz). Cabrera, Bautista and Kinsler each had multiple hits as well. All told, the American All-Stars recorded 12 runs on 16 hits. Meanwhile, the National team only recorded four hits, with Posey’s home run being the only hit by a National starter. Jason Kipnis had a pair of hits off the bench.
Cain and Price were the pitching stars of the game. Although the OOTP box score credits Price with the win, that distinction actually belongs to Cain since we don’t have a minimum inning requirement for earning a victory in an All-Star Game. Verlander took the loss. The defensive star of the game was probably McCutchen. He had six putouts in six innings in center field. Interestingly, he made catches to end five of the six innings he played.
As usual, the game was played using the Out of the Park Baseball simulation game. For the second straight year, there was a live webcast of the game on LiveStream. Check out the link below if you would like to watch the archived video. Congrats to Jay for managing his team to an easy win and thanks for taking the time to take part in the game. Here’s to an exciting second half!
We’re only in the last week of June, but I’m ready to declare that we have quite a pennant race brewing. At no point has any team in the league asserted its dominance, thus leaving us with a situation where seven out of the ten teams are in a very good position to win the championship. Those seven teams are all within 10 points of first place, with the top five separated by just four points. Somehow, the Mavericks have managed to hold the top spot most of the year, but it has been by the thinnest of margins at most times, including today when they are just 1/2 point clear of the Jackalope.
As we near the half way point of the season, I’m going to take a quick look at each of the ten teams, highlighting some of the key stories for each team. I will start with the three teams who are not currently in the thick of the race and then work my way up to the top of the standings.
Darkhorses
Only a year and a half removed from four consecutive championships, it would be fair to say things have gone downhill since then. While last year was a shocking disappointment for the Darkhorses, this season has been an absolute nightmare. Injuries have been the story of the league this season, but no team has had their season completely ruined by injuries like the Darkhorses. They sit in last place with just 18.5 points, so they are in serious jeopardy of breaking the league’s all time low water mark of 20 points since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1998. If you look at their roster, there is no way they should be this bad. Besides the injuries, incredibly disappointing seasons from Adrian Gonzalez and Tim Lincecum haven’t helped either. If those guys can turn it around and Chris Carpenter, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner return soon, maybe they can gain a little momentum and avoid a historically bad season.
Gators
Still a work in progress, and not really a threat this year, but things are looking up for the Gators. Their ridiculously bad offense from ’11 has improved a bit and their pitching staff is respectable. But there is still a lot of work to do. Their huge pre-draft trade with the Mavericks hasn’t really worked out. Nelson Cruz has been so-so and Mark Reynolds has provided virtually nothing. They could have used those picks to improve in other areas, but what’s done is done. The first draft pick they did make, Melky Cabrera in round three, has been a huge surprise, currently third in the league with a .355 average. The Gators appear to be headed for another high draft slot next season. With some exciting young players coming into the league again next year, maybe they will have an opportunity to grab one of them.
Demigods
The third team not currently in the title race is the Demigods. At the beginning of the year, they looked like a team ready to make a run at the championship. But like the Darkhorses, the Demigods have been sabotaged by injuries. One in particular: Matt Kemp. In April, Kemp appeared to be a shoe-in for his second straight DTBL MVP award and a possible Triple Crown. But since then, he has missed the better part of the last two months. Who knows what he will provide when he returns? But a healthy Kemp and Evan Longoria could get the Demigods back into contention.
Cougars
Although they are only in seventh place, this is the best Cougars team in a long time. They are just 9.5 points behind the Mavericks and could get even closer if a couple of their pitchers turn things around. Josh Hamilton has carried the offense, despite slowing down a bit of late. Jason Kipnis has been one of the biggest steals of the draft, providing big time power and speed at a weak second base position. Many were surprised when the Cougars passed on Stephen Strasburg with the first pick of the draft. That may not have been a wise decision, but the Cougars made up for it by grabbing his Nationals teammate Gio Gonzalez in the second round. Gonzalez’s numbers are pretty similar to Strasburg’s and you have to figure the Cougars would not have taken Gonzalez if they had gone with Strasburg in round one.
Choppers
The transformation of the Choppers has been quite remarkable. Last year they were all offense with a questionable pitching staff. This year, it is just the opposite. They are second in the league with 40 pitching points, but only have 20 batting points. One player is mostly responsible for the pitching turnaround: Chris Sale. Over the years, many teams have benefited from an extra starting pitcher in a relief pitching slot. But normally, that pitcher doesn’t put up All-Star caliber stats like Sale is doing this year. He’s keeping together a staff whose starting rotation is bandaged up with a bunch of free agent signings to fill in for other injured starters. The injuries to the Choppers rotation could be a huge problem in the upcoming weeks/months. But there is certainly reason to believe the offense will pick it up. Jose Bautista is heating up, now in a tie for the league lead in home runs. He could help the Choppers pick up some offensive points to move even closer to first place.
Kings
It is hard to say that a team four points out of first has been a huge disappointment, but to some degree, I think that can be said about the Kings. The pitching staff has been atrocious as a whole. They are ninth in the league in ERA and near the bottom in WHIP and wins too. Justin Verlander needs some help. Recently, the Kings have done a poor job of rotating their extra starting pitchers into the lineup. In the last eight days, they missed out on a one hit shutout by Ervin Santana and seven great innings from Edwin Jackson last night. If they could ever start picking the right five starting pitchers for a given week, they could be on to something. For the most part, the offense has been great, leading the league in batting points. But the lack of production from two Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, has been troubling. The Kings are still in pretty good shape despite being in fifth place though.
Naturals
Much of what I wrote about the Choppers also applies to the Naturals. They have transformed from an offensive juggernaut with a mediocre pitching staff to a team with a disappointing offense and the best pitching staff in the league. Matt Cain, Zack Greinke and David Price have been outstanding for the Naturals rotation. Jordan Zimmermann would be right there too if he would ever get run support and win some games. The Naturals have to be considered one of the most dangerous teams heading into the second half because you have to figure their offense will improve. Having said that, the recent injury to Troy Tulowitzki could be extremely costly. He’s expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks and they don’t have an obvious candidate to pick up the slack.
Moonshiners
The Moonshiners are perhaps the league’s most intriguing team right now. They have suffered some very costly injuries to their pitching staff, with the most devastating one coming this past week when Brandon Beachy was lost for the season with a torn UCL. Beachy was leading the league in ERA and had a sub 1.00 WHIP. But one free agent signing may have saved their season. Since joining the Moonshiners a month ago, R.A. Dickey has not allowed an earned run. Read that again. Dickey has a 0.00 ERA, 0.495 WHIP, four wins and 42 strike outs in just 34.1 innings with the Moonshiners. The 37 year old knuckleballer has been the league’s best story this year and may have a huge say in determining if the Moonshiners can win their first DTBL championship.
Jackalope
It really can’t get any tighter at the top of the standings. As of today, the defending champions sit one half point behind the Mavericks. Batting points: 35.5 for the Mavericks, 35.0 for the Jackalope. Pitching points: both have 33. So both teams are holding their own in batting and pitching. The Jackalope got off to a bit of a slow start, but ever since their two biggest stars, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun, have started to heat up, so has this team. I think they have to be considered the favorites at this point, especially if they are able to get anything out of Ryan Howard in the second half. Their dominating rotation from last year hasn’t been quite the same this season. But Felix Hernandez has been better of late, Cliff Lee will eventually win a game and Roy Halladay should provide he boost when he gets healthy. As long as they keep it close, I like their chances down the stretch.
Mavericks
This has been a pretty remarkable season for the Mavericks, following two consecutive eighth place finishes. Despite the incredible tightness of the race, they have managed to hold onto first place most of the year. Their strategy of stockpiling draft picks is paying off. Their pre-draft trade with the Gators may alter the course of this league for years to come. The two players they acquired with the draft picks they received in that trade: Stephen Strasburg and Mike Trout. Strasburg leads the league in strike outs and is not far behind in ERA, WHIP and wins too. What the Nationals decide to do with him when he reaches that magical 160 IP mark could have a dramatic impact on this league. I’ll probably write about this more when that date gets closer because I have a strong opinion on the matter. Meanwhile, I’ll be honest, I thought Trout was a bit of a gamble in the early second round because I wasn’t so sure the Angels would be able to make room for him this season. Boy was I wrong. He is hitting .351 and will probably be leading the league in stolen bases before June is over. If Adam Dunn, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Jones keep hitting home runs at their current rates, the Mavericks are going to be tough to catch, despite all the teams nipping on their heels.
Memorial Day is usually a good point in the season to take stock in how the baseball season is going and examine where it may be headed. As usual, there are hitters and pitchers who are vastly exceeding expectations, and have done so for long enough to make you think it may not be a fluke. Some of those players are helping to put their DTBL teams at or near the top of the standings. However, there seems to be a much bigger factor in determining a team’s success (or lack there of) this season: injuries.
Almost daily, there is another key player going down to an injury, whether it be a minor day-to-day issue, or one that has the player headed to season ending surgery. We’ve had torn ACLs, torn UCLs, sprained knees, torn hamstrings, broken hands, blurred vision, chronic illness, you name it. It started in spring training when two closers were lost for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery (Naturals’ Joakim Soria, Jackalope Ryan Madson). Two DTBL first round draft picks are yet to play a game this season (Kings’ Michael Morse, Choppers’ Michael Pineda). It is never a good sign when two of the most mentioned names in baseball are Tommy John and Dr. James Andrews.
Even the previously indestructible players are falling victim to this plague. The surest thing in baseball, Choppers’ Mariano Rivera, tore his ACL while shagging fly balls. And just yesterday, the always reliable Roy Halladay (Jackalope) was lost for 6-8 weeks due to a lat strain. Halladay wasn’t the only ace to go down yesterday either. Jered Weaver (Moonshiners) was pulled from his start in the first inning with a back problem. Fellow Moonshiner starting pitcher Ted Lilly hit the DL as well, as did red hot Kings catcher Jonathan LuCroy who suffered the freakiest injury of the season, breaking his hand due to a falling suitcase in a hotel room.
In those last two paragraphs, I named nine different players, and that didn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Every DTBL team has been affected, some more than others. I probably need to take a closer look at each roster to see if this is still the case, but prior to this most recent string of injuries, there were three teams in particular who had been absolutely decimated: the Darkhorses, Choppers and Demigods. All three are around the double digit mark in total number of players who have spent time on the DL, including some very critical losses. I suspect the Moonshiners are moving close to this list as well after losing 40% of their rotation yesterday. The Darkhorses injury problems were so bad, for a while they were fielding a major league roster with at least three disabled players. The Choppers and Demigods minors are/were filled with virtually nothing but injured players.
The Mavericks have been in first place virtually the entire season. In large part, that is because they had been the healthiest team in the league. Until about a week ago, their only injured player was 12th round draft pick, and projected bench player, Lorenzo Cain. But now the Mavericks have joined the rest of the league after having lost Neftali Feliz and Austin Jackson. Still, they are in better shape than most. With the exception of two pre-season injuries (Madson and Ryan Howard), the Jackalope had been relatively healthy as well, which helped guide them past the Mavericks for a couple days last week. But now this Halladay injury could be a major problem for the defending champions.
On a positive note, these injuries have certainly restrained any one team from running out to a huge lead, keeping most of the league very much in the mix. Half of the league is within 10 points of first place and two others are within 20. So if any of these teams can get relatively healthy, there are plenty of points to be gained. But that “healthy” term seems inconceivable for some teams at this point.
It was suggested to me by one league member that we look into adding additional DL slot(s) to our rosters in the future. I am not necessarily opposed to this idea, but keep in mind that such a change would require a number of other adjustments as well, like the total number of players on the league roster and maybe a change to the free agent signing limit too. This is a conversation I’m willing to have though if the consensus is that change is needed. Obviously, no change will be made for this season though. In the mean time, hopefully some of this madness will come to an end and we’ll be able to determine a champion based on player performance rather than healthy body tallies.
Hopefully my next article will be about player(s) who are actually contributing to their DTBL squads!
AVG: B … HR: A … R: A … RBI: A … SB: B … W: D … ERA: B … WHIP: A … K: C … SV: C
Marc’s favorite draft pick: Carlos Beltran, Round 3 – rebounded nicely last season; great value in what was the 19th round
Kevin’s favorite draft pick: Carlos Beltran, Round 3 – improved hitter’s situation, in terms of home ballpark and supporting cast gives a boost to a guy already coming off a good bounce-back year.
Overview: Once the cream of the DTBL crop, the Kings are poised to return not only to DTBL relevance, but to prominence. Just like OOTP, the projection systems love them some Kings.
While pitching carried the Kings in 2011, the projection systems rate the Kings as the best offense in the league, with top scores in the HR, RBI and R categories. The Kings focused on offense most of the first half of the draft with power-hitting Michael Morse, Coors Field native Michael Cuddyer and Beltran, who has found some protection in the order with St. Louis.
There have been three MLB regular season games played so far, but most teams will get things started Thursday and Friday. Taking a look at the new season, I decided to try something new this year. I had my hands on a relatively fresh copy of 2012 MLB rosters for the baseball simulation game I’ve been playing for years, Out of the Park Baseball. So I decided to put them to good use. I quickly created a DTBL league within OOTP, assigned players to their DTBL teams, then simulated a full 162 game schedule.
Before I get into this too much, I should say up front that this simulation is almost worthless. Just because a team did poorly in this OOTP sim means absolutely nothing about their chances in the upcoming season. The list of reasons why is too long to go through, but here are a few. Since the game is simulating regulation baseball games, only nine batters can be in a team’s lineup at a given time, as opposed to our league which has 14 active batting slots. So depth is far more important in the DTBL. Next, this sim has DTBL players facing nothing but other DTBL players. So there are no weak pitchers for hitters to pad their stats against. Same for pitchers. Finally, IT IS A COMPUTER SIMULATION! As much as I love OOTP and think it is the best baseball sim out there, it can’t possibly perfectly replicate player performance, particularly future performance.
But putting that aside, I just thought this would be a fun thing to do before the season started. I let the AI control all lineup/pitching staff decisions, but turned off all transactions and injuries. So each team consists of 25 players, 14 batters and 11 pitchers. For the most part, I used the Opening Day DTBL rosters, plus a couple of bench pitchers for each team. This meant some injured guys who are going to miss a decent portion of the season didn’t make the cut. Once I had all the rosters set, I immediately simulated the entire season, which took about 5 minutes. Here are the results:
It was a close race most of the season, but the Kings prevailed in the end with a 97-65 record, beating the Jackalope by five games. Honestly, I was hoping my team wouldn’t win this thing because it makes the whole thing look like it was rigged, but I assure you that wasn’t the case. I didn’t create the players, nor did I do any of the managing of my team. The Kings won mostly thanks to the league’s best offense, led by Carlos Gonzalez, Jay Bruce and Ryan Zimmerman. Very few Kings had poor seasons in this sim.
A few other things stuck out. First, the top four teams were the same four who finished at the top of the 2011 DTBL standings, though not in the same order. The Gators had a rough go of it, losing 105 games and finishing in last place by 17 games. They finished last in the league in runs scored and runs allowed, not a good combination.
As for the players, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder backed up their enormous offseason contracts by finishing first and second in the league in home runs. Pujols was also the league MVP. Cliff Lee won the Cy Young Award thanks to his league leading 17 wins. Not that there were many eligible players to begin with, but Yonder Alonso was named the Rookie of the Year.
If you have a lot of time on your hands, feel free to click through all the stats and info you find from those links above. I’m sure you’ll find some ridiculous AI roster management decisions for your team as well as some inexplicably poor performances from certain players.
Now that I got that out of my system, how about some real baseball? Enjoy the two remaining Opening Days!
It was a great year for pitchers as a whole, but one hurler was head and shoulders above the rest. In the least surprising news of the off-season, Kevin’s Kings ace Justin Verlander has unanimously won the 2011 DTBL Cy Young Award, to go along with the American League Cy Young Award which he unanimously won earlier this week.
2011 was an amazing, record-setting year for Verlander. He got off to a hot start, highlighted by his second career no-hitter against Toronto in May. He continued to win games start after start and finished the season with 24 victories, tying the DTBL single season record. John Smoltz won 24 games for the Cougars back in 1996 and Randy Johnson equaled that mark for the Kings in 2002. Since that ’02 season, no pitcher had won more than 22 games in a season. In addition to wins, Verlander also led the league in WHIP at 0.920 and 250 strike outs. That WHIP ratio comes in as the sixth lowest single season value in DTBL history. His 2.40 ERA was pretty good too.
Verlander was almost solely responsible for the Kings tying for the second most pitching points in the league. Only one other King won more than 10 games (Max Scherzer), yet the team wound up leading the league in that category. Verlander accounted for almost 20% of the team’s strike outs as well. The Kings picked Verlander in the third round of the 2009 draft after he had spent two seasons with the Demigods. The Demigods let him go after a very disappointing season in 2008. In his three seasons with the Kings, he has won at least 18 games in each campaign. In fact, he has reached that 18 win mark in four of his five DTBL seasons. He’ll need just 13 wins next year to reach 100 for his career. It has been an impressive early career for Verlander, but 2011 was by far his best year yet.
The Cy Young voting results were not surprising, but very interesting none-the-less. Unanimous decisions for awards are fairly common, but rarely do you see complete agreement in both of the top two spots. Verlander received all ten of the first place votes for the maximum 100 points, while the young Mavericks lefty Clayton Kershaw received all ten of the second place votes for 70 total points. Kershaw, the National League Cy Young winner, won 21 games and was right with Verlander in the other categories. Kershaw had the league’s best ERA at 2.28 and finished second to Verlander in wins, WHIP (0.977) and strike outs (248). These two were clearly the best two pitchers in the league in 2011. Although not quite unanimous, Roy Halladay was the clear choice for third place. He earned eight third place votes with the other two going to his Jackalope and Phillies teammate Cliff Lee. Halladay earned 46 points. Lee finished fourth in the vote with 26 points. There was a bit of a gap following the pair of Jackalope. Former Jackalope, current Moonshiner Jered Weaver finished fifth with eight points. Halladay, Lee and Weaver had numbers which would have made them likely Cy Young winners in many seasons, but not this one.
Click here to view the full 2011 DTBL Cy Young voting results.
I’m going to take this time to mention that I never got around to writing that third piece of my season recap, which was supposed to be a statistical look at how much pitchers dominated the 2011 season. Hopefully, I’ll take the time at some point this winter to delve into this, because after glancing at some of the numbers, it is quite apparent that pitching has never been better than it was this year (in the DTBL, that is). All of the players mentioned above played a huge part in this.
The final award, the Most Valuable Player, will be named next Tuesday. There are plenty of strong candidates for that award as well.
You’ve heard all about the champion Jackalope. Now it’s time to take a look back at the 2011 season for the other nine teams. I’ve grouped them into three categories: the good, the bad and the ugly. These groups don’t necessarily relate to the order of finish, but how competitive the teams were compared to expectations. The three teams I identified as “good” all finished higher in the standings than they did a year ago and should feel like they are headed in the right direction. “Bad” isn’t really the right word for the second group, because two of the three teams actually finished near the top of the standings. Disappointing is a better way to describe them. Finally, the teams that fall into the “ugly” category would probably like to pretend 2011 never happened.
THE GOOD
Mike’s Moonshiners
The quickest team out of the gate, the Moonshiners led the league for a good part of the first quarter of the season. They stumbled a bit in early summer and never really recovered, finishing in third place. However, that was up two spots from a year ago and was their best finish since 2008. The improvement was almost entirely due to the pitching staff, which received a huge boost from the Jackalope trade which brought them ace pitcher and Cy Young candidate Jared Weaver. While I already mentioned how beneficial that trade was to the Jackalope, the impact was similar for the Moonshiners. Weaver turned their average pitching staff into one of the league’s best. He finished in the top five of the league in ERA, WHIP and wins. Meanwhile, the offense was carried by slugging first baseman Prince Fielder (38 HR, 120 RBI) and 30/30 man Ian Kinsler (32 HR, 30 SB). Now that the pitching staff has been fixed, the Moonshiners will look to improve their offense going into 2012. With the Jackalope winning their first title this year, the Moonshiners are now the longest tenured DTBL team without a title. They figure to have a good chance to change that next year.
Dom’s Demigods
The biggest jump in the standings was made by the Demigods. After finishing dead last a year ago, they managed to move into the top half of the standings with a fifth place finish in 2011. This is despite the fact that they got almost nothing out of their first overall pick (Buster Posey); same with his catching partner Joe Mauer. The rest of the offense was surprisingly good though, finishing in the top five in every category and leading the league in batting average. The indisputable MVP of the team was Matt Kemp, who hit .324 with 39 HR, 126 RBI, 115 R, 40 SB. He led the league in RBIs and was the only player to appear on the league leaderboard in all five categories. He even flirted with the NL Triple Crown until the final week of the season. The pitching staff was a bit of a disappointment, but overall, the Demigods appear to be headed in the right direction.
Charlie’s Thunder Choppers
Although they only wound up finishing one spot higher than a year ago (6th, up from 7th), this was a much better year for the Choppers. They were a title contender in the second half of the season for the first time in five years. They wound up finishing 16 1/2 points out of first, cutting almost half the deficit from a year ago (32 points). As I documented in an article a couple months ago, it was some recent first round draft picks that helped pump some more juice into the Choppers offense. Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson finished first and second in the league in home runs (43 and 41 respectively). Both are strong MVP candidates, while Bautista is even eligible for the DTBL Rookie of the Year award. Granderson led the league with 136 runs scored, the highest total since 2007. The Choppers boast another strong ROY candidate in closer Craig Kimbrel who saved 46 games in his first full MLB season. If the Choppers can add one or two more elite starting pitchers, they are another team to watch in 2012.
THE BAD
Nick’s Naturals
Okay, I admit it isn’t really fair to put the Naturals in a category labeled as “bad”, because they were definitely not that. But a defending champion almost always has its sights set on repeating, and the Naturals weren’t quite able to do that this year, finishing a distant second. In some ways, this Naturals team was every bit as good as the one that tied for title last year, but the Jackalope were just a little better. The Naturals were unable to repeat their amazing feat of 50 batting points from a year ago, but still led the league with 45. They figured they would need to get more out of their pitching staff though. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t really happen. Newly acquired Zack Greinke was solid, but he, along with the rest of the staff, didn’t have a truly spectacular season. Still, the Naturals shouldn’t regret their Greinke/Howard trade, because the pitching would have been worse without Greinke. Miguel Cabrera and Joey Votto led the league’s best offense. Cabrera won the batting title with a .344 average. Overall, there is nothing for the Naturals to be ashamed of this year. They were as close as one half point behind the Jackalope in late August. They figure to be right back in the title hunt again next year.
Kevin’s Kings
Again, this wasn’t a “bad” season for the Kings. They finished exactly where they did a year ago, in fourth place. However, this time fourth place meant 15 points back and not really a serious contender down the stretch. Last year, they were in the hunt right until the end and finished just five points behind the co-champions. Other than place of finish, there was virtually nothing in common between the 2010 and 2011 Kings. This year’s squad had a below average offense and one of the league’s best pitching staffs. It was just the opposite in ’10. The main reason for the pitching upswing was one man: Justin Verlander. Verlander tied a DTBL single season record with 24 wins. He also led the league in WHIP (0.920) and strike outs (250). Really, he’s the only Kings pitcher who sticks out as having an impressive year, yet they managed to garner 40 pitching points. On offense, it was an underwhelming and injury plagued season for almost all of the Kings stars. Jose Reyes bounced back to being one of the league’s elite players, but he too couldn’t stay healthy. It is hard to say where this franchise is headed. Without Verlander’s monster year, they could have finished near the bottom of the standings this year. On the other hand, had a few key guys stayed healthy, they may have been in the hunt until the end.
Marc’s Mavericks
Now this is the one team in this group where the “bad” label probably applies. For the second straight year, the Mavericks finished in eighth place. But this isn’t a franchise that typically goes through long rebuilding processes. Last year, they were completely wrecked by injuries and essentially gave up with a couple months to play. This year, they had some injuries, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. Disappointing seasons from almost all of their young players gave them little hope of competing. They have had five first round picks the past two years, and I would call several of them major disappointments at this point. Carlos Santana and Matt Wieters had decent seasons at a weak offensive position, but the jury is still out on them. Gordon Beckham and Jayson Heward have been huge busts so far. The only Maverick who really stood out as having a tremendous 2011 season was Clayton Kershaw. Kerhsaw led the league in ERA (2.28) and was just behind Verlander in WHIP (0.977), wins (21) and strike outs (248). It should definitely come down to those two for the Cy Young award. The Mavericks really need to hit some home runs with their early picks in next year’s draft because the last two years have been rather forgettable.
THE UGLY
David’s Darkhorses
The Darkhorses set a standard of excellence in winning four consecutive DTBL championships from 2006-2010. This year, not only did they fail to meet that standard, but they wound up with the worst finish in league history for a defending champion, finishing a distant seventh. They won those four titles by having the most balanced team in the league, usually finishing first or second in both batting and pitching. This year, they somehow managed to fall to the middle of the pack in both areas. Injuries were a factor, but not to the extent you would expect for a team that fell apart like this. Below average seasons for most of the roster is the main explanation. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. On the bright side, Jacoby Ellsbury turned himself into one of the best fantasy players with a 32 HR, 39 SB season while hitting .321. His Red Sox teammate Adrian Gonzalez had another solid year for the Darkhorses, but dropped off a bit in the second half. One major problem with the pitching staff was the criminally bad run support Tim Lincecum received. He only won 13 games despite putting up his usual dominating numbers in the other categories. James Shields and Chris Carpenter also won fewer games than you would expect from their other numbers. I’ll chalk this up as a worst-case scenario season for the Darkhorses. Surely, things will go better next year.
Greg’s Gators
I should point out that until the final day of the season, it appeared the Gators, and possibly the Cougars as well, were going to break the DTBL record for fewest total points in the 10 team era. Fortunately for them, both teams picked up a point or two in the final day and avoided this place in history. They wound up tied for ninth place with a putrid 21 total points, one clear of the record low mark of 20 by Tim’s Titans in 1999.
While the Gators did avoid that distinction, they managed to set a different low water mark. Their six batting points are the fewest ever in the 10 team era (since ’98, batting or pitching). Only a couple stolen bases prevented them from finishing dead last in all five offensive categories. Sadly, they were in last by a fairly wide margin in most categories. They are going to have a tough time finding enough players worthy of keeping. About the only offensive player who put up keeper-worthy numbers was Dan Uggla, and even he only hit .233. The pitching staff was a little better, mostly thanks to C.C. Sabathia. Injuries to Jair Jurrjens and Josh Johnson prevented them from having a pretty respectable staff. Overall, there is a lot of work to do for this squad. I think 2011 was clearly the worst season in franchise history.
Kelly’s Cougars
I think Kelly clearly had more important things on her mind this year, which caused her to not put a lot of time and effort into her team. I’m not sure it would have mattered though. Much as was the case with the White Sox, Adam Dunn almost single-handedly ruined the Cougars season. Nobody had a particularly good season either though. Josh Hamilton fought through injuries, and other key players were simply inconsistent. The pitching staff was especially poor, though that can be partly blamed on the loss of staff ace Adam Wainwright to Tommy John surgery before the season even started. This will be chalked up as a forgettable year for the Cougars. Perhaps with some bounce back years from their key players, 2012 should be better.
No player has hit more home runs in his DTBL career than Kings third baseman Alex Rodriguez. On Saturday afternoon, Rodriguez hit his 586th home run while on a DTBL roster, moving him one ahead of Barry Bonds. He needs just 14 more home runs to become the first player to reach 600.
Although it has been an injury-plagued and mostly disappointing season for ARod, it has been full of impressive DTBL accomplishments. If he can pick up another five RBIs in the final week, he will also become the league’s all-time leader in that category, passing Manny Ramirez. He already has the lead in runs scored too, but only 13 ahead of his Yankees teammate Derek Jeter. In addition to that, Rodriguez was the Most Valuable Player in the DTBL All-Star Game back in July.
Not surprisingly, Rodriguez is the Kings franchise leader in home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, and even stolen bases. He was drafted by the Kings with the first pick of the 1997 draft, a pick the Kings acquired by trading away Roger Clemens. Sadly, both players have since had their legacies tainted, but that is another story for another time. Rodriguez has spent all 15 years of his career with the Kings. He was a critical piece of their four consecutive titles from 2001-2004. In those four seasons, he hit 52, 57, 47 and 36 home runs. Probably his best season came in 2007 though when he hit 54 home runs, drove in an incredible 156 and scored 143 runs.
2011 figures to be the worst statistical season of his career, likely setting single season lows in home runs (16), RBIs (60), runs (65) and stolen bases (4). Once considered the clear cut #1 player to have on your fantasy baseball team, that is certainly no longer the case. In particular, a variety of injuries have slowed him down the last couple seasons.
Meanwhile, most of the Yankees record breaking attention this week has been on Mariano Rivera for setting the MLB career save record (602), passing Trevor Hoffman. Rivera set the DTBL career mark in that category earlier this year, passing Hoffman on that list as well.
With a week to go in the season, can the Naturals catch the Jackalope? It’s not looking likely, as the Jackalope lead has remained fairly constant in recent days.
On Monday night, Jim Thome became the eighth player in MLB history to reach the 600 career home run milestone. He hit home runs 599 and 600 in consecutive at bats, the first player to do so. The milestone home run came in the top of the seventh inning off Tigers lefty Daniel Schlereth. Both of his home runs were hit to the opposite field in Comerica Park, quite a feat in its own right. Thome helped lead the Twins to a 9-6 victory over the Tigers.
Thome is one of just five players in the 600 home run club who has never been implicated as a steroid user. He needs ten more home runs to pass Sammy Sosa to move into 7th place on the all-time list. Although possible, it seems unlikely he will move up any further than that. Not that there was ever much question about it anyway, but this achievement further cements Thome’s Hall of Fame credentials. In addition to being one of the game’s all-time great sluggers, he has to be among the most respected by his peers as well. He has a reputation as an all-around great person. Personally, I couldn’t be happier for him, even though he plays for the Twins.
Thome has played for five major league teams in 21 seasons. He came up in the Indians organization, the team for which he hit the most home runs in 12 great seasons. He then had two very good seasons in Philadelphia before losing his job to Ryan Howard. Following the 2005 season, he was traded to the White Sox where he had 3 1/2 very productive seasons. After a brief stay with the Dodgers, he has spent the last two years in Minnesota.
Since Thome has been something of a part-time player for the Twins, his DTBL career has been stifled a bit in recent years. He has 546 career home runs, placing him third on the league’s all-time list behind Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. He is also third in career RBIs (1,492) and fifth in runs scored (1,402). However, he has not appeared on a DTBL roster this season and is currently a free agent.
Jim Thome has only played for two DTBL teams. Originally drafted by the Kings in 1995, they released him after four very productive years. He was the victim of a position crunch for the Kings who also had Frank Thomas and Mark McGwire at first base in ’98 (that was the season McGwire hit 70 home runs). The Kings loss was the Choppers gain though. They drafted Thome in the second round in 1999 and he promptly helped his new team win the DTBL Championship that season. He stuck around with the Choppers for 11 years and 401 home runs. Only Sammy Sosa has hit more home runs in a Choppers uniform. The Choppers finally let him go following the 2009 season. The Kings then reacquired him as a free agent last year, where he quietly put up solid numbers in a short period of time. He was cut following the season and has been a free agent since.
On Friday night, the National Division defeated the American Division 3-2 at Jackalope Stadium in the 18th Annual DTBL All-Star Game. In a game full of missed chances, the National All-Stars pulled out a little small ball to scratch out the winning run in the top of the 9th inning. It was the second straight year the National Division picked up a win despite a seemingly over-matched roster.
Justin Verlander was the starting pitcher for the National All-Stars and was opposed by Roy Halladay. Both aces pitched two scoreless innings. Verlander retired all six batters he faced. Halladay allowed the leadoff man to reach base both innings, but prevented those runners from scoring, which became a theme of the game for both teams. The game was scoreless through four innings.
Dan Haren took the mound for the American Division in the fifth and got knocked around, but was also betrayed by his defense. Carlos Gonzalez led off the inning with a single to right and advanced to second when Jose Bautista had trouble fielding the ball. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored the first run of the game on a double by Alex Rodriguez. Two batters later, Jose Reyes lined a hit into center to score Rodriguez. He also moved up to second on a booted ball by center fielder Curtis Granderson. Jacoby Ellsbury then singled to left, but Reyes was inexplicably unable to score from second on a single with two outs. So the National All-Stars settled for a 2-0 lead. If you take a look at the box score, it says both runs were unearned, however I believe this is incorrect. Based on the sequence of events, both runs would have scored anyway if the errors had not been made, so they should have been earned runs. Chalk that up as a bug in OOTP.
The National lead didn’t last long. Kings pitcher Tommy Hanson quickly gave back the two runs his Kings teammates knocked in in the top half of the fifth. Brian McCann starting the frame with a double and scored on a two run home run to right center by Granderson. So after trading pairs of runs in the 5th, the game was tied at 2.
The next three innings were filled with missed opportunities, especially for the American All-Stars. In both the 6th and 7th innings, they had runners on first and second with nobody out and failed to score. Again in the 8th, they had two men on with one out, but the inning ended when Brian McCann hit into a double play. He had done the same thing in his previous at bat in the 6th. Prior to those at bats, he had been an early contender for the game’s MVP award with a pair of hits and his throw outs of Reyes and Ellsbury on stolen base attempts early in the game.
The ninth inning featured something you don’t see very often in an All-Star game: a sacrifice bunt. Drew Storen was pitching for the American Division and surrendered hits to David Ortiz and Matt Holliday to start the inning. Then Brandon Phillips came up and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. Alex Rodriguez took advantage of the opportunity and hit a sacrifice fly to score Ortiz and gave the National Division a 3-2 lead. It was Rodriguez’s second RBI of the game. Brian Wilson and his beard then came into the game in the bottom of the 9th to pick up the save. He allowed a one out walk, but retired the next two hitters to secure the win for the National team.
Although OOTP disagreed, Rodriguez was a pretty easy choice as the game’s MVP. He was involved in all three National runs, knocking in two and scoring the third. Not bad for a guy with a bum knee who probably won’t play in a real game for at least another month or so. Cole Hamels picked up the win thanks to his scoreless 8th inning. Drew Storen took the loss and Brian Wilson earned the save.
Some interesting stats from the game. 11 leadoff batters reached base safely, but only three of them wound up scoring. The National squad put the first man on in six innings, while the American team did it five times. With numbers like those, you would have expected this to be a very high scoring game. But both teams hit into a pair of double plays to kill some of those rallies. Also, there were a lot of strike outs with men on base. National batters whiffed 11 times; 7 for the American All-Stars. Three different American players left at least four men on base with their at bats: McCann (4), Troy Tulowitzki (4) and Rickie Weeks (5). As a team, they stranded 11 men on base to end innings.
I think the live video streaming of the game went very well. I know from my standpoint, it was a lot easier being able to describe the action through speech rather than having to type it all. In addition to the three active participants, I know we had at least one other onlooker. Hopefully you all enjoyed it as well. I am quite certain we will try something similar again next year. Feel free to check out the archived video which is available on the LiveStream channel. Thanks to everyone for showing up on Friday night!
