Archive for November, 2017

Stanton Slugs Way to MVP

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017

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2017 will be remembered as the year of the non-steroid enhanced home run.  A record number of homers were hit in MLB this season and the most in the DTBL since 2000.  29 DTBL players hit at least 30 round-trippers and 70 players hit at least 20.  Despite this proliferation of homers, one player managed to separate himself from the pack.  Jackalope outfielder Giancarlo Stanton slugged 59 homers, 10 more than any other player.  That is the largest gap between the top two home run hitters in DTBL history (tying Albert Belle in 1995).  In a crowded field of strong candidates, Stanton has come out on top as the 2017 DTBL Most Valuable Player.

Yesterday, I adjusted the 2017 PAR numbers to be based on a five year set of stats including the recently completed season.  In doing so, most hitters saw their PAR take a slight drop, particularly power hitters.  Stanton was no exception.  His PAR dropped from 12.1 to 11.7, which cost him the top spot on the PAR leaderboard since 2009.  Mookie Betts’ 2016 total of 11.72 edged Stanton by one tenth of a point.  Stanton did lead the league in that category in 2017 though, in addition to soaring past the field in home runs and also leading the way in RBI (132).  His 123 runs trailed only Charlie Blackmon.  Even his .281 batting average was quite impressive for such a prodigious slugger.  While Stanton has been a force ever since he made it to the majors, this was easily his best season yet.

The Jackalope drafted Stanton with the sixth overall pick of the 2011 draft.  He has been their most consistent power hitter ever since.  In his seven DTBL seasons, he has hit at least 20 home runs in each one.  Only injuries have been able to slow him down on occasion.  2017 was clearly his best season to date, but 2014 was pretty darn good as well when he finished second in the MVP race.  This year marked his fourth All-Star appearance.  He was a major contributor to both of the Jackalope’s championships (2011 and 2015).    This was a disappointing season for the Jackalope, but that was mostly because of the pitching staff.  Stanton helped them easily lead the league in home runs with 364, the highest team total since 2003.  Stanton and Jackalope teammate Paul Goldschmidt formed the most fearsome duo in the league this season.

Stanton clearly had a MVP caliber season, but he was not alone.  He received half of the first place votes and appeared on all ten ballots, but in scattered positions.  In total, he accumulated 77 points, winning this award by 19 over Cougars outfielder Charlie Blackmon.  Blackmon was no doubt a benefactor of the Coors effect, but his numbers across the board were legitimately spectacular, leading the league in runs (137) while hitting .331 with 37 homers, 104 RBI and 14 stolen bases.  He received a pair of first place votes and was the only player besides Stanton to make it on every ballot.  Finishing third was the DTBL Rookie of the Year, Mavericks outfielder Aaron Judge.  Stanton was the only DTBL player to hit more home runs than Judge this year.  Judge received one first place vote and 46 total points.  Interestingly enough, that allowed him to edge out American League MVP Jose Altuve by a single point.  With a AL MVP and World Series championship under his belt, Altuve is now receiving proper recognition as one of the best players in the sport.  This is the third time in four years that he has finished in the top four of the MVP race.  He won the league batting title, hitting .346 with 24 home runs and 32 stolen bases.  The Demigods second baseman received a pair of first place votes, but was edged out by Judge because he received just one second place tally.  The top four finishers all received first place votes and made strong arguments to win this award.  But so did the guy who finished fifth, Jackalope first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.  Goldschmidt accumulated 18 points.  It is definitely worth checking out the voting results.  There was a clear lack of consensus on where each player should finish.

Click here to view the full voting results.

As mentioned above, yesterday, I completed the end-of-season PAR adjustments for the 2017 figures.  I’m also in the process of adding PAR numbers for the 2008 season, which means we will have ten full seasons worth of data for that stat very soon.  I have a lot planned for this winter, including a revamp of the transaction processing portions of the web site.  So if you have any suggestions on improvements, please let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Cy Young Goes to a Klubot

Monday, November 20th, 2017

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The 2017 season got off to a rough start for Demigods ace Corey Kluber. He managed to win three of his first six starts, but was far from his usual dominant self, posting a 5.06 ERA before hitting the disabled list for nearly a month. Apparently the time off served him well, because he was the best pitcher in baseball for the final four months of the season. Those four months of dominance were enough to make Kluber’s full season numbers as impressive as any other pitcher in baseball. Corey Kluber is the 2017 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

Kluber is the definition of a workhorse.  Despite missing a month of the season, he still managed to record 203.2 innings, exceeded by only two other DTBL pitchers.  He has thrown over 200 innings in all four of his seasons with the Demigods.  But it wasn’t just about quantity of innings for Kluber.  The quality was unsurpassed as well.  He easily led the league in ERA (2.25) and WHIP (0.87) and tied for the most wins (18) as well.  His 265 strikeouts ranked third in the league.  In terms of PAR, he was also the best pitcher in the league with a mark of 13.2.  He did all of this while pitching in the hitter friendly American League.  He is the first American League pitcher to win the DTBL Cy Young award since David Price in 2012.

The Demigods drafted Kluber in the 10th round of the 2014 draft.  Needless to say, that pick has worked out quite well for them.  Kluber won the DTBL Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and has been a Cy Young contender pretty much every season since.  He has struck out over 225 hitters in each season and has never posted an ERA above 3.50 or a WHIP above 1.09.  This season was probably his best to date, but there hasn’t been a bad one yet.  He already sits in the top five in Demigods franchise history in all relevant categories.  Amazingly enough, this season marked his first DTBL All-Star appearance.  I would say that is a sign of how dominant Kluber tends to be in the second half of seasons, because his full season numbers have been All-Star worthy in all four years of his DTBL career.  The Demigods pitching staff was a bit of a disappointment as a whole, keeping them from being a serious championship contender.  But that obviously wasn’t Kluber’s fault.  He easily led his team in ERA, WHIP, wins, strikeouts and PAR.

Plenty of pitchers had great 2017 seasons, but Kluber won this award pretty easily.  He received eight of the ten first place votes, and was ranked second on the other two ballots for a total of 94 points.  Chris Sale looked like the favorite to win this award at the All-Star break, but he continued his career trend of fading down the stretch, creating quite a contrast to Kluber.  Nonetheless, the Choppers lefty still led the league in strikeouts with 308, the highest single season total since Randy Johnson’s 334 in the 2002 season, 15 years ago.  Sale received one first place vote and eight seconds for a 69 point total.  There was a very close race for third place.  Last year’s Cy Young winner, Kings ace Max Scherzer edged out Mavericks star Clayton Kershaw.  Scherzer received a majority of the third place votes (7) and accumulated 44 points.  This was just enough to beat Kerhaw’s 40 points that included a first place vote.  Finishing near the top of the Cy Young vote is nothing new for this duo.  Scherzer has now finished in the top four in four of the past five seasons.  Amazingly, this is Kershaw’s seventh straight year in this elite company.  He won the award in 2013 and 2014.  There was a huge gap after these four, but Mavericks closer Kenley Jansen took the fifth spot thanks to four fifth place votes.

Click here to view the full voting results.

Two down, one to go.  The Most Valuable Player award, which figures to be the most hotly contested of the three races, will be announced on Wednesday.

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Judge Rules Over Rookies

Wednesday, November 15th, 2017

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Let’s cut to the chase.  Putting Aaron Judge at the top of the ballot for Rookie of the Year was probably one of the easiest decisions each of us made this year.  That’s not to say there weren’t many good first year players in the league this year.  Quite the opposite, actually.  But none of those other rookies had one of the best offensive seasons in recent league history during their maiden voyages.  Judge did.  He already won the American League Rookie of the Year award and is likely to be a strong contender for the DTBL Most Valuable Player award which will be announced next week.  Mavericks outfielder Aaron Judge is the unanimous selection as the 2017 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

Before I go too much further, I need to point out that I have not yet completed the post-season adjustments to the 2017 PAR totals.  Because of the offensive explosion in the league this season, expect hitters’ PAR totals to go down a bit.  With that said, Judge just posted the fourth highest batting PAR for seasons in which it has been calculated to date (since 2009).  Granted, two of the three totals ahead of Judge’s 11.0 were also accumulated this year.  So it was a hitter friendly environment.  Nonetheless, Judge’s numbers speak of themselves.  He slugged 49 home runs, finishing second in the league behind Giancarlo Stanton and also second in league history among rookies, trailing only Ryan Howard’s 58 homers in 2006.  His 120 runs scored ranked third in the league and he also drove in triple digits:  106.  Additionally, he stole nine bases and hit a very respectable .287.  Not bad for a guy with swing-and-miss issues.  Judge led the Mavericks in HR, RBI and R.  Perhaps his most impressive feat was topping Mike Trout to lead the Mavericks in batting PAR.  It is the first time in Trout’s career that he has not led them in that category.

This was a pretty special season for the Mavericks organization, and Judge was obviously a huge part of that.  After hitting just .179 with four homers in 27 games at the end of 2016, none of the ten DTBL teams decided to select Judge during the draft this March.  But the Mavericks wisely moved in with a free agent claim in the second week of the season.  One season does not make a career, but this is already looking like the biggest free agent heist in league history.  One day we may look back and wonder how in the world Aaron Judge was not among the 280 players on a DTBL roster to start this season.  Actually, that day has already passed.  Anyway, all the Mavericks got out of their early season free agent signing was one of the best seasons in recent memory, and with it, a league championship.

I probably would have had to question anybody who didn’t put Judge #1 on their ballot.  Fortunately, that didn’t prove necessary as he received all ten first place votes for a point total of a perfect 100.  Jake Arrieta was a unanimous choice for this award two years ago, but the last hitter to do it was Judge’s Mavericks teammate Mike Trout.  Trout was also the last Maverick to win this award.  Comfortably finishing in second place was Gators third baseman Jose Ramirez who shocked everybody by hitting .318 with 29 home runs and 17 stolen bases.  Ramirez appeared on all ten ballots and received eight of the ten second place votes for a total of 64 points.  Finishing third was another breakout star with little hype entering the season, Moonshiners 7th round pick, Robbie Ray.  The hard-throwing lefty struck out 195 in just 143 innings for the Moonshiners.  Ray also received votes from all ten people and was the third choice for seven of them, finishing with 46 points.  The only first round pick to finish in the top five was Jackalope catcher Gary Sanchez.  Definitely one of the favorites for this award entering the season, Sanchez did not disappoint.  He clubbed 33 homers at one of the few remaining positions where big offensive numbers are hard to come by.  Sanchez was only on half the ballots, but accumulated 17 points.  Finally, a relief pitcher sneaked into the five hole.  Darkhorses closer Corey Knebel wasn’t signed as a free agent until May, but racked up 39 saves anyway.  An interesting note about him is that he was technically on a DTBL roster a year ago, but the Moonshiners never put him on their major league roster, preserving his rookie status into this season.  Knebel received one second place vote which helped him reach 15 total points and this fifth place ranking.

Click here to view the full voting results.

Even though all of the major MLB awards are being announced this week, you are going to have to wait until next week to find out who won the other two big DTBL awards.  Next up will be the Cy Young award, which will probably be announced next Monday.

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