With three weeks to go in the season, the Kings held a 9 1/2 point lead over the Demigods and Mavericks and appeared to be headed to an uneventful coronation as league champions. But then the wheels fell off. Just two days later, the lead was down to five points. With exactly two weeks remaining, it was cut down to a point. On September 20, not only did they relinquish first place, but they found themselves all the way down to fourth and headed in the wrong direction. However, the standings were so close in so many categories, that any of four teams had nearly identical odds of finishing on top. When it was all said and done, the Kings picked up a much needed half point on the final day, which wound up being their margin of victory over the Demigods. For a growing record sixth time, Kevin’s Kings are the DTBL Champions.
This league has seen some pretty incredible finishes in its history and this season’s pennant race has to be near the top of that list. However, the excitement that normally would have been felt in a four team sprint to the finish line had a bit of a somber tone this year as tragedy struck the baseball world with just a week to go in the season. Miami Marlins and Demigods young ace Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident on September 25. I don’t have much to add that hasn’t already been said about what a joy it was to watch Fernandez pitch and how deeply he will be missed by virtually all baseball fans. Perhaps I will take some time to write some of my own thoughts about Fernandez during the off-season. But for now, I would be remiss not to mention how major of an impact his passing had on this league’s title race.
The Kings won the league by 1/2 point. Although there were a whole bunch of categories that could have swung the title in a different direction, the place where the Kings gained their margin of victory on the final day was in wins. Max Scherzer won his league high 20th game for the Kings that final afternoon, moving them out of a tie with the Mavericks and into a tie with the Moonshiners in that category. Scherzer recorded the win, despite giving up five runs. His opponent? Fernandez’s Marlins. Impossible to know for sure what the Marlins would have done with their rotation in the final week without the tragedy, but it is very possible that Fernandez could have been Scherzer’s opponent that day. And he probably would not have given up five runs, since he rarely ever did. One more win for Fernandez in either of two potential starts in the final week would have given the Demigods their first ever DTBL Championship.
So some of the thrill of victory was drained from the Kings, knowing things very well could have ended differently. But the Kings are not undeserving champions. They dominated the league for a good portion of the season, despite having to hang on by a thread down the stretch. Oh, and how did I make it this far without mentioning that this same team finished dead last a year ago? Believe it or not, this is not the first time a team has turned that trick in this league. The Darkhorses won their first championship in 2007, a year after finishing at the bottom. The Kings are just three years removed from their last title, but it was two pretty ugly seasons in between.
Despite holding onto first place almost the entire year, it really was a roller coaster season for the Kings, particularly when you break things out between hitting and pitching. They cruised to a large lead in the first half on the back of the league’s best offense (at the time). On July 1, they held 47 of a possible 50 batting points, and had huge leads in the power categories. Meanwhile, the pitching staff was average at best and was at the bottom of the league in ERA. But then in July, the tables turned and the offense started to leak oil while the pitching staff was firing on all cylinders. Although it wasn’t until September that they really started coughing up batting points, their leads in most offensive categories had been shrinking for months. But fortunately for them, the pitching staff was awesome down the stretch and carried them home. In the end, they finished second in the league in batting points, just one behind the Demigods, and third in pitching points, two behind the leading Mavericks. So it was a very solid team in all phases, though not nearly as dominant as they once seemed.
Two players led the way for the Kings and figure to be among the top candidates for the top two post-season awards: Mookie Betts and Max Scherzer. Each led the league in PAR, among hitters and pitchers respectively. Betts had an all-around awesome season, hitting .318 with 31 homers, 113 RBI, 122 runs and 26 stolen bases. He was on the top ten leaderboard in all of those categories, except homers. He also led the Kings in those four categories and blew away the rest of his teammates in accumulating a 10.85 PAR. Meanwhile, Scherzer was also in the top ten in four categories. He led the league with 20 wins and 284 strikeouts. His 0.97 WHIP ranked second and he was seventh in ERA at 2.96. His season was right up there with another season in which he helped the Kings win a title, 2013, for tops of his career. Without either of these players, the Kings would have had no chance.
There were other important contributors too though, including some of their veteran stars who were mostly disappointing a year ago. Robinson Cano may have had the best season of his impressive career, following two very pedestrian campaigns. Similarly, Ian Desmond rebounded from a rough ’15 to become one of the most valuable middle infielders in the league once again (his final year as a shortstop in this leauge). Jonathan LuCroy and Jay Bruce had much more productive, healthier seasons as well. Carlos Gonzalez didn’t have one of his better years, but was a major contributor as well. Finally, youngsters Carlos Correa and Gregory Polanco had good years too.
On the pitching side, the other player besides Scherzer who was key to the Kings success was Justin Verlander. Once considered the best pitcher in baseball, the past few years have been pretty rough for Verlander. But this year, he appeared to be back to his old form, winning 16 games with 244 strikeouts, which were his highest marks in those categories since 2012. Had the Kings not been so deplete of apparent talent last winter, Verlander may not have even been retained. But fortunately for the Kings, he was still around for 2016. The rest of the rotation was not very impressive, which just goes to show how great Scherzer and Verlander were to lead the Kings to 37.5 pitching points. The bullpen led the league in saves, thanks mostly to Jeurys Familia and his league leading 51. That was the fifth highest single season save total in league history and hasn’t been exceeded since 2004. Francisco Rodriguez and Santiago Casilla racked up plenty of saves too, despite mediocre peripherals.
So how does a team go from last place to first without making any major roster shakeups outside of the draft? Well, first of all, the Kings were not your typical last place team a year ago. As you may recall, the bottom six teams in the league were all within seven points of each other last year. So the Kings weren’t really *that* bad in 2015. The blueprint they used was to make smart draft choices while banking on veterans with proven track records to bounce back to career norms. Perhaps a dangerous strategy if those veterans were truly over the hill, but in this case, their trust was rewarded. And of course, as is the case for almost all champions, the Kings had a bit of luck on their side. Not only because of several tight category battles going their way, but some major derailments suffered by other teams. I’ll cover those in greater detail in my next article.
The Kings have now won six DTBL Championships in 24 years, exactly one quarter of the league’s seasons. No other franchise has won the league more than four times. There are other franchises that have been more consistently among the league’s elites, but nobody has been better at winning it all.
Coming up next, I’ll examine the three teams who came within an eyelash of stealing this title from the Kings. All three had spectacular, fascinating seasons that came up just short.