The Kings winning the championship by the narrowest of margins, a year after finishing dead last, was a pretty good story in and of itself. But even if things had turned out differently, we were pretty much guaranteed to have a compelling narrative on our hands with this year’s champion. There were the Demigods, still looking for their first ever league title, dealing with the tragic loss of their star pitcher. Then there were the Choppers, who have quietly been among the better teams in the league the past four years, but hadn’t come particularly close to winning it all since their last championship 17 years ago. Finally, there were the Mavericks, who have probably been the league’s best franchise the past five years but have somehow not won a championship in a decade. In the end, these three teams fell painfully short of their ultimate goal.
This could have, maybe even should have been the Demigods big moment. As I already outlined in the Kings championship article, the Demigods very well could have won their first DTBL championship had they not suffered the ultimate loss with a week left in the season when their young phenom pitcher, Jose Fernandez, was killed in an accident. One more win would have elevated the Demigods to co-championship status and one fewer win for the Kings would have given the Demigods the outright crown. But there were other ways in which this appeared to be the Demigods year to win as well. In the summer months, they were by far the most balanced team in the league. While the Kings were dealing with a ton of injuries and a struggling pitching staff and the Mavericks were basically playing two or three pitchers short, it was the Demigods who were near the top of the league in both batting and pitching points.
As has been the case with the Demigods for several years now, their strength was their lack of weaknesses. Jose Altuve is probably the only player on their team who will receive MVP consideration, but the list of positive offensive contributors is long. Freddie Freeman, David Ortiz, Francisco Lindor and Matt Kemp (?!) were some of their top hitters. A late season surge (and Kings collapse) gave them the league lead in average, home runs and RBI. They finished just one point behind the Darkhorses for most batting points in the league. On the pitching side, they were also near the top of the league despite finishing a distant last in saves. Their rotation was as good as anybody’s, led by Fernandez, Corey Kluber and Johnny Cueto. Veterans Cole Hamels and John Lackey were pretty good on the back-end of that rotation as well. That’s five pitchers who accumulated 5+ PAR. No other team had more than three.
The Choppers ultimately fell short of their first championship season in 17 years. But this was easily their best effort since then. It was their fourth straight season finishing in the top four of the standings, but their smallest margin of defeat since their championship in 1999. They finished 2 1/2 points behind the Kings. The last time they finished fewer than nine points off the lead was way back 2001. But this wasn’t just a matter of keeping it close. With just a week left in the season, they found themselves in a first place tie with the Demigods. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to put together a great final week to win it all.
There are a lot of similarities between the Choppers and Demigods. The Choppers also had a solid all-around team with few weaknesses. They don’t have an obvious MVP candidate, but do have plenty of hitters who had really good years. Perhaps first on that list would be Anthony Rizzo. Mark Trumbo easily led the league in home runs with 47. D.J. LeMahieu sat the final weekend of the season to preserve his NL (and DTBL) batting title, but that wasn’t particularly helpful for the Choppers. Finally, the veteran trio of Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols and Dustin Pedroia all had very productive years for the Choppers as well. The pitching staff was really the strength of the Choppers though. They finished just 1/2 point behind the ballyhooed Mavericks staff with 39 1/2 pitching points. The rotation was led by three of the games best southpaws: Jon Lester, Chris Sale and J.A. Happ (yes, Happ belongs in that discussion). The bullpen was decent, but saves was the only pitching category in which the Choppers did not finish in the top three.
I’m not exactly sure what to say about this Mavericks season. On one hand, going into the season, they were expected to be one of the teams to beat, just like they are every year, thanks to their impeccable pitching staff. So not winning it all would have to be a bit of a disappointment. But then when you look at how many devastating injuries hit their staff, it was something of a miracle that they were even in the race until the end. When all was said and done, the fourth place finish was their lowest since 2011. But it was their third time in the past five years in which they finished within four points of a championship. Shockingly, it has now been ten years since their last DTBL title.
The Mavericks entered this season staring at the possibility of having the following five pitchers anchor their rotation for most of the season: Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Yu Darvish and Taijuan Walker. All five of those guys, along with their top alternative Joe Ross, fought through signifcant injury problems and not one of them reached the 150 IP requirement for ERA and WHIP leaderboard qualification. A team that was supposed to have one of the best starting staffs ever finished the season with Anibal Sanchez and Anthony DeSclafani (a reliever) in their rotation. Despite all of that, they still led the league in pitching points, thanks to an untouchable bullpen of Kenley Jansen, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. With just a little more potent offense, they could have won the league. But it was pretty much just a two man show on offense. Mike Trout and Manny Machado continue to be two of the best players in baseball, with Trout having his best all-around season since his DTBL rookie year. I guess Hanley Ramirez had a pretty good season as well. But that’s about it. The final fourth place finish was disappointing for the Mavericks, but they once again acquitted themselves as one of the league’s elite franchises.
Sorry it took me so long to get to this article. Hopefully, I’ll actually have a chance to write about the rest of the teams before the post-season award season kicks off. So much more to come soon!