Mavericks outfielder Jason Heyward
When a season ends like this year’s DTBL campaign did, there is always going to be a lot of second guessing. One move here or there. One umpiring or official scorer decision gone bad. One unlucky bounce of the ball could have been the difference between a league championship and also-ran status for four different teams. The Naturals won the DTBL Championship, but four other teams came oh so close. Here’s a look back at 2012 for the Kings, Mavericks, Moonshiners and Jackalope.
While a second place finish is always a little disappointing, it was a step in the right direction for the Kings. This was their highest finish since 2007 and only the second time they were a legitimate title contender since their reign of championships ended in 2003. Like the champion Naturals, the Kings went through a bit of a transformation this season, albeit in the opposite direction. Previously a pitching dominated team, this year they led the league in batting points and failed to win the league primarily due to a disappointing pitching staff. Their starting pitching was a mess most of the season with Justin Verlander being the only consistent performer. A second half surge, led by Max Scherzer, nearly won the league for them though. The offense was solid all season, but faded a bit due to a poor second half by Carlos Beltran and a late season injury to Carlos Gonzalez. Robinson Cano was the steady hand throughout. The Kings are going to have some very difficult roster decisions to make because they may have more keeper-worthy players than any other team. In this year’s draft, we saw a bunch of ex-Demigods picked in the early rounds. That could be the Kings next year.
For my money, the most interesting team in the league in 2012 was the Mavericks. Their youth movement finally paid off in a big way. Although they expected to be at least one more year away from being a serious contender, one move in particular shifted that time table way up. What might some day go down as the biggest coup in league history, the Mavericks were able to steal Mike Trout in the second round of this year’s draft. As I’ve mentioned before, I thought it was a huge reach at that point of the draft, but boy was I wrong. Trout finished third in the league in hitting at .330, easily led the league in runs scored (128) and stolen bases (48) and hit 30 home runs. He did all of this despite not making his DTBL debut until May. He almost won the league for the Mavericks, though he did have some help. Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Jones and Jason Heyward were some of the huge breakout stars for this club. The pitching staff took a hit when Stephen Strasburg was shut down in September and they had no free agent signings remaining to replace him. But Clayton Kershaw had another great season. The Strasburg/Kerhsaw/Trout combination makes this one scary team for the foreseeable future. Following two disappointing seasons, 2012 was just the beginning of the Mavericks resurgence.
The Moonshiners may have been the team that suffered the most disappointment in the final week of the season. Early in the week, they appeared to be well positioned to win their first DTBL title. But they wound up settling for fourth place, albeit just a point and a half out of first. That is actually down a spot from their third place finish in 2011, though 2012 was clearly a better season for them. They were the league’s most balanced team; the only team to finish with 30+ batting and pitching points. They were third in the league in both sub-sets. While they lacked huge seasons from anyone, especially on the offensive side of things, they had incredible depth. Prince Fielder and David Wright led the offense. Jared Weaver was probably their top pitcher over the course of the full season, but the key free agent signing of R.A. Dickey was also one of the biggest moves of the year. Although the fourth place finish was disappointing, it may have been just as well that the Moonshiners finished a half point behind the Kings and Mavericks because they will now have the opportunity to pick before those two clubs in the draft. One of the steadiest teams in the league, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before the Moonshiners break through with their first title.
Finally, we have the defending champions. Dropping from first to fifth is obviously a huge disappointment for the Jackalope, but it wasn’t necessarily all that surprising. Rarely are teams able to catch all the breaks two years in a row. While the ’11 Jackalope cruised to the title thanks to an unbeatable pitching staff and virtually no significant injuries, the ’12 squad wasn’t so lucky. They still managed to lead the league in pitching points, but the rotation led by Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee and Ian Kennedy just wasn’t as dominating as a year ago. Lee was especially unlucky, not winning his first game until June despite pretty decent peripheral numbers. But the real problem was the offense. Ryan Howard missed the first half of the season and wasn’t particularly effective after he returned. Several of their youngsters had disappointing seasons. Albert Pujols wasn’t even close to his usual elite self. The two bright spots were Ryan Braun and Giancarlo Stanton. The rest of the offense is going to need some work in the offseason. But expect the pitching to bounce back next year, which should keep them in the hunt once again.
The rest of the league has some work to do to catch these top five teams. But history has shown that breakthrough seasons are likely again next year. I will recap the disappointing 2012 season for the bottom five teams later this week.