DTBL News

We have reached the final two teams in this journey up the projected 2013 DTBL standings.  The two teams that remain are not huge surprises.  Although neither of them came out on top last year (they tied for second), an argument could be made that they were the best two teams in the league as the season ended.  The Mavericks may have won the league had they not run out of free agent signings, which caused them to play a few players short in the last several weeks of the season.  Meanwhile, the Kings finally overcame their starting pitching problems which plagued them through the first half of the season.  By the end of the year, their pitching was as good as anyone’s.  Interestingly, these two teams may have helped each other claim these top spots in the projections with a trade they made during the first round of this year’s draft.  The Mavericks dealt one of their extra first basemen, Ike Davis, to the Kings for a first round pick.  The Mavericks used that pick to acquire another youngster, Manny Machado, to add to their impressive squad of blossoming stars.

Coincidentally, the standings through the first two full days of the 2013 season closely mimic the projected final standings, with the top four spots in the exact same order.  So here are the top two teams in those projections.

Kevin’s Kings

Category – Projected Rank (2012 Rank)

• Batting Average – 2nd (3rd)
• Home Runs – 5th (1st)
• Runs Batted In – 3rd (1st)
• Runs Scored – 5th (2nd)
• Stolen Bases – 6th (4th)
• Earned Run Average – 7th (8th)
• WHIP Ratio – 4th (8th)
• Wins – 3rd (4th-T)
• Saves – 4th (7th)
• Strike Outs – 4th (2nd)
• Total Batting Points – 3rd (1st)
  
• Total Pitching Points – 3rd (7th-T)
  
• Total Points – 2nd (2nd-T)

Summary:

The Kings had the best offense in the league last year, partly due to their incredible depth.  For example, they were so strong in the middle infield that they routinely used their DH slot there, and yet Danny Espinosa barely made the major league roster all season.  Espinosa was a first round pick this year.  Their middle infield is still a huge strength with Robinson Cano, Jose Reyes and Ian Desmond.  They essentially have the same roster of hitters as last year since they used draft picks to reacquire Michael Morse and Jonathan LuCroy.  So this should be a very strong hitting team again.  The questions come on the mound.  These projections have the Kings moving up to third in pitching points, which would be a significant improvement.  Their pitching will likely go as the Tigers go since 3/5th of their rotation is identical to Detroit’s (Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez).  If Scherzer can continue to build on his great second half of ’12, this team will be in good shape.  The bullpen appears to be stronger now with three closers after going through most of last season with just two.  This is the 10th anniversary of the Kings last championship.  Perhaps this will be the year they become the league’s first five time champion.

Marc’s Mavericks

Category – Projected Rank (2012 Rank)

• Batting Average – 8th (8th)
• Home Runs – 1st (2nd)
• Runs Batted In – 1st (2nd)
• Runs Scored – 1st (1st)
• Stolen Bases – 5th (1st)
• Earned Run Average – 1st (6th)
• WHIP Ratio – 2nd (5th)
• Wins – 4th (4th-T)
• Saves – 9th (8th)
• Strike Outs – 1st (3rd)
• Total Batting Points – 1st (2nd)
  
• Total Pitching Points – 1st (6th)
  
• Total Points – 1st (2nd-T)

Summary:

As it turns out, the Mavericks are on top of the projected standings by a fairly wide margin.  They lead the way in batting points, pitching points, and obviously total points, ten points clear of the Kings.  I’m not particularly surprised by this result, because as I mentioned up top, this was probably the best team in the league at the end of last season.  It will be interesting to see if those pitching projections pan out.  If they do, the Mavs will win this league.  Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg are probably among the best three or four pitchers in the league.  The rest of their rotation is loaded with potential, but is somewhat unproven.  The bullpen is really the only weakness of the entire team, but only because it lacks well entrenched closers.  The offense can be summed up in two words:  Mike Trout.  If he even comes close to matching his ridiculous 2012 campaign, the Mavericks will probably lead the league in batting points.  But he has plenty of help.  Jason Heyward, Adam Jones, Edwin Encarnacion and Matt Wieters will look to build upon their breakout seasons.  Will one of their other young guys take it to the next level this year?  There are too many candidates to name.  By no means are they a lock though.  Young talent is often unpredictable.  If a bunch of these guys fail to meet expectations this season, there will be a whole slew of other teams breathing down their necks.  But I think it is fair to say the Mavericks are the 2013 title favorites.

Here is a look at the projected standings, with team totals in each category.  If you are wondering why the counting categories have decimal values, please go back to Part I of these previews where I explained my methodology.  Let me know if you would like me to share the full Google Doc with you so you can see the individual player projections as well.  Also, I apologize if the following table doesn’t look right.  This is my first attempt at embedding a Google Doc within a WordPress blog entry.  Hope it turns out!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Kings, Mavericks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.