I hope you are having a great Worst Sports Day of the Year. The day after the MLB All-Star Game is so barren of sporting events that scoreboard tickers are featuring WNBA and cricket scores. This is frequently the day in which we play the DTBL All-Star Game. But as previously mentioned, that will not occur until next week on a date that is still TBD. In the meantime, this is the perfect opportunity for me to get caught up on a few items I neglected to write about during the first half of the season.
First, there were a pair of trades during the last two months that deserve mentioning. Although neither were what you would call blockbusters, both were intriguing nonetheless. At the end of May, the Demigods acquired closer Addison Reed and outfielder Melky Cabrera from the Mavericks in exchange for relief pitcher Danny Farquhar and outfielder Shane Victorino. Draft picks were also a prominent part of this deal. The Mavs picked up 2nd and 5th round picks in 2015 while the Demigods acquired extra picks in the 8th and 12th rounds. At the time of the deal, the Demigods were in a solid second place, just a handful of points behind the Naturals, while the Mavericks were toiling near the bottom of the standings. So this deal was clearly an attempt by the Demigods to boost their title hopes for this season, while the Mavericks had an eye towards 2015. Despite that, the Mavericks have actually been the stronger of these two teams since the deal. However, that’s not because of the trade since the Mavs didn’t acquire anyone who has helped with their resurgence. Reed has given the Demigods a boost in saves, recording seven of them for his new team so far. However, they will need a lot more from him and the rest of the team to run down the Naturals in the second half. Meanwhile, after one year of not being able to acquire any additional early round draft picks, the Mavericks have already ensured they will head into ’15 with extra early picks. Although this season is far from over for the Mavericks, at worst, they figure to be right back in the title hunt next year.
The second trade really flew under the radar as the Kings and Moonshiners swapped spare parts last month. In need of a catcher due to Wilson Ramos’ second DL stint of the year, the Moonshiners picked up Carlos Ruiz from the Kings for outfielder, and Ruiz’s Phillies teammate, Marlon Byrd. The main reason for this trade was so the Moonshiners could temporarily replace Ramos without wasting another free agent signing on a catcher. But as it turns out, Byrd has been a key piece in the Kings recent offensive resurgence. He already has eight home runs for the Kings, continuing to defy Father Time. Long term though, this trade doesn’t figure to have much of a lasting impact on either team. This was simply a short-term stop-gap deal for both sides. The Kings and Moonshiners continue to toil through very disappointing seasons.
Most of my first half writing focused on the negative, from the incredibly high number of injuries to the expected title contenders who were suffering through miserable early results. So I have almost completely ignored the team that has been dominating this league right from Day 1. The Naturals have held first place basically the entire year. In April and early May, that lead was small but consistent. However, in the past month or so, they have seen that lead balloon into double digits. At the All-Star break, they find themselves with a 13 point lead over the second place Demigods. The Naturals being in first place isn’t a huge surprise, considering they won the league just two years ago and are almost always in the title hunt. But I’m not sure anyone saw them dominating the league in this fashion. Until very recently, they had been leading the league in both batting and pitching points, the latter being a pretty big surprise.
The Naturals offense has been simply the best in the league, by a comfortable margin. They lead the league with 45 batting points, not far from a maximum total of 50. Troy Tulowitzki has been one of the best players in baseball. Andrew McCutchen is in the MVP discussion as well. Billy Hamilton and Anthony Rendon are two of the top DTBL rookies. I have no idea where Victor Martinez’s sudden power surge came from. Miguel Cabrera hasn’t been quite the same player he was in his two previous MVP seasons, but even so, his numbers are very good. The scary thing here is that there is actually room for improvement from some of the offensive roster. Cabrera could easily increase his productivity in the second half. Joey Votto and Allen Craig have been mostly MIA this year. If they bounce back the next few months, look out!
As several teams learned in the first half, one thing that can quickly derail a title run is a sudden surge of injuries. To this point, the Naturals have been relatively fortunate on that front. But they are currently dealing with a few issues on the mound. Homer Bailey and Jordan Zimmermann are dealing with ailments that hopefully won’t knock them out for too long, if at all. The Naturals only have one free agent signing remaining, so there are only so many holes that can be filled that way. But they are pretty well stacked with depth at the moment. By no means is this thing over, but the Naturals are sitting in great shape with two and a half months left to go.
Finally, a quick update on site related things I’ve been working on. When I introduced PAR last month, I mentioned slowly rolling out the numbers from previous seasons. Unfortunately, I haven’t made any further progress on that as we still have just 2013 and 2014 PAR numbers on the site. I intend to get back to this soon after the break. But before then, I have some updates to make to individual player pages and the All-Star and Awards pages (the latter doesn’t actually exist yet). I’m going to be adding a column to the players’ stats tables to list individual All-Star appearances and awards won. Like PAR, this will be a work in progress as I accumulate the necessary historical data. But recent All-Star appearances should be displayed on player pages very soon (maybe by the end of the week). I will keep you posted on this in the site update thread on the DTBL Forum.
More DTBL All-Star coverage will be coming soon. Now let’s get to Friday already so we can enjoy some real baseball again!