With two teams breaking point records at the top of the standings, one could assume that records in futility may have been in danger as well. That wasn’t exactly the case for any one team in the 2014 DTBL season, but collectively, five teams did manage to make some history. It was a season to forget for the Kings, Moonshiners, Darkhorses, Gators and Cougars.
Those five teams were essentially out of the race before the All-Star break. The only real question was which bottom half position would each team wind up in. These five were separated by just a handful of points almost the entire season and frequently shuffled standings places. In the end, none came close to breaking any low water mark records. All five finished with point totals between 32 and 43. But the distance they were behind the champion Naturals is where records were broken.
It is common for one or two teams to finish miles behind the champions. But five teams is unheard of. The sixth place Kings finished an astonishing 46 points behind the Naturals. In the league’s history, never have more than three teams finished that far out of first place. And the only times when three teams did it (1998 and 2000) were expansion years where two of the bottom three were expansion teams and the third bottom-feeder was a team that folded following that season. To have five teams finish so far out of the hunt this year is really quite amazing.
The biggest disappointment of the bottom five has to be the Kings. They just barely avoided the worst finish ever for a defending champion, coming in one spot higher than the 2011 Darkhorses. However, a sixth place finish for a team that was considered a favorite coming into the year is pretty embarrassing, particularly when you look at just how far they were from being a contender. It was sort of a Murphy’s Law season for the Kings with everything imaginable going wrong. They were absolutely decimated by injuries, particularly early in the year. At one point in May, literally half of the players who were on their Opening Day roster were either on the disabled list or nursing some sort of injury. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Even the healthy players failed to meet the most modest of expectations. In one year, the Kings have fallen from a juggernaut squad with hopes of establishing a new dynasty to a team full of washed up players with a seemingly bleak future. Not one Kings player figures to receive strong consideration for the post-season awards. Only Max Scherzer, Ian Desmond, Jonathen LuCroy and a couple relief pitchers could be considered bright spots.
Expectations weren’t as high for the Moonshiners, but 2014 will still go down as a disappointing season for them too. Their problem entering the season appeared to be a lack of superstar players who could carry the squad in multiple categories. That remains their main weakness today. No Moonshiners appeared in the top ten in batting or pitching PAR. The early season loss of Prince Fielder was a dagger and David Wright was a disappointment all year. Two of their better offensive players were a pair of rookies: Josh Donaldson and Brian Dozier. Donaldson was a pleasant surprise out of a first round draft class which included a whole bunch of busts. Jared Weaver led the pitching staff with 18 wins, but didn’t get much help from anyone else in the rotation. Next year, they will try once again to acquire top level players to push them back into contender status.
The Darkhorses offense was respectable, but their pitching staff really let them down, leading to an eighth place finish. Veterans Adrian Gonzalez and Jacoby Ellsbury were joined by younger players like Todd Frazier and Christian Yelich to form a pretty decent offense. But they are still waiting to get a full, healthy, superstar season out of Bryce Harper. And this year’s first round pick, Xander Bogaerts was a huge disappointment this year. They did strike gold with their second round pick though. Julio Teheran was their best pitcher this season. James Shields and Lance Lynn were solid too. The rest of the starters were not and the bullpen finished dead last in saves. Since completing their four-peat in 2010, the Darkhorses have now finished in the bottom half of the standings four years in a row. But they probably have a better stable of young players than any of the other four teams covered in this article. Also worth noting, the Demigods finished in this eighth place slot just a year ago. Perhaps next year the Darkhorses will make a similar leap.
The Gators have this ninth place thing figured out. For the fourth consecutive year, they finished in that same dreaded spot. Part of their problem was a very disappointing DTBL rookie campaign for second overall draft choice Wil Myers who struggled through an injury plagued and ineffective season. Also, losing their longtime ace C.C. Sabathia for most of the season was a huge blow considering how heavily they have relied on him to carry their pitching staff in the past. On a more positive note, Nelson Cruz bounced back from his PED suspension in a big way, leading the league with 40 home runs. Scott Kazmir and Alex Wood were shrewd mid/late round draft picks who were solid, but unable to completely fill the void left by Sabathia. The bullpen was once again a team strength, although it took a bit of a blow towards the end of the season when Rafael Soriano and even Koji Uehara lost their closer roles. One of these years, the Gators will put it together and avoid another ninth place finish. Maybe next year.
This was an extremely disappointing season for the Cougars coming off a very solid fifth place finish in 2013. Their last place finish was very surprising, especially for a team with such a solid pitching staff. The offense was not solid though. In fact, it couldn’t have been much worse. They finished dead last in all five offensive categories, earning the minimum five batting points. They are the second team in league history to earn the minimum batting points, joining the 1997 Tidal Wave. The strange thing is that they actually had one of the best offensive players in the league as Michael Brantley burst into superstar status with his .327, 20 HR, 23 SB season. Alexei Ramirez and Denard Span were decent. The rest of their hitters really struggled, led by last year’s team MVP Chris Davis. Davis hit an awful .193 before having his season popped short due to a drug suspension. The pitching staff was actually quite good though. Adam Wainwright won 20 games and was among the league leaders in ERA (2.38) and WHIP (1.03) too. Madison Bumgarner, before cementing his legacy as a post-season hero, had another great regular season as well. The bullpen was pretty good too. Even a slight improvement to the offense next year to complment this very talented pitching staff should make this last place finish a distant memory a year from now.
We are well into awards season now with MLB announcing winners of some of the lesser awards this week. The big ones will come next week. So we better get our own award voting done soon too. The awards ballot is now available on the main page. Please take some time this weekend to complete your ballot. I will begin announcing the winners next week.