We have reached the final weekend of the 2015 DTBL season! No, this hasn’t been the most thrilling pennant race we’ve ever witnessed. Yes, the Jackalope are going to cruise to their second league title in a matter of days. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worth watching in the season’s final weekend. For one thing, there is a heck of a race brewing on the other end of the standings. The Kings have found themselves in last place for most of the past few weeks, but their “lead” to get the first pick in next year’s draft is hardly safe. The Gators and Cougars are just a point ahead and seven of the league’s ten teams are within seven points of the bottom of the standings! Many years, teams would probably rather finish dead last than just a few spots higher. But with next year’s draft shaping up to possibly be the most loaded draft this league has ever seen, all ten teams should have an opportunity at picking up blue-chip young stars in the first round. But enough talk about the race to the bottom…
With just four days of October games on the schedule, it probably would have made sense to save my last monthly awards article until after the season. But I figure I might as well get this out of the way now so I can focus on showering the Jackalope with praise next week. So here are the September Batter and Pitcher of the Month, with only stats in the month of September counting towards the award rankings.
Batters of the Week:
Week 22 (8/31 – 9/6) – Nolan Arenado, Naturals
Week 23 (9/7 – 9/13) – Yoenis Cespedes, Gators
Week 24 (9/14 – 9/20) – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses
Week 25 (9/21 – 9/27) – Starling Marte, Gators
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 22 (8/31 – 9/6) – Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners
Week 23 (9/7 – 9/13) – Masahiro Tanaka, Choppers
Week 24 (9/14 – 9/20) – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks
Week 25 (9/21 – 9/27) – Jake Arrieta, Jackalope
A little more variety in terms of players and teams in the weekly awards for September. Interesting that Harper and Strasburg were the winners in the same week while their Nationals season was flushed down the drain. The monthly award winners are a second time honoree and a guy who has just missed the past few months. Here are the players of the month for September:
Batter of the Month:
Nolan Arenado, Naturals
.339 AVG, 11 HR, 32 RBI, 19 R, 1 SB, 2.53 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
1.84 ERA, 0.818 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 58 K, 4.29 PAR
Also the league’s best player in June, Arenado is the first/only player to win two monthly awards this year. His league leading 11 homers and 32 RBI in September have moved him into the MVP discussion. He leads the league in RBI and is in the top five in home runs and PAR. He won the award by a comfortable margin, but Shin-Soo Choo and Bryce Harper were his closest competition.
After a bit of a slow start, by his standards, Kershaw is finishing the year in his usual form: as one of the best pitchers on the planet. His five wins and 58 strikeouts led the way in September. He easily leads the league in strikeouts for the season, and needs just six strikeouts on Sunday to become the first to reach 300 in a season since Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in 2002. Despite those absurd numbers, he just barely won this award over last month’s winner, Jake Arrieta. It will be a fascinating Cy Young race between those two and Kerhaw’s Dodger teammate Zack Greinke… not to mention several others having incredible years.
Enjoy the final weekend and early congrats to Jay!