Well, this post is about a month overdue. The World Series is over and we’re already well into awards season, yet I haven’t finished recapping the 2015 DTBL season. I have a lot of writing to do next week with the awards announcements, so let’s get right to this.
So far, I’ve reviewed the seasons of the top three finishers and left the other seven for a single article. The reason for that is simple: very little separated the bottom seven. All were in jeopardy of finishing in last place right up to the final days of the season. In the end, the fourth place Choppers finished just 6 1/2 points ahead of the last place Kings. That margin is less than what separated the Choppers from third place. So there were obviously a lot of pretty weak teams in the league this year, which certainly helped the Jackalope cruise to an easy victory. However, what is really interesting about the bottom seven is that none of them were even close to as poor as usual last place teams. The Kings finished with 45 1/2 points, which most years would put them closer to the middle of the pack than last place. In fact, the previous record for most points from a last place finisher was 39 1/2 points for the 2001 Panthers. While I’m sure none of these seven teams are particularly pleased with the way the 2015 season finished for them, they can take solace that they all have some pretty obvious strengths and aren’t really too far from being title contending teams in the future.
Let’s start at the top of this tightly packed group. The Choppers had a pretty rough go of it most of the year, but finished strong to lead this pack. They finished in fourth place for the second consecutive year. While they haven’t been in a tight title race in a very long time, they have quietly put together a nice string of above average seasons. The Mavericks are the only other team to have finished in the top half of the league for three straight seasons now. The Choppers had a very strong season from their pitching staff, slotting behind only the loaded staffs of the Jackalope and Mavericks in terms of pitching points. The rotation, led by Chris Sale, went six deep with pitchers who accumulated at least a 4.0 PAR. No other team had that sort of depth this year. The offense was a bit of a disappointment, but Jose Bautista and Anthony Rizzo had great years. Fourth place is a nice finish for this team that looks to be just an offensive player or two away from really making a title run.
A year ago, the Demigods came very close to earning their first DTBL championship. Unfortunately for them, they came nowhere near repeating that kind of season in 2015. The reason is obvious: their pitching took a huge step backwards. Losing Yu Darvish to Tommy John surgery before the season began proved to be too much to overcome. Jose Fernandez’s return from the same surgery limited him to just 65 innings. Not surprisingly, Corey Kluber and Johnny Cueto were unable to match their very lofty ’14 numbers. All told, the Demigods’ 19 pitching points were not even close to what they needed/expected. The offense was actually really good. Jose Altuve had another strong campaign and J.D. Martinez wound up being one of the steals of the draft. Nobody else had eye-popping numbers, but this was a very solid offensive squad from top to bottom. Had the pitching staff lived up to expectations, this would have been a top three team for sure.
Things definitely didn’t go as planned for the defending champions. The Naturals slipped to sixth place, their worst finish since 2008. Interestingly enough, this is the second straight year that the defending champ fell all the way to sixth place. For the Naturals sake, hopefully they don’t continue to follow the post-championship dive of the 2013 Kings and fall to dead last next year. So what went wrong for the Naturals? Well, for one, Miguel Cabrera just wasn’t himself. He had a decent year, but not even close to his usual form. Newly acquired Yasiel Puig was a major disappointment. And injuries hampered a whole bunch of their key players throughout the year. That being said, Nolan Arenado emerged as a MVP candidate and Joey Votto was outstanding as well. On the mound, they had a little trouble with the back-end of the rotation. David Price and Carlos Carrasco were the bright spots, but the rest of the starters were not great. On the other hand, the bullpen was very good, leading the league in saves. Certainly a disappointing year for the Naturals who have been one of the league’s premier franchises in the past decade. But there is little reason to doubt they could bounce back near the top next year.
The Moonshiners are nothing if not consistent. For the third consecutive year, they finished in seventh place. Obviously, that’s not an ideal spot to establish consistency though. While the results were the same, the process and team make-up were not. They completely revamped their squad in March, trading for Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez. Those two were very productive, especially Greinke who had the best season of his career. Along with those two, the Moonshiners may have made the best move of the year picking up Dallas Keuchel from free agency in April. With those three acquisitions, it is hard to believe the Moonshiners weren’t able to improve their final standing. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of their players who had great seasons. Especially troubling was the lack of offensive firepower. Prince Fielder led the team in batting PAR at 3.4, by far the lowest total for a team leader. Despite the three previously mentioned pitchers having excellent seasons, the Moonshiners pitching staff was only mediocre since they got very little from anyone besides those three. They will need strong seasons out of a lot more players next year to get out of this seventh place rut.
Despite finishing in eighth place, the Gators may have had the most positively surprising offense in the league. Dee Gordon, Yoenis Cespedes, Nelson Cruz and Starling Marte helped lead the Gators to the fourth most batting points in the league. This is a franchise that had been one of the worst offensive teams in the league for six straight years. So this was a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the pitching staff didn’t move in that same direction, finishing with the same number of pitching points (19) as last year. Michael Wacha was clearly the staff ace, but there wasn’t much behind him in the rotation. Unfortunately, this is the fifth straight year the Gators have finished in a bottom three position. However, this was clearly the best team they have had in that stretch as they finished with their highest point total since 2010. So there is reason to be optimistic for the Gators’ future.
If there is one team whose final ranking is not at all indicative of the talent level of the squad, it is the Cougars. Early on, they looked like a team that could compete for the title. But a series of late season injuries and performance drop-offs caused them to tumble all the way to a ninth place finish. Losing Adam Wainwright for most of the season prevented the Cougars from having one of the better pitching staffs in the league. Madison Bumgarner and Chris Archer were fantastic, but they just didn’t have the depth they had hoped for. But it was their offense that caused the late season free-fall. Jose Abreu and Charlie Blackmon were drafted to boost the offense, and pretty much lived up to expectations. But those two along with Chris Davis weren’t enough to keep them afloat. As mentioned, several key players got hurt late in the season, which pretty much tanked their season. Again, this is not your typical ninth place team. The Cougars have the talent of a top half team.
Finally, we come to the dumpster fire that was the Kings 2015 season. Just two years ago, the Kings won their fifth DTBL title. Boy does that feel like a distant memory now. What’s really shocking about this fall is the way the team flipped the script during this season. Early on, they were riding Max Scherzer and Shelby Miller to surprisingly having one of the better pitching staffs in the league, but their offense was holding them back. But then in the second half, the pitching completely fell apart while the offense turned things around to finish in the top half of the league in batting points. In the end, their pitching was pretty terrible and the main culprit for the last place finish. Scherzer and Jeurys Familia were the only above average pitchers on the squad. Offensively, their first two draft picks were very solid: outfielders Mookie Betts and Gregory Polanco. A.J. Pollock became an elite player as well. So there are some reasons to be optimistic about the Kings’ bats. Also, for the glass half full crowd, this was simply not your typical last place team in terms of points and talent. Plus they will have the chance to pick first in the deepest draft in league history. So not all is lost for this proud franchise, but 2015 was a complete disaster.