The way the Jackalope dominated the DTBL in 2015, it is no surprise they are the favorites to win the league again this year. But a repeat of their 19 point victory seems extremely unlikely. The projections certainly don’t point to that. Yes, the Jackalope are projected to win the league again, but with 10 fewer points and just a 2 1/2 point cushion over the second place squad. That team would be the Thunder Choppers, who have generally not been highly regarded in these pre-season projections. But after a couple straight fourth place finishes, they are a team that definitely looks ready to contend. Although these two teams are expected to finish fairly close to each other, they are built much differently. The Jackalope are very strong across the board, while the Choppers have an elite pitching staff with an average offense. While other teams will surely be in the discussion this season, it will be very interesting to see if these two are able to live up to expectations. Here are the teams projected to finish in the top two spots in the 2016 standings.
Charlie’s Thunder Choppers
Category – Projected Rank (2015 Rank)
- Batting Average – 7th (10th)
- Home Runs – 2nd-T (6th)
- Runs Batted In – 3rd (7th)
- Runs Scored – 7th (4th)
- Stolen Bases – 10th (9th)
- Earned Run Average – 2nd (3rd)
- WHIP Ratio – 2nd (3rd)
- Wins – 1st (7th)
- Saves – 1st (7th)
- Strike Outs – 2nd (2nd)
- Total Batting Points – 6th (9th)
- Total Pitching Points – 1st (3rd)
- Total Points – 2nd (4th)
Summary:
The Choppers finished a very respectable fourth place last year, but were not serious title contenders. It was their third straight season in the top four, but in those years they never finished closer than nine points behind the champion. So while their continued success is a positive, they certainly would like to be in the discussion for a league championship come September and hope to end their 17 year title drought. For all the talk about the Mavericks pitching staff, it is the Choppers who actually top the pitching point projections. They are expected to finish first or second in all five pitching categories. And this is almost all on the shoulders of returning players. They wound up keeping six starting pitchers and did not draft a single pitcher who is on their Opening Day roster. That allowed them to solely focus on improving an offense that was one of the worst in the league last year. Kyle Schwarber is the big name among the newcomers, but they brought in a bunch of solid veteran hitters as well. For the offense to be above average, Schwarber and his Cubs teammate Anthony Rizzo will need to have great seasons. But they probably don’t need to be much better than average with the sticks because their pitching staff is loaded. Chris Sale is the number one guy, but they have five other very good starters: Jon Lester, Francisco Liriano, Danny Salazar, Tyson Ross and Masahiro Tanaka. That is impressive depth. The bullpen is strong as well, although I think the 2nd place projection in saves is slightly optimistic. Craig Kimbrel is clearly their top bullpen guy. This should be a very good year for the Choppers. They may not be able to win it all, but they do appear to be the best bet to unseat the Jackalope.
Jay’s Jackalope
Category – Projected Rank (2015 Rank)
- Batting Average – 6th (4th)
- Home Runs – 1st (2nd)
- Runs Batted In – 1st (1st)
- Runs Scored – 1st (1st)
- Stolen Bases – 7th (2nd)
- Earned Run Average – 3rd (1st)
- WHIP Ratio – 3rd (2nd)
- Wins – 2nd (1st)
- Saves – 4th (6th)
- Strike Outs – 7th (5th)
- Total Batting Points – 2nd (1st)
- Total Pitching Points – 3rd (2nd)
- Total Points – 1st (1st)
Summary:
It woudn’t be much fun if the Jackalope were expected to blow away the rest of the league again this year, so nice to see just a 2 1/2 point margin. But make no mistake, they are clearly the favorites to win the DTBL again this year. And that smaller gap between them and the rest of the league is not a sign of this being a weaker Jackalope squad. It is just hard to have everything go your way like it did for this team a year ago. They are still projected to be a top three hitting and pitching team. No other team can legitimately claim to be one of the league’s best on both sides. It isn’t just the returning players who give the Jackalope such high hopes. They were able to reinforce their squad with a couple interesting additions in the draft: third baseman Maikel Franco and pitcher Raisel Iglesias. But the most important players are the same guys who carried them a year ago. Reigning league MVP Josh Donaldson left today’s game early, but hopefully it wasn’t anything serious. Paul Goldschmidt also happens to be one of the best players in baseball. And don’t forget that they didn’t even get full years out of top slugger Giancarlo Stanton and solid hitter Anthony Rendon. So there are some reasons to believe they could be even better in 2016. The pitching staff is nothing to sneeze at either. Jake Arrieta was the steal of the draft a year ago. Sonny Gray and Gerrit Cole join him to make up the best non-Mavericks top three in the league. There is very little drop-off in the bullpen either. Wade Davis moves into a full time closer role and Mark Melancon led the league in saves last season. The Jackalope will attempt to become the first team to successfully defend their title since the Darkhorses finished up their four-peat in 2010. It would be pretty shocking if they aren’t in the hunt to do just that.
Here are the full projected standings and team stat totals. As I have hinted at throughout these previews, there is a pretty healthy gap between the two teams at each end of the standings and the other six in the middle. The Jackalope and Choppers appear to be the teams to beat with the Demigods clearly being the third choice. Meanwhile, the Gators and Moonshiners are going to need to significantly outperform these numbers in order to sniff the top of the standings. But for the most part, anything could happen. Should be another fun season. Good luck to all!