For most of the past six seasons, pitchers have been dominating hitters more than at any other point in league history. ERA, WHIP, AVG and HR have all been at record lows in recent years while strikeouts have skyrocketed. However, there are signs that some of that is starting to change. Since we are almost exactly at the halfway mark of the season, it is pretty easy to look at the league stats and see what pace we are on in certain categories. One category sticks out in a big way: home runs. Through Friday, there have been exactly 1,500 home runs hit in the DTBL this season. So we are on pace to reach approximately 3,000 homers for the season, a mark which has not been reached since 2004. The pace in other offensive categories isn’t as dramatically different, but it still seems likely that 2016 will be the best offensive season since at least 2012 and possible a lot further back than that.
Home runs are way up. RBI and runs are up slightly. But interestingly, batting average and WHIP are right in line with recent seasons and strikeouts continue to be at all time highs. So what does this mean? It appears to me that whatever offensive resurgence that is currently occurring in baseball is almost exclusively the result of the increase in home runs. Looking outside of the DTBL to MLB as a whole, the current home run per team, per game rate is 1.15. This is a huge increase over 1.01 from last season, and if it holds up, would be the highest season mark since 2000. I’m not going to offer any theories for the increase in home runs. But the affects have been dramatic.
So the 2016 season is basically half over. The Kings continue to lead, but they did not have a very good June. The Demigods have had two great months in a row and are now just four points out of first. The Mavericks are also in close striking distance, but are currently dealing with a whole host of injuries, most notably Clayton Kershaw, but several other key players as well. The Darkhorses were probably the team that had the best month, moving into the top half of the standings. Here are the award winners for June 2016.
Batters of the Week:
Week 9 (5/30 – 6/5) – Mookie Betts, Kings
Week 10 (6/6 – 6/12) – Xander Bogaerts, Darkhorses
Week 11 (6/13 – 6/19) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
Week 12 (6/20 – 6/26) – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars
Pitchers of the Week:
Week 9 (5/30 – 6/5) - Jose Fernandez, Demigods
Week 10 (6/6 – 6/12) – Jon Lester, Choppers
Week 11 (6/13 – 6/19) – Julio Teheran, Darkhorses
Week 12 (6/20 – 6/26) - Chris Sale, Choppers
It was a good month for somewhat recent high draft picks. With the exception of Lester and Sale, every player who earned a weekly honor in June was a first or second round pick in the ’14 or ’15 drafts. All of the players above had excellent months, but interestingly, the monthly award winners are not among them. Here are your monthly award winners for June 2016:
Batter of the Month:
Wil Myers, Gators
.327 AVG, 11 HR, 33 RBI, 25 R, 5 SB, 3.47 PAR
Pitcher of the Month:
Max Scherzer, Kings
1.96 ERA, 0.726 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 58 K, 3.81 PAR
Wil Myers was once considered the top prospect in baseball by many. The Gators bought into that potential, making him the second pick in the 2014 draft. However, until this past month, his career had been underwhelming at best. He’s on his third MLB team and now has a new position. But it is quite possible that June was the beginning of him reaching that superstar potential. He led the league in HR and RBI in June. His 11 homers were more than he hit in any full season in his DTBL career to date. The 3.47 PAR he accumulated in the month accounts for about 85% of his career total. This was a fairly comfortable win for Myers, but Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Jones were his closest competition.
On the other side, dominating months are nothing new for Max Scherzer. He won this same award last May and has been in the running many other months as well. In June, his numbers were impressive across the board, but especially in strikeouts (note: his record tying 20 strikeout game was actually in May). He struck out at least 10 in five of his six starts in June and the 58 for the month were nine more than any other pitcher. He now leads the league in that category, obviously helped by Clayton Kershaw’s trip to the DL. Scherzer did not win this honor easily. Jon Lester was just a couple tenths of a point behind him. Corey Kluber finished third.