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  • Betts is Best


    2016 was a year of offensive resurgence. There were over 3,000 home runs hit in the DTBL, with the highest league wide total since 2001, which was the heart of the steroid era. The cumulative batting PAR (which will be adjusted this winter) reached an all-time high for years I’ve calculated (2009-present). Many players contributed to this surge, but nobody more so than Kings outfiedier Mookie Betts. The second year player led the Kings to another DTBL Championship. In a surprisingly decisive vote, Betts has won the 2016 DTBL Most Valuable Player award.

    Betts led his championship squad in almost every offensive category. Only his 31 home runs weren’t enough to lead the Kings. He hit .318 with 113 RBI, 122 runs and 26 stolen bases. He was a true five category performer. His run total was second in the league, just one behind Mike Trout. He finished on the leaderboard in batting average, RBI and stolen bases as well. He edged out Trout for highest batting PAR, finishing at 10.9. That is the highest total calculated to date (again, PAR numbers only go back as far as 2009), although this will likely be recalculated down a bit this winter. But no matter how you slice it, Betts had one of the best seasons in recent DTBL history.

    The Kings selected Betts with the fifth pick in the 2015 Draft. That was a strong draft class, but so far, Betts appears to be the cream of the crop, at least among offensive players. He had a solid rookie campaign, accumulating 18 home runs and stolen bases and finished eighth in the ROY vote a year ago. But he made huge strides this season in every category. In his two year career, he is a .305 hitter with 49 home runs and 44 stolen bases.

    If you are surprised that Betts won this award despite finishing behind Trout in the AL MVP vote, the explanation is pretty simple. Trout’s advantage over Betts in that vote was primarily due to skills that don’t apply to fantasy baseball, particularly plate discipline and position scarcity (CF vs. RF). Both are elite five tool players, however.

    In a bit of a surprise, this vote was not particularly close. Betts received nine of the ten first place votes, along with a third, for a total of 95 points. The Mavericks’ Trout received a single first place vote and was on all ten ballots, but those votes were scattered. He finished with 59 points, which was actually closer to third and fourth place than first. In addition to Betts and Trout, Demigods second baseman Jose Altuve was also on all ten ballots. Altuve looked like the favorite for this award at times this season, but faded a bit down the stretch. He came in third place with 38 points. Right behind him is Naturals third baseman Nolan Arenado who accumulated 35 points. Arenado lacked the stolen bases of the three who finished ahead of him, but made up for it with power. Finishing fifth is the NL MVP and DTBL Rookie of the Year, Cougars third baseman Kris Bryant. Bryant’s MVP profile wasn’t quite as strong in fantasy as it was in real baseball, which explains him finishing well behind four others.

    Click here to view the full MVP voting results.

    One final tidbit: this is the second straight year that both the MVP and Cy Young awards have been won by members of the championship team. It is not a surprise that the best performers were members of the best teams. But this year, you can definitely point to the contributions of Betts and Max Scherzer as primary factors in the Kings winning the title.

    There will be more content this off-season, but in the meantime, enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving weekend and have a great winter!

  • Cy Young to the Max


    The Kings did not have a very strong pitching staff, top to bottom. Yet they finished with an impressive 37.5 pitching points on their way to a DTBL Championship. It took a couple pitchers having elite seasons for them to reach that mark. Perhaps more so than any other player, Max Scherzer was hugely responsible for the Kings winning their sixth league title. In a unanimous decision, Scherzer is the 2016 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    Scherzer was the DTBL’s lone 20 game winner. He also led the league in strikeouts with a career high 284. In fact, that total was 33 more than any other pitcher. That strikeout edge was the primary reason why he also led the league in pitching PAR at 13.2. His 2.96 ERA and 0.968 WHIP were also among the top five in the league. In a season that saw the era of pitching domination come to an abrupt end, Scherzer continued to baffle hitters.

    The Kings acquired Scherzer in a trade from the Jackalope back in 2010. Six years later, that trade continues to pay major dividends. Not coincidentally, his two best seasons have come during Kings championship campaigns. His 2016 numbers were nearly identical to the numbers he posted in 2013, when he finished second in the Cy Young vote. He won 21 games in ’13 with a slightly lower ERA compared to this year. However, his ’16 WHIP and strikeout numbers were better. For his career, he has won 111 games (all but two coming as a member of the Kings) with an impressive 3.27 ERA and 1,546 strikeouts. This is Scherzer’s first Cy Young award. As mentioned, he finished second in the 2013 vote and came in fourth place a year ago.

    Although there were several other pitchers who had great seasons, Scherzer was the clear choice for this award. He received all ten first place votes. After him, there were a slew of pitchers who received strong consideration and finished very close to one another in the vote. Cougars lefty Madison Bumgarner wound up finishing second, despite not appearing on two ballots. He garnered three second place votes and 42 total points. Besides Scherzer, the only other pitcher to appear on every ballot was the Choppers’ Jon Lester. Lester only received two second place votes though, causing Bumgarner to finish two points higher. Yet another southpaw finished fourth, Mavericks ace Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw was a difficult case for voters to consider because he missed significant time due to a back injury. Yet he still wound up finishing second in pitching PAR and had unbelievable numbers across the board. This almost certainly would have been his third Cy Young win had he stayed healthy. It was his sixth straight season finishing in the top four of the vote, but his lowest finish since not receiving votes in 2010. Rounding out the top five is another key piece of the Kings championship team, veteran Justin Verlander. I can’t wait to see what kind of backlash we receive from Kate Upton for voting Verlander fifth. It was also a strong year for relief pitchers, but it continues to be difficult for them to get much consideration for this award. Kenley Jansen did receive a second and third place vote, however.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    There wasn’t a whole lot of drama with the Cy Young award, but the Most Valuable Player race figures to be much more competitive. Check back on Friday to find out who will be the 2016 DTBL MVP.

  • Bryant is Best of Deep Class


    Leading up to the March draft, the incoming 2016 rookie class was dubbed as one of the strongest and deepest in league history. A bunch of young phenoms made their MLB debuts in 2015 and were therefore part of a loaded 2016 DTBL Draft class. Not surprisingly, those rookies didn’t disappoint. Several of the first year players not only made immediate impacts for their teams, but were also among the top players in the league. The best early performers of that class included several of the first players taken in the draft, as well as a few later surprises. The top two rookies were teammates on the World Champion Cubs. In a relatively close vote, the 2016 DTBL Rookie of the Year is Cougars third baseman Kris Bryant.

    Just last week, Bryant won the NL MVP award a year after winning NL Rookie of the Year. In the DTBL, he will be a candidate to win both in his debut season. He finished eighth in the league in home runs (39) and fourth in runs scored (121). His 102 runs batted in and .292 batting average were quite solid numbers as well. He also stole eight bases, cementing his place as one of the game’s best all-around players already. Bryant topped all rookies with an 8.2 PAR and was easily the best offensive player on the Cougars roster.

    Bryant was clearly one of the most coveted players in this year’s draft. The Cougars were happy to grab him with the second pick in that draft, following the Kings selection of Carlos Correa. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Byrant’s contributions weren’t enough to save them from last place, so they ought to be able to add another key piece to their foundation with the first pick next year. If they hit another home run like they did with Bryant, the future will be bright. The 24 year old Bryant figures to be an offensive star for a very long time to come. This ends a string of three consecutive pitchers winning ROY. The last hitter to win the award, a guy named Mike Trout.

    It basically turned into a two man race for this award between Bryant and his Cubs teammate, Kyle Hendricks. Bryant received seven of the ten first place votes, plus two seconds and a third for a total of 89 points. Hendricks received the other three first place votes and finished with 75 points. Of all the rookies who had great seasons, Hendricks had to have been the biggest surprise. All the Moonshiners 10th round pick did was lead the league in ERA and WHIP and should be a strong contender for the Cy Young award. The other top five vote-getters were all first round selections. Finishing third was Naturals pitcher Noah Syndergaard. He received a bulk of the third place votes and, like Bryant and Hendricks, appeared on all ten ballots. He accumulated 48 points. Next came another early draft pick who lived up to the hype, Gators shortstop Corey Seager. Interestingly, the top four finishers for this award each are members of different teams that finished in the bottom half of the standings, so they provide some hope for the future for their respective teams. Rounding out the top five is yet another early draft pick, Demigods shortstop Francisco Lindor. So for those of you scoring at home, that’s four of the top six picks in the draft finishing in the top five of the Rookie of the Year vote. I think it is also worth mentioning the sixth place finisher, Naturals second baseman Trea Turner, who made a huge impact in just one half a season’s worth of action.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    Next up on the awards docket is the Cy Young award, which will should be announced on Wednesday.

  • Reviewing the Rest


    For the six teams who were not in the running for the DTBL Championship in the final weeks of the season, 2016 was mostly a disappointment. However, a few of these teams did show promise and had their moments when they too appeared to be among the better teams in the league. Unlike last year though, there were some teams that finished so far behind the leaders that they appear to have a huge rebuilding task ahead of them. Here is a brief summary of the 2016 seasons for the six non-contenders.

    A fifth place finish for the Darkhorses is probably a little disappointing considering they finished in third a year ago and have one of the most exciting young corps of players in the league. But they actually came closer to winning it all this year than last. They had the best offense in the league, leading the way with 40.5 batting points. Edwin Encarnacion, Daniel Murphy and Xander Bogaerts were the top offensive stars, but many others emerged this season like George Springer, Christian Yelich and Justin Turner. Unfortunately for them, their pitching kept them from being a true title contender. Rick Porcello became a surprise staff ace and Carlos Martinez rewarded them for their faith in making him a first round draft pick. But they didn’t have a lot of pitching depth. If they can shore up this staff with one or two more solid hurlers, they will be a scary team next year.

    For much of the year, this looked like it was going to be one of the worst seasons in Naturals franchise history. They were toiling near the bottom of the standings as late into the season as early September. But a late rally pushed them up to a sixth place finish, the same spot they settled for a year ago. Part of the reason for that surge was a resurgence of two of their veteran stars: Miguel Cabrera and Joey Votto. Another was the incredible performance by rookie Trea Turner, who nearly cracked the PAR leaderboard despite spending half the year in the minors. But the star of the team from start to finish was Nolan Arenado who led the league in RBI and was near the top in home runs and runs as well. Despite a pedestrian season overall, the Naturals may come away as the big winners from the 2016 Draft. In addition to Turner, who was an enormous steal in the eighth round, they also solidified their pitching staff for years to come with their first round selection of Noah Syndergaard. He was easily their best pitcher this season. The Naturals remain one of the league’s most talented teams, even if the results haven’t been there the past two years.

    Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Moonshiners finished in seventh place. Yes, for the fourth consecutive year, they finished the season in the seven hole. It is obviously not the place they want to be. This year, it was a very weak offense that kept them from moving on up. They finished with just seven batting points and were dead last in every offensive category except for home runs. Really, their entire offense was carried by their two star second basemen, Brian Dozier and Ian Kinsler. Other than that, not much to write home about. Losing Prince Fielder to an early retirement was especially disappointing. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to their lineup. Things weren’t as bad for the pitching staff, although there were some disappointments there too. On the positive side, for the second straight year, the Moonshiners were the proud owners of the Cy Young candidate who came out of nowhere. This year, it was Kyle Hendricks who led the league in ERA and WHIP. Last year, it was Dallas Keuchel. However, Hendricks was pretty much the lone bright spot in the rotation. Their dynamic trio from a year ago, Keuchel, Felix Hernandez and Zack Greinke, all had disappointing seasons this time around.

    Through the first couple months of the season, one of the best stories in the league was the return to power of the Gators, a franchise that hasn’t finished in the top half of the standings since 2008 and hasn’t finished above the bottom three spots since 2010. Unfortunately for them, their season unravelled in the second half and that streak of bottom three finishes continued with another eighth place finish. They had the opposite problem as the Moonshiners. They had a decent enough offense, but easily the league’s worst pitching. The offense was carried by two unexpected sources: breakout star and former first round pick Wil Myers and previously enigmatic shortstop Jean Segura. Segura was one of four players to put up a 20/30 HR/SB season. You may be familiar with the other three: Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt and Jose Altuve. The Gators easily led the league in stolen bases thanks to Segura, Myers, Starling Marte and Dee Gordon. The pitching staff was a mess, with two notable exceptions: Jose Quintana and Zach Britton. Britton accumulated 47 saves with an absurdly low 0.54 ERA. One of these years, the Gators are going to put it all together. But they are definitely going to need to improve the pitching staff to get to that point.

    We nearly had the preposterous situation of one team going from worst to first and another doing the exact opposite this year. However, the defending champion Jackalope were just barely able to avoid finishing dead last while settling for ninth place. Simply put, this season was a write-off for the Jackalope. After everything went their way a year ago, very little went right in 2016. And not to make excuses, but Jay had a pretty good one. He spent most of the summer preparing for a deployment and simply didn’t have time to manage his roster. Had his team been more competitive, we probably would have found a temporary replacement. But anyway, this is still a team loaded with talent. Josh Donaldson had another elite season. Paul Goldschmidt had one of the quietest 24 home run, 32 stolen base years a player has ever had. They did not get even close to the same kind of production out of their starting rotation as they did in ’15. Jake Arrieta was good, but definitely not the same. Gerrit Cole and Sonny Gray had injury riddled years. And overall, the roster just wasn’t as deep as it was in their championship campaign. Next year will almost certainly be better for this squad.

    Before the season, I tabbed the Cougars as the most improved team in the league. Well, that didn’t really pan out. For the second time in three years, the Cougars finished in last place. They were among the bottom teams in the league in both batting and pitching points, so there weren’t a ton of bright spots. But there was one: second overall draft pick Kris Bryant, who already appears to be one of the best players in the league. He slugged 39 homers with 102 RBI and 121 runs scored. Charlie Blackmon also quietly emerged as one of the top players in the league. Most of their other key players had disappointing seasons, however. The pitching staff was surprisingly ineffective. Madison Bumgarner was his usual dominant self. But other than him, there weren’t many good performances to point to from this staff. To end on a positive note, this season was proof that a last place finish is hardly a disqualifier for contending the following season. So there is hope for 2017 for the Cougars.

  • Three Near Misses


    The Kings winning the championship by the narrowest of margins, a year after finishing dead last, was a pretty good story in and of itself. But even if things had turned out differently, we were pretty much guaranteed to have a compelling narrative on our hands with this year’s champion. There were the Demigods, still looking for their first ever league title, dealing with the tragic loss of their star pitcher. Then there were the Choppers, who have quietly been among the better teams in the league the past four years, but hadn’t come particularly close to winning it all since their last championship 17 years ago. Finally, there were the Mavericks, who have probably been the league’s best franchise the past five years but have somehow not won a championship in a decade. In the end, these three teams fell painfully short of their ultimate goal.

    This could have, maybe even should have been the Demigods big moment. As I already outlined in the Kings championship article, the Demigods very well could have won their first DTBL championship had they not suffered the ultimate loss with a week left in the season when their young phenom pitcher, Jose Fernandez, was killed in an accident. One more win would have elevated the Demigods to co-championship status and one fewer win for the Kings would have given the Demigods the outright crown. But there were other ways in which this appeared to be the Demigods year to win as well. In the summer months, they were by far the most balanced team in the league. While the Kings were dealing with a ton of injuries and a struggling pitching staff and the Mavericks were basically playing two or three pitchers short, it was the Demigods who were near the top of the league in both batting and pitching points.

    As has been the case with the Demigods for several years now, their strength was their lack of weaknesses. Jose Altuve is probably the only player on their team who will receive MVP consideration, but the list of positive offensive contributors is long. Freddie Freeman, David Ortiz, Francisco Lindor and Matt Kemp (?!) were some of their top hitters. A late season surge (and Kings collapse) gave them the league lead in average, home runs and RBI. They finished just one point behind the Darkhorses for most batting points in the league. On the pitching side, they were also near the top of the league despite finishing a distant last in saves. Their rotation was as good as anybody’s, led by Fernandez, Corey Kluber and Johnny Cueto. Veterans Cole Hamels and John Lackey were pretty good on the back-end of that rotation as well. That’s five pitchers who accumulated 5+ PAR. No other team had more than three.

    The Choppers ultimately fell short of their first championship season in 17 years. But this was easily their best effort since then. It was their fourth straight season finishing in the top four of the standings, but their smallest margin of defeat since their championship in 1999. They finished 2 1/2 points behind the Kings. The last time they finished fewer than nine points off the lead was way back 2001. But this wasn’t just a matter of keeping it close. With just a week left in the season, they found themselves in a first place tie with the Demigods. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to put together a great final week to win it all.

    There are a lot of similarities between the Choppers and Demigods. The Choppers also had a solid all-around team with few weaknesses. They don’t have an obvious MVP candidate, but do have plenty of hitters who had really good years. Perhaps first on that list would be Anthony Rizzo. Mark Trumbo easily led the league in home runs with 47. D.J. LeMahieu sat the final weekend of the season to preserve his NL (and DTBL) batting title, but that wasn’t particularly helpful for the Choppers. Finally, the veteran trio of Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols and Dustin Pedroia all had very productive years for the Choppers as well. The pitching staff was really the strength of the Choppers though. They finished just 1/2 point behind the ballyhooed Mavericks staff with 39 1/2 pitching points. The rotation was led by three of the games best southpaws: Jon Lester, Chris Sale and J.A. Happ (yes, Happ belongs in that discussion). The bullpen was decent, but saves was the only pitching category in which the Choppers did not finish in the top three.

    I’m not exactly sure what to say about this Mavericks season. On one hand, going into the season, they were expected to be one of the teams to beat, just like they are every year, thanks to their impeccable pitching staff. So not winning it all would have to be a bit of a disappointment. But then when you look at how many devastating injuries hit their staff, it was something of a miracle that they were even in the race until the end. When all was said and done, the fourth place finish was their lowest since 2011. But it was their third time in the past five years in which they finished within four points of a championship. Shockingly, it has now been ten years since their last DTBL title.

    The Mavericks entered this season staring at the possibility of having the following five pitchers anchor their rotation for most of the season: Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Yu Darvish and Taijuan Walker. All five of those guys, along with their top alternative Joe Ross, fought through signifcant injury problems and not one of them reached the 150 IP requirement for ERA and WHIP leaderboard qualification. A team that was supposed to have one of the best starting staffs ever finished the season with Anibal Sanchez and Anthony DeSclafani (a reliever) in their rotation. Despite all of that, they still led the league in pitching points, thanks to an untouchable bullpen of Kenley Jansen, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. With just a little more potent offense, they could have won the league. But it was pretty much just a two man show on offense. Mike Trout and Manny Machado continue to be two of the best players in baseball, with Trout having his best all-around season since his DTBL rookie year. I guess Hanley Ramirez had a pretty good season as well. But that’s about it. The final fourth place finish was disappointing for the Mavericks, but they once again acquitted themselves as one of the league’s elite franchises.

    Sorry it took me so long to get to this article. Hopefully, I’ll actually have a chance to write about the rest of the teams before the post-season award season kicks off. So much more to come soon!

  • Kings Reign Again


    With three weeks to go in the season, the Kings held a 9 1/2 point lead over the Demigods and Mavericks and appeared to be headed to an uneventful coronation as league champions.  But then the wheels fell off.  Just two days later, the lead was down to five points.  With exactly two weeks remaining, it was cut down to a point.  On September 20, not only did they relinquish first place, but they found themselves all the way down to fourth and headed in the wrong direction.  However, the standings were so close in so many categories, that any of four teams had nearly identical odds of finishing on top.  When it was all said and done, the Kings picked up a much needed half point on the final day, which wound up being their margin of victory over the Demigods.  For a growing record sixth time, Kevin’s Kings are the DTBL Champions.

    This league has seen some pretty incredible finishes in its history and this season’s pennant race has to be near the top of that list.  However, the excitement that normally would have been felt in a four team sprint to the finish line had a bit of a somber tone this year as tragedy struck the baseball world with just a week to go in the season.  Miami Marlins and Demigods young ace Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident on September 25.  I don’t have much to add that hasn’t already been said about what a joy it was to watch Fernandez pitch and how deeply he will be missed by virtually all baseball fans.  Perhaps I will take some time to write some of my own thoughts about Fernandez during the off-season.  But for now, I would be remiss not to mention how major of an impact his passing had on this league’s title race.

    The Kings won the league by 1/2 point.  Although there were a whole bunch of categories that could have swung the title in a different direction, the place where the Kings gained their margin of victory on the final day was in wins.  Max Scherzer won his league high 20th game for the Kings that final afternoon, moving them out of a tie with the Mavericks and into a tie with the Moonshiners in that category.  Scherzer recorded the win, despite giving up five runs.  His opponent?  Fernandez’s Marlins.  Impossible to know for sure what the Marlins would have done with their rotation in the final week without the tragedy, but it is very possible that Fernandez could have been Scherzer’s opponent that day.  And he probably would not have given up five runs, since he rarely ever did.  One more win for Fernandez in either of two potential starts in the final week would have given the Demigods their first ever DTBL Championship.

    So some of the thrill of victory was drained from the Kings, knowing things very well could have ended differently.  But the Kings are not undeserving champions.  They dominated the league for a good portion of the season, despite having to hang on by a thread down the stretch.  Oh, and how did I make it this far without mentioning that this same team finished dead last a year ago?  Believe it or not, this is not the first time a team has turned that trick in this league.  The Darkhorses won their first championship in 2007, a year after finishing at the bottom.  The Kings are just three years removed from their last title, but it was two pretty ugly seasons in between.

    Despite holding onto first place almost the entire year, it really was a roller coaster season for the Kings, particularly when you break things out between hitting and pitching.  They cruised to a large lead in the first half on the back of the league’s best offense (at the time).  On July 1, they held 47 of a possible 50 batting points, and had huge leads in the power categories.  Meanwhile, the pitching staff was average at best and was at the bottom of the league in ERA.  But then in July, the tables turned and the offense started to leak oil while the pitching staff was firing on all cylinders.  Although it wasn’t until September that they really started coughing up batting points, their leads in most offensive categories had been shrinking for months.  But fortunately for them, the pitching staff was awesome down the stretch and carried them home.  In the end, they finished second in the league in batting points, just one behind the Demigods, and third in pitching points, two behind the leading Mavericks.  So it was a very solid team in all phases, though not nearly as dominant as they once seemed.

    Two players led the way for the Kings and figure to be among the top candidates for the top two post-season awards:  Mookie Betts and Max Scherzer.  Each led the league in PAR, among hitters and pitchers respectively.  Betts had an all-around awesome season, hitting .318 with 31 homers, 113 RBI, 122 runs and 26 stolen bases.  He was on the top ten leaderboard in all of those categories, except homers.  He also led the Kings in those four categories and blew away the rest of his teammates in accumulating a 10.85 PAR.  Meanwhile, Scherzer was also in the top ten in four categories.  He led the league with 20 wins and 284 strikeouts.  His 0.97 WHIP ranked second and he was seventh in ERA at 2.96.  His season was right up there with another season in which he helped the Kings win a title, 2013, for tops of his career.  Without either of these players, the Kings would have had no chance.

    There were other important contributors too though, including some of their veteran stars who were mostly disappointing a year ago.  Robinson Cano may have had the best season of his impressive career, following two very pedestrian campaigns.  Similarly, Ian Desmond rebounded from a rough ’15 to become one of the most valuable middle infielders in the league once again (his final year as a shortstop in this leauge).  Jonathan LuCroy and Jay Bruce had much more productive, healthier seasons as well.  Carlos Gonzalez didn’t have one of his better years, but was a major contributor as well.  Finally, youngsters Carlos Correa and Gregory Polanco had good years too.

    On the pitching side, the other player besides Scherzer who was key to the Kings success was Justin Verlander.  Once considered the best pitcher in baseball, the past few years have been pretty rough for Verlander.  But this year, he appeared to be back to his old form, winning 16 games with 244 strikeouts, which were his highest marks in those categories since 2012.  Had the Kings not been so deplete of apparent talent last winter, Verlander may not have even been retained.  But fortunately for the Kings, he was still around for 2016.  The rest of the rotation was not very impressive, which just goes to show how great Scherzer and Verlander were to lead the Kings to 37.5 pitching points.  The bullpen led the league in saves, thanks mostly to Jeurys Familia and his league leading 51.  That was the fifth highest single season save total in league history and hasn’t been exceeded since 2004.  Francisco Rodriguez and Santiago Casilla racked up plenty of saves too, despite mediocre peripherals.

    So how does a team go from last place to first without making any major roster shakeups outside of the draft?  Well, first of all, the Kings were not your typical last place team a year ago.  As you may recall, the bottom six teams in the league were all within seven points of each other last year.  So the Kings weren’t really *that* bad in 2015.  The blueprint they used was to make smart draft choices while banking on veterans with proven track records to bounce back to career norms.  Perhaps a dangerous strategy if those veterans were truly over the hill, but in this case, their trust was rewarded.  And of course, as is the case for almost all champions, the Kings had a bit of luck on their side.  Not only because of several tight category battles going their way, but some major derailments suffered by other teams.  I’ll cover those in greater detail in my next article.

    The Kings have now won six DTBL Championships in 24 years, exactly one quarter of the league’s seasons.  No other franchise has won the league more than four times.  There are other franchises that have been more consistently among the league’s elites, but nobody has been better at winning it all.

    Coming up next, I’ll examine the three teams who came within an eyelash of stealing this title from the Kings.  All three had spectacular, fascinating seasons that came up just short.

  • Kings Lead Widens


    The Kings have been in first place for a majority of the season, but things were getting a little too close for comfort in early August as the Mavericks and Demigods were in hot pursuit.  They even briefly surrendered the top spot.  But in the last few weeks, they have built up a more comfortable lead once again.  As September hit, the lead was up to 9  1/2 points, though that has dropped down to 6 1/2 as of today.  The race is far from over, but the Kings are definitely in the driver’s seat.

    It has pretty much been a three team race since the All-Star break.  A month ago, the Demigods may have actually been the presumed favorite just because the Kings and Mavericks were fighting through some serious injury problems.  This is still a major problem for the Mavericks, who haven’t been able to field a full, healthy rotation since June.  The Kings injuries were mostly on the offensive side as they seemed to suffer a new ailment every day in late July.  But things have been patched up recently and they continue to field the league’s best offense.

    At first glance, the Kings simply don’t seem to have a championship caliber pitching staff.  But two of their long time aces have really stepped up of late:  Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.  Those two guys have led the Kings into the top half of the league in pitching points, which seemed like an unreachable goal as recently as a month ago.  The Kings are still dead last in ERA, yet are in the top three of every other pitching category, which is a little strange to say the least.  But this pitching resurgence has pushed the Kings back up to the 80 point mark in the standings.  If they can hold onto that, they should be able to finish off the improbable worst to first turnaround.

    This race is far from over though.  The Kings are extremely vulnerable in a whole bunch of categories, especially on the pitching side.  The Demigods are the closest competition at the moment.  All year, they have looked like the most balanced team, and as mentioned earlier, some might have considered them the favorite when the Kings and Mavericks were losing players left and right.  The Demigods have possibly been the healthiest team in the league.  But now they need to go on a run to get back into the race for their first championship.

    Perhaps the team most worth watching in the final month is the Mavericks.  In some ways, it is quite remarkable that they are still in this race despite losing basically their entire rotation for significant portions of the season.  But the band is going to start coming back together this week as Stephen Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw are expected to make their returns from the disabled list.  It shouldn’t take long for the Mavericks to gain points in pitching categories with those two back in the lineup.

    Finally, the Choppers and Darkhorses aren’t completely eliminated yet, but will need to get hot in a hurry to get back in the race.  Four weeks to go.  Will the Kings become the DTBL’s first six time champion?  Here are the award winners for August 2016.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 18 (8/1 – 8/7) – Brandon Phillips, Cougars
    Week 19 (8/8 – 8/14) – Charlie Blackmon, Cougars
    Week 20 (8/15 – 8/21) – Kris Bryant, Cougars
    Week 21 (8/22 – 8/28) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 18 (8/1 – 8/7) – Kyle Hendricks, Moonshiners
    Week 19 (8/8 – 8/14) – Rick Porcello, Darkhorses
    Week 20 (8/15 – 8/21) – Ian Kennedy, Cougars
    Week 21 (8/22 – 8/28) – David Price, Naturals

    It was a weirdly strong month for players on the non-contending teams.  Not one of the weekly awards went to a player on one of the top four teams.  The last place Cougars had three different hitters and a pitcher take home weekly honors.  This carried over to the monthly awards as well, which were won by teammates from a non-contender.  Here are the DTBL monthly award winners for August 2016:

    Batter of the Month:

    Brian Dozier, Moonshiners
    .302 AVG, 13 HR, 27 RBI, 27 R, 3 SB, 3.23 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Kyle Hendricks, Moonshiners
    1.28 ERA, 0.780 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 36 K, 3.36 PAR

    The month of August saw the Moonshiners creep up the standings a little bit, no longer in serious danger of finishing dead last for the first time in franchise history.  The August surge was largely due to the month’s top two players:  Brian Dozier and Kyle Hendricks.  Dozier is having a career year, already surpassing his previous season highs in home runs and RBI.  In August, he led the league in home runs with 13 and was near the top in RBI and runs, with 27 apiece.  The Moonshiners offense has been carried most of the season by their two second basemen, Dozier and Ian Kinsler.  A whole host of other hitters challenged for the monthly award, with Nolan Arenado as the closest competition.

    In an absolutely loaded rookie class, one player has gone largely overlooked, until now.  Kyle Hendricks has been the most surprising star of the Cubs magical season, making a run at Jake Arrieta for the title of ace of the staff.  He has unquestionably been the ace of the Moonshiners staff, a rotation containing former Cy Young winners Felix Hernandez, Zack Greinke and Dallas Keuchel.  Hendricks was the pretty clear winner of the August honor, but Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello had great months as well.

  • MLB Trade Recap


    The DTBL trade deadline is still a week and a half away (August 15). We have not seen any deadline activity yet, but that could certainly change. In the meantime, there were plenty of players changing teams in the days leading up to the MLB non-waiver deadline this past Monday afternoon. In fact, it would take way too long for me to analyze them all in this space. So instead, I’m going to focus on trades that involved players from the three teams who appear to be the top title contenders in this league this year. Could any of the MLB player movement create a major shakeup in the DTBL championship race?

    Let’s start with the biggest offensive name that changed teams this past week. Kings catcher Jonathan LuCroy opted to enact his limited no trade clause to veto an agreed upon deal that would have sent him to Cleveland. Instead, he was later traded to Texas. Either would have probably been a good outcome for the Kings, but having him inserted into the middle of the Rangers potent lineup and into the hitters paradise of Arlington, Texas could certainly pay huge dividends. This is especially nice for the Kings since he will get to play a full season in Texas next year as well.

    LuCroy wasn’t the only Kings slugger on the move. Outfielder Jay Bruce was dealt to the Mets. Although he is moving to a much better team, I’d call this a net loss for the Kings. He’ll have a much tougher time hitting home runs in Citi Field compared to the bandbox in Cincinnati. Also, the Mets offense has been pretty anemic of late, which could hamper his chances of remaining one of the league’s top run producers. Josh Reddick is another Kings hitter who was traded, from Oakland to the Dodgers. I wouldn’t expect that to be a needle mover though.

    The second place Demigods had a few guys change teams as well. Carlos Beltran is joining LuCroy in Texas. He will no longer benefit from the short porch in right at Yankee Stadium, but again, moving into the Rangers lineup is a good thing. The enigmatic Matt Kemp was shipped from San Diego to Atlanta in one of the more curious deadline deals. He has actually had a pretty respectable season so far, but there is no telling what this change of scenery will do for him.

    There were a bunch of moving pieces in the Demigods bullpen. Will Smith was traded from Milwaukee to San Francisco and Tyler Clippard moved from Arizona back to his original franchise, the Yankees. I don’t have much to say about those two moves. More interesting is how a trade that didn’t involve a Demigods player will impact their bullpen. Mark Melancon is gone from Pittsburgh, leaving the closing job to Tony Watson for now. So that’s nice, although he is now the only Demigods closer with Trevor Rosenthal losing his job before hitting the DL. The Demigods currently sit 30 saves behind the next worst team. So Watson getting save opportunities is nice, but won’t have any impact on their league standing.

    Finally, we have the Mavericks. Only two of their players were traded, but they were two big ones: Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. Really, the bullpen has been the main reason why the Mavericks have remained in the title race despite being absolutely decimated by injuries, especially to their vaunted starting rotation. The Yankees trio of Miller, Chapman and Dellin Betances put up staggering numbers, despite only one of them actually getting to close games. But now, they could be even better apart. Chapman will continue to get loads of save opportunities with the Cubs while Betances inherits that role for the Yankees. Miller probably won’t get many save opportunities in Cleveland, but you never know. There is definitely an opportunity for the Mavericks to pick up a few key points in the saves category down the stretch while their relievers continue to carry the staff in basically every pitching category, except wins. This remains the best bullpen in the league, by far.

    We’ll have to wait and see if any DTBL trades are made in the next 10 days. In the meantime, here are the award winners for July 2016.

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/27 – 7/3) – Kris Bryant, Cougars
    Week 14 (7/4 – 7/10) – Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope
    Week 15 (7/11 – 7/17) – Khris Davis, Moonshiners
    Week 16 (7/18 – 7/24) – Hanley Ramirez, Mavericks
    Week 17 (7/25 – 7/31) – Mitch Moreland, Gators

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/27 – 7/3) – Scott Kazmir, Gators
    Week 14 (7/4 – 7/10) – Madison Bumgarner, Cougars
    Week 15 (7/11 – 7/17) – Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses
    Week 16 (7/18 – 7/24) – Scott Kazmir, Gators
    Week 17 (7/25 – 7/31) – Justin Verlander, Kings

    Scott Kazmir picked up two weekly awards in July, which would seemingly make him the top candidate for the monthly award, although the first week was actually split between June and July. But in the end, a pair of Kings won this month’s hand. Here are the monthly award winners for July 2016:

    Batter of the Month:

    Mookie Betts, Kings
    .368 AVG, 5 HR, 15 RBI, 15 R, 5 SB, 1.68 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Justin Verlander, Kings
    1.69 ERA, 0.891 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 48 K, 3.34 PAR

    Those numbers from Mookie Betts are solid, but don’t come anywhere near the usual level of our monthly award winners. It was a very unusual month on the hitting side. A ton of guys put up very good numbers in July, but nobody was truly spectacular. Betts’ 1.68 PAR is about half of what it usually takes to win this award. Jose Altuve, Albert Pujols and Josh Donaldson were all just a hair behind Betts, with PARs over 1.6. On my first calculation, the award actually was set to go to Justin Turner. However, he was not active until the 4th of July, so I had to recalculate his total. Missing those three days dropped him out of the top five.

    Justin Verlander, on the other hand, won the pitching award pretty easily. It was by far the best month he has had in several years. He led the league with 48 strikeouts while maintaining an excellent ERA and WHIP with four wins. He has managed to move into the top ten of the league in PAR for the season, despite a pretty shaky start to the season. A distant second and third were Stephen Strasburg and J.A. Happ. Strasburg’s month was especially impressive considering he started it on the DL. Verlander is the second straight Kings pitcher to take home the monthly pitching award (Max Scherzer in June), which is interesting since the Kings have been holding onto first place despite a decisively mediocre pitching staff.

  • National By A Dozen


    The 23rd installment of the DTBL All-Star Game was practically over as soon as it started. The National Division scored five runs in the bottom of the first on their way to a blowout 12-0 victory over the American Division at In-N-Out Park, home of David’s Darkhorses. National hitters knocked around the American pitchers, while the National pitchers were nearly untouchable. The winning side knocked 17 hits while allowing just one infield single. The National All-Stars hit four home runs on their way to that easy win. Xander Bogaerts was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

    Jake Arrieta got the start on the mound for the American Division, but it did not go well for him. After retiring the first hitter he faced in the bottom of the first, he then surrendered five consecutive singles, highlighted by a two run hit by Manny Machado. After that streak was halted with a strikeout, Xander Bogaerts added to Arrieta’s troubles with another two run single. Following the seventh single of the inning, Arrieta was mercifully relieved. Unfortunately for the American All-Stars, the pitchers that followed were only slightly more successful.

    Mike Trout led off the bottom of the second with the game’s first home run, off of Noah Syndergaard. But it was the fifth inning when balls really started flying. It was a rough game for Cubs pitchers as Jon Lester was the victim of the damage done in the fifth. Following a Daniel Murphy double, George Springer hit a 453 foot bomb to left to score a pair. Bogaerts immediately followed with a solo shot to left. Two batters later, Bryce Harper added a run-scoring single to make it 10-0 after five. Had this been a Little League game, the mercy rule would have been enacted at that time. The National All-Stars weren’t quite done scoring though. Two more hits in the sixth led to another run. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, Harper struck again with a solo bomb to center.

    Meanwhile, while National hitters were teeing off, their pitchers were in complete control. National starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw was very impressive. He pitched two perfect innings, striking out five of the six hitters he faced. It was just the start of a complete whiff-fest for the American hitters. In total, the National pitchers recorded 19 strikeouts. They struck out the side three times and recorded at least two strikeouts in all but two innings. The American Division tallied just a single hit, an infield knock by Corey Seager. Besides Kershaw, the other impressive pitching performances for the National squad included Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman.

    In the end, Bogaerts was named the Most Valuable Player with his two hits and three runs driven in. There were plenty of other candidates though, including Harper, Trout, Murphy, Springer and Kershaw. Kershaw picked up the victory while Arrieta took the loss.

    Blowouts are nothing new to the DTBL All-Star Game. While recent editions have mostly featured close pitching duels, this game was almost a mirror image of the 2012 game, except with the other side winning. The American Division won that ’12 game by a score of 12-1. The National Division broke a two year losing streak, having lost the last two games by single runs.

    Click here to view the game’s full box score.

    Thanks to Mike for filling in for Jay as the American Division manager and to Marc for making the National roster decisions and sending me instructions to follow while playing out the game. The second half of the season is well underway. It appears, unlike last year, that we are in for a fun title race. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

  • 2016 DTBL All-Stars


    Sorry for the delay, but I’m finally ready to announce the 2016 DTBL All-Stars.  The 23rd annual DTBL All-Star Game will be played at a date and time to be determined, probably in the next week or so.  It took me a while to find someone who was able to take on the manager duties for the American Division.  Mike has graciously agreed to do so.  Marc will be calling the shots for the National Division.  In addition to managing the game, they were also responsible for breaking any ties in the voting and for selecting the final player for each roster.  The Darkhorses will be the host team.

    In a bit of a departure from recent seasons, it was the voting at offensive positions that was particularly interesting to see which deserving players would be left out.  Most notably, middle infield for the National Division was as loaded as I’ve ever seen 2B/SS for a division in a given year.  Besides the three players listed below, left off the roster were the Kings duo of Robinson Cano and Ian Desmond.  Jay Bruce is a third King offensive star who didn’t make the cut.  In the American Division, Miguel Cabrera garnered just two votes at a loaded 1B/3B group.

    But enough about the guys who didn’t make it.  Here are the 2016 DTBL All-Stars.

    American Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Jake Arrieta, Jackalope (1st All-Star appearance)
    • Catcher – Wilson Ramos, Choppers (1st)
    • First Base – Anthony Rizzo, Choppers (2nd)
    • Second Base – Ian Kinsler, Moonshiners (5th)
    • Third Base – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope (3rd)
    • Shortstop – Corey Seager, Gators (1st)
    • Outfield – Nelson Cruz, Gators (4th)
    • Outfield – Wil Myers, Gators (1st)
    • Outfield – Mark Trumbo, Choppers (3rd)

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Salvador Perez, Gators (1st)
    • First Base – Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope (4th)
    • Second Base – Rougned Odor, Naturals (1st)
    • Third Base – Nolan Arenado, Naturals (2nd)
    • Outfield – Starling Marte, Gators (2nd)
    • Outfield – Ryan Braun, Jackalope (7th)
    • Pitcher – Noah Syndergaard, Naturals (1st)
    • Pitcher – Jon Lester, Choppers (3rd)
    • Pitcher – Danny Salazar, Choppers (1st)
    • Pitcher – Chris Sale, Choppers (5th)
    • Relief Pitcher – Zach Britton, Gators (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Fernando Rodney, Moonshiners (1st)
    • Relief Pitcher – Mark Melancon, Jackalope (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Roberto Osuna, Moonshiners (1st)

    National Division

    Starters:

    • Pitcher – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks (6th)
    • Catcher – Buster Posey, Demigods (5th)
    • First Base – Edwin Encarnacion, Darkhorses (4th)
    • Second Base – Jose Altuve, Demigods (3rd)
    • Third Base – Manny Machado, Mavericks (2nd)
    • Shortstop – Xander Bogaerts, Darkhorses (1st)
    • Outfield – Mookie Betts, Kings (1st)
    • Outfield – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings (5th)
    • Outfield – Mike Trout, Mavericks (5th)

    Reserves:

    • Catcher – Jonathan LuCroy, Kings (2nd)
    • First Base – David Ortiz, Demigods (6th)
    • Second Base – Daniel Murphy, Darkhorses (1st)
    • Third Base – Kris Bryant, Cougars (1st)
    • Outfield – George Springer, Darkhorses (1st)
    • Outfield – Bryce Harper, Darkhorses (2nd)
    • Pitcher – Madison Bumgarner, Cougars (4th)
    • Pitcher – Johnny Cueto, Demigods (2nd)
    • Pitcher – Max Scherzer, Kings (3rd)
    • Pitcher – Stephen Strasburg, Mavericks (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Kenley Jansen, Mavericks (3rd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Jeurys Familia, Kings (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Andrew Miller, Mavericks (2nd)
    • Relief Pitcher – Aroldis Chapman, Mavericks (3rd)

    All-Stars per team:

    • 7 – Mavericks
    • 6 – Choppers, Gators
    • 5 – Darkhorses, Jackalope, Kings
    • 4 – Demigods
    • 3 – Moonshiners, Naturals
    • 2 – Cougars

    Paul Goldschmidt and David Ortiz were selected as the 23rd players for each roster.  There are 15 first time DTBL All-Stars, which is significantly fewer than last year, but does include some pretty exciting young stars like Corey Seager, Mookie Betts and Kris Bryant.  The most experienced All-Star participant will be Ryan Braun who was named to his seventh All-Star squad.  Here are the full voting results.  Much more All-Star Game coverage will be coming soon.