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  • Arrieta Doubles Up With Cy


    2015 featured three of the greatest seasons by pitchers in league history.  Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw each would have won the Cy Young award with their ’15 numbers almost any other year.  But only one could win the award this year.  In the end, it was the Jackalope breakout star who captured the award to go along with his Rookie of the Year honor, which was announced last night.  Jake Arrieta is the 2015 DTBL Cy Young award winner.

    There isn’t much left to say that I didn’t already cover last night, so let’s recap some of the highlights.  Arrieta led the league in wins with 22, which was three more than any other pitcher.  His minuscule 1.77 ERA and 0.865 WHIP were both second in the league behind Greinke.  He led the league in pitching PAR (16.32), which currently stands as the highest mark ever recorded (2010-present).  As shocking as all of those numbers are, he was not a likely winner of this award as recently as mid-season.  But his second half was simply as good as it gets.  The highlight of that incredible stretch was the no-hitter he threw against the Dodgers in late August.  He won the Pitcher of the Month award in August and nearly did it in September as well.  He earned three Pitcher of the Week honors too.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t give some special mention to the other pair of pitchers who would have won this award almost any other season.  Moonshiners righty Zack Greinke and Mavericks lefty Clayton Kershaw had as strong of seasons on the mound as any pair of MLB teammates you’ll ever see.  The Dodgers duo were huge assets to their DTBL teams as well, but in the end it was the guy on the championship squad who got the award.  Greinke’s 1.66 ERA and 0.844 WHIP both rank third on the all-time DTBL single season lists.  Greg Maddux is the only pitcher who has ever posted a better ERA in a season (1994 and 1995).  Meanwhile, Kershaw blew away the field in strikeouts with 301.  He is the first pitcher to reach the 300 mark since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling both did it 13 years ago.  The two time defending Cy Young winner, Kershaw was unable to make it three in a row, but has now finished in the top three of the vote an incredible five years in a row.  Greinke won the award back in 2009, but this is the first time he even received votes since.  Obviously, this is the first Cy Young for the DTBL rookie Arrieta.

    As expected, this was a very tight vote.  The three aforementioned pitchers received all of the first, second and third place votes.  Arrieta garnered five first place votes on his way to 81 points.  Greinke was just a little shy of that, finishing with 75 points and three first place tallies.  Finally, Kershaw got a pair of first place votes as well and accumulated 64 points.  Needless to say, there was quite a gap after those three.  The Kings’ Max Scherzer looked like a leading candidate for this award in the first half of the season, but an uneven second half dropped him to fourth place with 13 points.  Finally, Moonshiners lefty Dallas Keuchel, who came in second to Arrieta in the Rookie of the Year vote, finished fifth for Cy Young.  Gerrit Cole, Madison Bumgarner and David Price had pretty amazing seasons in their own rights, but didn’t come close to making a major play at this award.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    So the Year of the Jackalope continues with two major awards added to the trophy case.  Will they sweep all three?  The MVP race figures to be extremely tight too, so you’ll have to wait and see.  I probably won’t have time to announce that winner until either Sunday or Monday night, so check back next week.

  • Arrieta Named Top Rookie


    The Jackalope made several huge splashes in March, shaking up their roster with some blockbuster trades. But the transaction they made which most directly translated to them cruising to the DTBL title was selecting Jake Arrieta with the sixth pick in the draft. It was a very strong rookie crop, including the five players picked before Arrieta, but none of them came close to matching his DTBL debut. In an unanimous decision, Jake Arrieta is the 2015 DTBL Rookie of the Year.

    Forget about rookies, Arrieta had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in league history. He led the league in wins with 22, but it is was his eye-popping 1.77 ERA and 0.865 WHIP that put him in very select company. Shockingly, he did not lead the league in either of those categories (second behind Zack Greinke in both), yet he now ranks fifth all-time in single season marks in those categories. His 16.32 PAR is the best ever among seasons I have calculated to date (2010 to present, although I should mention that I will be adjusting the PAR numbers to include league wide stats for ’15 in the near future, so he could lose the top spot back to 2011 Verlander). His 236 strikeouts ranked sixth in the league, but like the rest of his numbers, led the way among rookies. He is going to be a strong contender for the Cy Young award as well, though he faces some pretty stiff competition in that race.

    As mentioned, Arrieta was the sixth player taken in the March draft, but the first pitcher. He followed a first baseman and four outfielders, most of whom had very strong DTBL debuts, but not even close to Arrieta’s level. He immediately became the ace of the Jackalope staff which had just traded away their long-time ace Felix Hernandez. Along with newly acquired Gerrit Cole (trade with Mavericks) and second year Jackalope Sonny Gray, they put together a very young set of hurlers at the top of their rotation. The plan worked to perfection as they jumped ten points in the pitching standings on their way to their second DTBL title. Unless the Jackalope decide to mix things up again next spring, Arrieta, Cole and Gray figure to anchor this rotation for quite some time.

    The vote was unanimous. Arrieta received all ten first place votes. But this was not an indication of a weak class, but rather a reflection of just how great Arrieta was. Two other pitchers had seasons that probably would have earned them this award most years. The Moonshiners made the top free agent acquisition in quite some time when they signed Dallas Keuchel in early April. He finished second in the vote with 56 points, receiving six second place votes, and was the only player besides Arrieta to appear on every ballot. Coming in a distant third was another pitcher who had an incredible rookie campaign, the Darkhorses’ Jacob deGrom. He accumulated 33 points despite finishing no higher than third on any ballot. Arrieta, Keuchel and deGrom are about as strong of a rookie trio of pitchers as the league has ever seen. The top offensive rookie was Cougars first baseman Jose Abreu who received a pair of second place votes and 28 total points. Right behind him was his Cougars teammate, outfielder Charlie Blackmon. Blackmon also received two second place votes and a point total of 26. The rest of the rookies were well behind those five, leaving some players who had very strong debuts nowhere near winning the award.

    Click here to view the full voting results.

    I plan to announce the winner of the Cy Young award tomorrow night. Will Arrieta win that one as well, or will it go to one of the Dodgers dynamic duo of Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw? Finally, the MVP award likely won’t be announced until early next wee.

  • Sifting Through the Mediocrity


    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.

  • Best of the Rest


    With the Jackalope running away with the title, that left nine other teams who weren’t particularly close to earning the big prize. In fact, only one other team finished the year closer to first place than last place, in terms of points. The Mavericks finished in second place, 19 points behind the Jackalope. Meanwhile, the Darkhorses came in third, but were considerably closer to the last place Kings than the Jackalope. The other seven teams weren’t even in the same area code. We’ll start the season recap of the non-championship teams by focusing on the Mavericks and Darkhorses, the only other teams who weren’t in danger of finishing dead last in the closing days of the season.

    The Mavericks entered the season as the favorites, mostly on the strength of their insanely talented pitching staff. Not surprisingly, they did indeed lead the league in pitching points. They set a league record for team strikeouts, becoming the first staff to exceed 1,400 whiffs (1,415). They also led the league in WHIP (1.08) and had a sub-3.00 ERA (2.98), only the 8th team in league history to do that. So they basically met all pitching expectations. Unfortunately for them, the Jackalope were almost as good, finishing with just three fewer pitching points. That separation wasn’t nearly enough to cover for a Mavericks offense which wound up being a disappointment.

    Despite starting the season a little slow, by his standards, Clayton Kershaw wound up having another amazing season.  He became the first DTBL pitcher to record 300+ strikeouts since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling way back in 2002.  He was actually the only member of the Mavericks’ staff to finish in the top 10 in K’s, which is pretty hard to believe for a record breaking team.  Kershaw didn’t do it all by himself though.  Matt Harvey’s return from Tommy John surgery was a huge success.  Stephen Strasburg and Carlos Martinez were very good too, when healthy.  But the main reason for the Mavericks’ lofty strikeout total was their bullpen.  Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller all recorded 95+ K’s, which is quite an achievement for one reliever on a team, much less three.

    The Mavericks did not get the offensive output they needed to be a true contender this year.  Mike Trout was his usual MVP caliber self.  Manny Machado and Lorenzo Cain had a huge breakout years.  But that is pretty much the extent of Mavericks hitters who exceeded expectations.  Five of their regular players recorded negative PARs.  They just weren’t deep enough offensively to seriously threaten the Jackalope.  Second place is still a very solid finish though.  This is the third time the Mavericks have been the runners-up in the past four seasons.  And their roster is still extremely young and talented, so it seems they will continue to compete for the championship in upcoming years.

    If there is one team besides the Jackalope who should be very happy with their 2015 season, it would be the Darkhorses.  After finishing in the bottom half of the league for four straight years, they vaulted all the way to a third place finish this year.  No, they weren’t particularly close to winning the league.  But they clearly had a better season than all of the teams below them and appear to be headed in the right direction.  In terms of the 2015 results, they were sort of the reverse of the Mavericks.  They had one of the league’s best offenses but didn’t have enough pitching to contend.

    The Darkhorses accumulated 40 batting points, trailing only the Jackalope and nine points clear of all other teams.  They led the league in batting average and finished in the top three in home runs, RBI and runs.  Bryce Harper emerged as quite possibly the best player in the league, finishing in top three in average, home runs and runs.  Edwin Encarnacion, Todd Frazier and Xander Bogaerts were solid contributors too.  George Spring justified the Darkhorses’ selection of him with the third overall pick having a very good DTBL rookie year despite missing significant time due to injury.

    The Darhorses’ second round pick was pretty good too.  Jacob deGrom immediately became the staff ace and joined the ranks of the top pitchers in the league.  But besides him, they didn’t get truly great numbers out of any other pitchers.  Lance Lynn and James Shields had decent years.  Julio Teheran was a disappointment and Michael Pineda couldn’t stay healthy.  The bullpen was a two man show with Brad Boxberger and Luke Gregerson racking up saves, but with little to no support from the rest of the pen.  Again, a very good year for the Darkhorses, but they were a couple pitchers away from being a serious title contender.

    Despite falling well short of the top, there were plenty of positives for the Mavericks and Darkhorses.  The other seven teams were kind of a mess, so I’ll review all of them at the same time in my final season recap article next week.

  • Year of the Jackalope


    When discussing the greatest teams in DTBL history, a few clubs usually make the short list: 1994 Cougars, 2000 Kings, 2007 or 2008 Darkhorses. What makes those championship squads stick out is the way in which they dominated the competition, winning the league by double digit points in each case. Well, there is a new team to add to the conversation. Prior to this year, the largest margin of victory in league history was 14 points by the ’94 Cougars. In the 10-team era, the record was 13 by the ’00 Kings. In 2015, the Jackalope blew away those marks finishing with 85 points, 19 clear of the next closest team. Jay’s Jackalope are the 2015 Dream Team Baseball League Champions!

    On the last day of April, the Jackalope claimed the top spot in the standings for the first time this year.  They dropped to second a few times in early May.  But then on May 16, they took over first place for good.  Before summer officially began, they had built a double digit lead and were never really challenged again.  The Mavericks made a nice run in the middle of the summer to briefly cut the lead to single digits, however, it was back to a 20+ margin before you knew it.

    It wasn’t just the season-long domination that made the Jackalope the talk of the league the entire year.  It started in March when they made several franchise altering trades to completely revamp their roster.  At the time, those deals appeared to signal a desire to rebuild.  Teams who think they are on the verge of being a title contender don’t usually trade away several of their best players.  But the Jackalope did just that.  Gone were Felix Hernandez, Aroldis Chapman, Albert Pujols and Yasiel Puig.  Other than Puig, those lost pieces were quite productive for their new teams.  But the Jackalope survived just fine without them.  In came Gerrit Cole, Josh Donaldson, Adam Jones and Anthony Rendon.  Even an injury plagued season from Rendon couldn’t turn those deals sour.  Donaldson was arguably the best player in the league.  Cole elevated his game to become one of the best pitchers around.

    In addition to the trades, one other key March move paved the way for what was to come.  In a first round dominated by young sluggers, the Jackalope zigged while those ahead of them zagged and selected the first pitcher of the draft with the sixth overall pick.  That draft pick:  Jake Arrieta.  All Arrieta would go on to do is lead the league in wins (22) and pitching PAR (16.32) while compiling one of the best second halves of any pitcher in league history.

    The pitching staff, led by Arrieta, Cole and Sonny Gray, wound up accumulating 40 pitching points, just three behind the Mavericks who were expected to have a historically strong pitching staff (and more-or-less did).  But the Jackalope were almost as good.  The bullpen was stellar as well, with Mark Melancon leading the league with 51 saves, just four shy of the league’s single-season record.  Wade Davis had as much of a positive impact as any non-full time closer could.

    While their pitching was very good, it was the offense that won the league for the Jackalope.  They led the way with 45 batting points (out of a possible 50).  They finished in the top four of all five offensive categories and were tops in RBI and runs scored.  In addition to having the league’s top finisher in pitching PAR, they also had the top two in batting PAR.  Donaldson and Paul Goldschmidt finished essentially tied at the top with 8.45 marks.  That should set up a very interesting MVP vote with those two among the leading candidates.  Donaldson proved his ’14 campaign was no fluke, beating all of his previous year’s hitting stats by wide margins.  He led the league in runs (122), finished second in RBI (123) and fifth in home runs (41).  But Goldschmidt may have had even better numbers across the board, with a .322 average, 33 HR, 110 RBI, 100 R and a sneaky 21 stolen bases.  The last players to match/exceed those numbers in all five categories were Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp in 2011.

    Donaldson and Goldschmidt weren’t the only shining stars for the Jackalope offense.  Giancarlo Stanton also looked like a MVP candidate in the first half.  But a broken wrist wound up costing him the entire second half of the season.  Most teams would not have been able to overcome such a significant injury to a top player.  In fact, the Jackalope suffered a bunch of injuries to key players.  But they had a whole stable of other solid contributors to keep them going strong:  Eric Hosmer, D.J. LeMahieu, Brett Gardner, Adam Jones and a rejuvenated Ryan Braun to name a few.

    This is the second DTBL title for the Jackalope.  The first came back in 2011.  They had been slowly building towards that title, assembling a pitching staff the likes of which the league had not seen before.  I would say this 2015 championship was far more surprising.  Since the ’11 title, they had finished in the middle of the pack a couple times and came in dead last just two years ago.  The only other last to first turnaround that can compare would be the Darkhorses, who made the shocking jump in consecutive years (2006-2007).  The Jackalope join the Choppers, Gators and Mavericks as two time champs, leaving no teams with just a single title.

    There will be time to review what went wrong for the rest of the league another day.  Truthfully, it didn’t matter.  The Jackalope were going to win the league this year regardless.  I’ll start my reviews of the rest of the league next week.  In the meantime, enjoy the start of the MLB post-season.  Congrats to Jay on a well earned title and thanks to everyone else for another fun season.

  • Players of the Month: September


    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!

  • Players of the Month: August


    I have to be honest, this isn’t shaping up to be a particularly interesting DTBL pennant race. The Jackalope have continued their season-long reign of supremacy. After a nice run by the Mavericks in July, August may have been the best month yet for the first place Jackalope. On Tuesday, the lead had ballooned to 20 points. It’s not over, but it would take a pretty epic collapse for the Jackalope not to claim their second DTBL Championship. So what made their August so special? Well, you’re about to find out. First, here are the players who earned Player of the Week honors during the month of August:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 17 (7/27 – 8/2) – Lucas Duda, Kings
    Week 18 (8/3 – 8/9) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    Week 19 (8/10 – 8/16) – Adam Jones, Jackalope
    Week 20 (8/17 – 8/23) – Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    Week 21 (8/24 – 8/30) – Edwin Encarnacion, Darkhorses

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 17 (7/27 – 8/2) – Sonny Gray, Jackalope
    Week 18 (8/3 – 8/9) – David Price, Naturals
    Week 19 (8/10 – 8/16) – Madison Bumgarner, Cougars
    Week 20 (8/17 – 8/23) – Chris Archer, Cougars
    Week 21 (8/24 – 8/30) – Jake Arrieta, Jackalope

    Wow, that’s a lot of Jackalope! Yes, a Jackalope won either Batter or Pitcher of the Week every week in August.  So naturally, they will be taking home both of the monthly individual awards as well. Here are the award winners for August 2015:

    Batter of the Month:

    Josh Donaldson, Jackalope
    .324 AVG, 11 HR, 35 RBI, 29 R, 2 SB, 3.05 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Jake Arrieta, Jackalope
    0.43 ERA, 0.685 WHIP, 6 W, 0 SV, 43 K, 4.93 PAR

    On the strength of two Player of the Week honors, Donaldson was a fairly obvious choice for Player of the Month. He accumulated an impressive 3.05 PAR in the month, moving him into first place in the league in Batting PAR, just ahead of Jackalope teammate Paul Goldschmidt. As long as they don’t split votes too badly, they appear to be the leading candidates for MVP too. Edwin Encarnacion was the runner-up and the only other real contender for this month’s honor.

    Arrieta made a pretty dramatic claim for the monthly award in his most recent start, throwing a no-hitter against the Dodgers in LA. You can’t really do much better than a 0.43 ERA and six wins in a single month. With his incredible August, Arrieta has vaulted right into the Cy Young mix. The August pitching award race wasn’t particularly close, but Madison Bumgarner was the runner-up.

  • Players of the Month: July


    As the temperature started to heat up this summer, so did the DTBL Championship race.  The Jackalope finished July in the same spot as all of the previous months:  first place.  But what was once a 20+ lead has been trimmed to single digits entering the season’s final two months.  This has had nothing to do with the Jackalope falling back to the pack.  They have steadily held around 85 standings points.  But what has changed is the total of their closest competition, the Mavericks.  The Mavs are closing in on the 80 point mark as well, thanks to their pitching staff starting to materialize the way most expected before the season.  Also, the offense has received a huge lift from a player that I will be touching on in just a bit.  Before we get to the players of the month, here are the guys who earned weekly honors in July:

    Batters of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/29 – 7/5) – J.D. Martinez, Demigods
    Week 14 (7/6 – 7/12) – Mike Trout, Mavericks
    Week 15 (7/17 – 7/19) – Adrian Gonzalez, Darkhorses
    Week 16 (7/20 – 7/26) – Carlos Gonzalez, Kings

    Pitchers of the Week:

    Week 13 (6/29 – 7/5) – Jordan Zimmermann, Naturals
    Week 14 (7/6 – 7/12) – Chris Sale, Choppers
    Week 15 (7/17 – 7/19) – Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks
    Week 16 (7/20 – 7/26) – Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses

    The Batter of the Month race came down to two of the guys listed above while the pitching award was a four horse race won by a guy who has been nearly unhittable for two straight months.  Here are the award winners for July 2015:

    Batter of the Month:

    Mike Trout, Mavericks
    .367 AVG, 12 HR, 24 RBI, 20 R, 1 SB, 2.32 PAR

    Pitcher of the Month:

    Zack Greinke, Moonshiners
    0.95 ERA, 0.579 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 34 K, 3.69 PAR

    Trout and Carlos Gonzalez had nearly identical numbers in the month of July.  It wound up being the one home run and stolen base advantage that tilted this award to the Mavericks outfielder.  As mentioned above, Trout has been largely responsible for the Mavericks making a significant dent into the Jackalope lead.

    There were four pitchers who led the way in July, coming from just two MLB teams.  Greinke took the top spot, barely edging out his Dodgers teammate Clayton Kershaw.  And not far behind those two were a pair of Cubs:  Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester.  But in the end, Greinke’s incredible 43 inning scoreless streak, dating back to mid-June, sealed this honor.  Greinke allowed just four runs in the month of July and has allowed more than three runs in a start just once this entire season.  Plagued by poor run support early in the year, he was able to add four victories in the month too.

  • DTBL All Star Awards Outlook


    Welcome to a slightly delayed version of the All Star awards outlook.  These numbers are all culled from stats as of the All Star break, as the season’s midpoint is always a good time to look back on how the season has gone and look forward to exciting pennant races.  Well, perhaps not in DTBL itself, but one never knows!

    Without further ado, here are your category leaders at the break.

    »Batting Average: Miguel Cabrera, Naturals, .350
    »Home Runs: Giancarlo Stanton, Jackalope: 27
    »RBI: Nolan Arenado, Naturals and Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope: 70
    »Runs: Mike Trout, Mavericks: 68
    »Stolen Bases: Billy Hamilton, Naturals: 44
    »ERA: Zack Greinke, Moonshiners: 1.39
    »WHIP: Max Scherzer, Kings: .780
    »Wins: Gerrit Cole, Jackalope: 13
    »Saves: Mark Melancon, Jackalope: 29
    »Strikeouts: Clayton Kershaw, Mavericks: 160

    On to the awards!

    Rookie of the Year:

    Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners – 0.997 WHIP, 2.34 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 107 K, 6.8 PAR
    Jake Arrieta, Jackalope – 0.986 WHIP, 2.66 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 123 K, 6.7 PAR
    Jacob deGrom, Darkhorses – 0.924 WHIP, 2.14 ERA, 9 W, 0 SV, 112 K, 6.6 PAR

    As with the Memorial Day outlook, the Rookie of the Year category is dominated by pitchers.  All three of Keuchel, Arrieta, and deGrom sat in the top 10 of pitching related PAR at the break.  And, really, a case could be made for any of these pitchers to be the front runner for the award.  deGrom holds a slight edge in WHIP and ERA; Arrieta and Keuchel are tied in wins;  Arrieta holds the edge in strikeouts; and PAR gives Keuchel the slight edge.  I don’t think anyone would be truly surprised if these three are at the top of the ballot come the postseason.

    Honorable mention goes to a trio of outfielders, Charlie Blackmon of the Cougars (who cracked the top 10 of hitter PAR at the break), Mookie Betts of the Kings, and George Springer of the Darkhorses.

    Cy Young:

    Max Scherzer, Kings – 0.780 WHIP, 2.11 ERA, 10 W, 0 SV, 150 K, 9.6 PAR
    Zack Greinke, Moonshiners – 0.843 WHIP, 1.39 ERA, 8 W, 0 SV, 106 K, 7.6 PAR

    Once again, Max Scherzer reigns supreme at the top of the Cy Young list.  A ridiculous WHIP and strikeout total lead to a PAR that’s two full points above Zack Greinke.  However, Greinke’s pre All Star break performance was nothing short of extraordinary in its own right, and makes him a worthy companion for Scherzer.  Greinke hurled 35 and 2/3 scoreless innings going into the break, dropping his ERA to a ridiculous 1.39.  With all the great pitchers in baseball this year, it remains to be seen if Scherzer and Greinke can stay on top of this list, or if any of the pitchers listed below can join the truly elite.

    Honorable mention goes to Gerrit Cole of the Jackalope, Sonny Gray of the Jackalope, Chris Archer of the Cougars, and the trio of ROY candidates discussed above.

    Most Valuable Player:

    Paul Goldschmidt, Jackalope – .340 BA, 60 R, 21 HR, 70 RBI, 16 SB, 6.4 PAR
    Mike Trout, Mavericks – .312 BA, 68 R, 26 HR, 55 RBI, 9 SB, 5.4 PAR

    Given Bryce Harper’s otherworldly season, it’s a bit strange not seeing him at the top of the MVP race.  However, in fantasy baseball, stolen bases still matter, and while Harper mashes the cover off the ball, the speed simply isn’t there.  In contract, the speed is there for the two leaders at the midway point, Paul Goldschmidt and Mike Trout.  Surprisingly, Trout features the bigger power numbers, coming in at 26 homers to Goldschmidt’s 21.  Unsurprisingly, Trout also leads the league in runs with 68  However, Goldschmidt dominates most of the other categories, with a sparkling .340 batting average, a league leading 70 RBI, and a remarkable 16 stolen bases (to Trout’s 9).  In fact, the 16 steals for Goldschmidt are only two off his career DTBL high.  Trout is an amazing player, and it will take a lot for Goldschmidt to hold him off, but as of now, this MVP nod is well deserved, for both Goldschmidt and the Jackalope as a team.

    Honorable mention goes to Bryce Harper of the Darkhorses, Giancarlo Stanton of the Jackalope, and the surprising Todd Frazier of the Darkhorses.

     

  • It’s a Walk Off!


    Nolan Arenado was the last position player on either All-Star roster to take his turn at the plate in Sunday’s 22nd Annual DTBL All-Star Game at his team’s, the Naturals, home park of Hobbs Field.  A late defensive replacement for the American Division All-Stars, he finally got his chance to swing the bat with a man on and one out in the bottom of the 9th.  Three pitches later, he launched a Trevor Rosenthal delivery deep into the seats in left-center field for a two run, walk-off home run to give the American Division a 2-1 victory over their National Division counterparts.

    For the most part, this game was a carbon copy of the last few DTBL All-Star Games.  It featured the game’s best pitchers at the top of their powers, striking out hitters left and right.  For the third consecutive year, at least 26 batters struck out in the game, this year being the highest total of them all at 30.  I don’t have great records of the games prior to 2005, but since then, this was the most strikeouts in an All-Star Game.  American pitchers compiled 16 K’s while the National squad had 14 of their own.

    There were scoring opportunities in this game, but most of them were not converted into runs.  Dallas Keuchel got the start on the mound for the American All-Stars and pitched two scoreless, hitless innings.  On the other side, Max Scherzer also completed two frames without allowing a run.  Probably the most impressive pitching performance was put up by the National’s second pitcher, Chris Archer.  He was on such a role that he was allowed to throw three innings, striking out seven total, including six consecutive batters.  Through six innings, neither team had touched home plate.

    The top of the seventh brought the game’s first run.  With two outs and nobody on for the National Division, two consecutive left handed hitters delivered hits against the tough lefty reliever Zach Britton.  Jason Kipnis reached on a single and scored on a clutch two out double by his Cougars teammate Charlie Blackmon.  The National All-Stars had a chance to build on that 1-0 lead in the 8th following a leadoff double by Albert Pujols.  But Glen Perkins retired the next three hitters in order, including a pair of strikeouts.  The game remained 1-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

    Aroldis Chapman got the nod to start the final half inning, but walked the leadoff man, Paul Goldschmidt.  After retiring Ryan Braun on a flyout, Chapman was relieved and Trevor Rosenthal came in to attempt to lock it down.  That he did not.  The first man he faced was the aforementioned Nolan Arenado, who promptly hit a two run home run to send the American Division home with a 2-1 victory.

    As I mentioned, I don’t have great records of the All-Star Games pre-2005, so I am unable to confirm if we’ve had a walk-off hit before.  I am fairly certain this is the first walk-off home run though.  Despite only getting that one at bat, Arenado was the unanimous choice as the game’s Most Valuable Player.  Zack Greinke was credited with the win thanks to his perfect ninth inning on the mound.  Rosenthal took the loss.  Although there is no such thing, the obvious winner of the Least Valuable Player would have been Miguel Cabrera, who took the golden sombrero striking out in all four of his plate appearances.  Fortunately for him, his Naturals and American teammate, Arenado, saved the day. The only other American hitter with a significant contribution was Starling Marte, who had a game high three hits (no other player on either team had more than one) and stole a base.

    This game ended a streak of four consecutive losses for the home team in the DTBL All-Star Game.  But it continued the streak of games dominated by the pitchers.  Five of the past six games have featured six or fewer total runs scored.  In many ways, this is very representative of the league itself though, where pitching numbers continue to improve year-to-year.  The early years of the DTBL All-Star Game featured some absurd shootouts, so I guess what comes around goes around.  Click here to view the full box score from this year’s game.

    Congrats to Nick on managing his squad to a victory and thanks to both Nick and Dom for taking the time to play out the game.  Although the All-Star Game is not a particularly important part of a fantasy baseball season, it is something I look forward to doing every summer, so thanks for at least humoring me and I hope you enjoyed it as well.  On to the rest of the season!