{"id":1065,"date":"2017-05-06T09:57:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2017-05-06T09:57:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T16:57:53","slug":"homerwhiff-trends-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1065","title":{"rendered":"Homer\/Whiff Trends Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/670409062?et=6TgsfLshTnhfmTrgar_j9A&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=GMRqWbqJMnsJVeEAcN7qVd5qWkRdBsphhERRJL9NA7U=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"416\" height=\"263\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe early returns are in and the statistical trends of the past few seasons seem to be continuing into 2017. \u00a0Last year featured the most home runs in the DTBL since 2001 and the highest K\/IP rate in league history. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t take the time to compute the exact home run and strikeout pace for the league this season, but based on MLB numbers, it appears the all-time league total single season home run and strikeout records are in jeopardy of falling this year. \u00a0In MLB, there have been 1.17 HR per team, per game this season, up slightly from 1.16 last year and virtually tied with\u00a0the all-time record in 2000. \u00a0Considering that the weather hasn&#8217;t even started to heat up in many of the league&#8217;s cities yet, this number only figures to rise. \u00a0Meanwhile, batters are whiffing at a significantly higher rate than last season&#8217;s record breaking number. \u00a0So far this season, there have been 8.22 strikeouts per team, per game, way up from last year&#8217;s record 8.03.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, the surge in home runs and strikeouts has a big impact on those two categories in this league, but other categories as well. \u00a0The league batting average sits at just .260 right now, which would be the lowest mark in league history by eight points! \u00a0While batters are reaching base safely via hits at a much lower rate, scoring overall is actually up. \u00a0The league ERA sits at 3.65, which is higher than the full season total from any of the past seven seasons. \u00a0So, in summary, strikeouts and homers are way up, runs are slightly up and batting average is way down. \u00a0The era of the three true outcome hitters (home runs, strikeouts, walks) appears to be here to stay for a while.<\/p>\n<p>Players of the Month are back again for another season. \u00a0As usual, these awards will be handed out to the batter and pitcher who had the highest PAR for the month. \u00a0I will also continue to use these articles to chronicle the winners of the weekly honors as well. \u00a0Here are the top players from the first month of the 2017 season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Batters of the Week:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Week 1 (4\/2 &#8211; 4\/9) &#8211; Nomar Mazara, Mavericks<br \/>\nWeek 2 (4\/10 &#8211; 4\/16) &#8211; Marcell Ozuna, Naturals<br \/>\nWeek 3 (4\/17 &#8211; 4\/23) &#8211; Bryce Harper,\u00a0Darkhorses<br \/>\nWeek 4 (4\/24 &#8211; 4\/30) &#8211; Ryan Zimmerman,\u00a0Demigods<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pitchers of the Week:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Week 1 (4\/2 &#8211; 4\/9) &#8211; Jake Arrieta,\u00a0Jackalope<br \/>\nWeek 2 (4\/10 &#8211; 4\/16) &#8211; James Paxton,\u00a0Naturals<br \/>\nWeek 3 (4\/17 &#8211; 4\/23) &#8211; Max Scherzer, Kings<br \/>\nWeek 4 (4\/24 &#8211; 4\/30) &#8211; Dallas Keuchel, Moonshiners<\/p>\n<p>As the above names indicate, April was a good month for the Nationals and players looking for a bounce-back after disappointing seasons a year ago. \u00a0Harper, Zimmerman and Keuchel were among some of the most disappointing players in the league last year, compared to their varying expectations. \u00a0So far, so good in 2017. \u00a0Here are the monthly award winners for April:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Batter of the Month:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bryce Harper,\u00a0Darkhorses<br \/>\n.391 AVG, 9 HR, 26 RBI, 32\u00a0R, 0\u00a0SB, 3.31 PAR<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pitcher of the Month:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dallas Keuchel,\u00a0Moonshiners<br \/>\n1.21 ERA, 0.806 WHIP, 5 W, 0 SV, 36 K, 3.83 PAR<\/p>\n<p>For the second consecutive season, Bryce Harper has won the April Batter of the Month award. \u00a0Of course, last year, things started to go off the rails for Harper soon after the calendar turned to May. \u00a0But there are plenty of reasons to think that won&#8217;t happen again this year. \u00a0For one thing, he looks healthier. \u00a0Also, his April was even better this year than last. \u00a0He is easily leading the league in runs scored and is right near the top in AVG, HR and RBI as well. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t run the numbers to confirm it, but I believe this honor would have actually gone to Harper&#8217;s Nationals teammate Ryan Zimmerman had he been on the Demigods roster right from Opening Day. \u00a0Despite spending a week as a free agent, Zimmerman still came in second in the league in PAR for April. \u00a0Another Demigod, Freddie Freeman was third.<\/p>\n<p>April was a very encouraging month from Dallas Keuchel. \u00a0He currently leads the league in wins and is third in both ERA and WHIP. \u00a0If he has returned to 2015 form, the Moonshiners should be in good shape. \u00a0Keuchel won this monthly honor fairly easily, but three other pitchers had outstanding months as well. \u00a0Two not very surprising names: \u00a0Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale, and one not so expected: \u00a0James Paxton. \u00a0Unfortunately, Paxton&#8217;s hot start was tempered a bit as he was placed on the DL yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>One last note. \u00a0I knew this day was coming, but it appears Getty now has ads embedded in their images. \u00a0It is annoying, but I think I&#8217;m going to continue to use them anyway as I&#8217;m not aware of another similar free\/legal source for baseball photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The early returns are in and the statistical trends of the past few seasons seem to be continuing into 2017. \u00a0Last year featured the most home runs in the DTBL since 2001 and the highest K\/IP rate in league history. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t take the time to compute the exact home run and strikeout pace for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-darkhorses","category-moonshiners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}