{"id":1350,"date":"2020-09-01T12:21:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T19:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2020-09-01T12:21:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T19:21:43","slug":"one-month-down-one-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1350","title":{"rendered":"One Month Down, One to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"U4JaVp0wRJ5V46njZZtzXA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1264544388\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\nwindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'U4JaVp0wRJ5V46njZZtzXA',sig:'dgAB1gpL-f_6I_U-0I-wXbqqvO0ZYSDl72tAFES8B60=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1264544388',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nIf it feels like the 2020 baseball season just started, well, that&#8217;s basically true.\u00a0 However, we&#8217;re also more than half way through the abbreviated 60 game slate.\u00a0 I think we all entered this season ready to expect the unexpected, and that is pretty much what we have gotten.\u00a0 Critical injuries, particularly to pitchers, have decimated rosters.\u00a0 Multiple MLB teams have had week&#8217;s worth of games wiped out due to positive COVID-19 tests.\u00a0 Seven inning doubleheaders and wacky extra inning rules have become a common occurrence.\u00a0 The season has also had its good moments though, like the breakout of a new wave of stars, including the ones who will be covered below.<\/p>\n<p>One thing I was expecting from this shortened season was chaos at the top of the standings.\u00a0 But that really hasn&#8217;t proven to be the case&#8230; at least not yet.\u00a0 The Darkhorses have been in first or second place every day of the season since the opening weekend and have held the top spot for almost two straight weeks now.\u00a0 So, as has become an annual tradition, the Darkhorses are right in the thick of the race as we head into September.\u00a0 But that&#8217;s about the only thing this season has in common with recent years.\u00a0 No longer are the Kings their chief competition.\u00a0 In fact, the Kings are one of probably three teams that have little to no shot at winning the title this year.\u00a0 Their house of cards tumbled quickly when Justin Verlander was lost to an arm injury in the first week of the season.\u00a0 The wildly underachieving Jackalope offense and Komodos pitching staff have left them as the other two teams with little hope for a championship season.\u00a0 But everybody else should feel like they still have a shot.\u00a0 The Cougars, Moonshiners and Demigods are having breakout years.\u00a0 The Mavericks have overcome some tough pitching losses to remain in the thick of things.\u00a0 The Beanballers have bounced back from a very slow start to get back into the conversation.\u00a0 And the Choppers have amazingly had the best pitching staff in the league despite losing Chris Sale for the season this past spring.\u00a0 The Darkhorses would seem to be the favorites, not only because of their current lead, but also because they are pretty healthy at the moment.\u00a0 Of course, that could change in a hurry.<\/p>\n<p>This will probably be the one and only Players of the Month article this season since I don&#8217;t usually bother with such things after September.\u00a0 Usually following the first month of the season in April, the awards are based on stats accumulated in March in addition to April.\u00a0 But this time, I elected not to include the July stats since there was over a week&#8217;s worth of games played in that month, compared to typically just a few days in March.\u00a0 That said, the winners would have been the same even if I had included the July stats.\u00a0 But the statlines below are August only.\u00a0 As usual, these are completely based on highest PAR for the week and month.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the award winners for July and August of 2020.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Batters of the Week:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Week 1 (7\/23 &#8211; 7\/26) &#8211; Nelson Cruz,\u00a0Komodos<br \/>\nWeek 2 (7\/27 &#8211; 8\/2) &#8211; Aaron Judge,\u00a0Mavericks<br \/>\nWeek 3 (8\/3 &#8211; 8\/9) &#8211; Fernando Tatis,\u00a0Demigods<br \/>\nWeek 4 (8\/10 &#8211; 8\/16) &#8211; Juan Soto,\u00a0Mavericks<br \/>\nWeek 5 (8\/17 &#8211; 8\/23) &#8211; Jose Abreu,\u00a0Cougars<br \/>\nWeek 6 (8\/24 &#8211; 8\/30) &#8211; Manny Machado, Mavericks<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pitchers of the Week:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Week 1 (7\/23 &#8211; 7\/26) &#8211; Shane Bieber,\u00a0Choppers<br \/>\nWeek 2 (7\/27 &#8211; 8\/2) &#8211; Shane Bieber,\u00a0Choppers<br \/>\nWeek 3 (8\/3 &#8211; 8\/9) &#8211; Frankie Montas,\u00a0Kings<br \/>\nWeek 4 (8\/10 &#8211; 8\/16) &#8211; Aaron Nola,\u00a0Demigods<br \/>\nWeek 5 (8\/17 &#8211; 8\/23) &#8211; Yu Darvish, Moonshiners<br \/>\nWeek 6 (8\/24 &#8211; 8\/30) &#8211; Lucas Giolito,\u00a0Cougars<\/p>\n<p>Half of the\u00a0Batter of the Week honors so far this season have gone to Mavericks hitters, and three different ones at that, displaying the depth of that roster.\u00a0 While the game may be shifting younger and younger, particularly among position players, a few veterans are still going strong including 40 year old Nelson Cruz and 33 year old Jose Abreu, who is having his best season since his rookie campaign so far.\u00a0 Due to the way pitching starts are scattered, it is extremely difficult for someone to win Pitcher of the Week two weeks in a row, but that&#8217;s exactly what Shane Bieber did to start the season.\u00a0 Two of the three pitchers selected in the first round of the draft in March (Lucas Giolito and Frankie Montas) won weekly honors.\u00a0 Giolito did so on the strength of the season&#8217;s first no-hitter.\u00a0 Two players have really stood head and shoulders above their peers so far this season.\u00a0 And they happen to be the Batter and Pitcher of the Month for August.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Batter of the Month:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fernando Tatis,\u00a0Demigods<br \/>\n.313 AVG, 11 HR, 24 RBI, 31 R, 4 SB, 3.10 PAR<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pitcher of the Month:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shane Bieber, Choppers<br \/>\n1.63 ERA, 0.905 WHIP, 4 W, 0 SV, 57 K, 3.80 PAR<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Tatis Jr. has almost single-handedly turned the Demigods from a historically weak team a year ago, the worst in franchise history, to a championship contender this season.\u00a0 The first overall pick in the draft has lived up to the hype and then some.\u00a0 He currently leads the league in PAR (by more than a full point), home runs, runs batted in and runs scored.\u00a0 He is also hitting over .300 and has seven steals.\u00a0 Ronald Acuna&#8217;s rookie season last year was among the best this league has ever seen, but Tatis is one-upping him this year, albeit he won&#8217;t come close to Acuna&#8217;s counting stat numbers due to the abbreviated season.\u00a0 At the moment, Tatis would almost certainly win not only Rookie of the Year, but Most Valuable Player as well.\u00a0 The Demigods do have some ground to make up as they remain slightly below average in batting points, but Tatis could certainly continue to push them up the standings.\u00a0 Tatis won this award going away, but Mookie Betts and Jose Abreu were the closest competition.<\/p>\n<p>What is amazing about those Shane Bieber August numbers above is that they don&#8217;t even include his first two starts of the season, which earned him weekly honors.\u00a0 As mentioned above, the Choppers lead the league in pitching points despite not having the services of Chris Sale.\u00a0 Bieber is the reason why.\u00a0 He already has a two point lead in Pitching PAR with a ridiculous 1.20 ERA and a league leading 84 strikeouts in just 52 2\/3 innings pitched.\u00a0 Bieber is following up an impressive rookie season with an even better sophomore campaign.\u00a0 The Choppers do have a tall hill to climb to get into the title chase due to a scuffling offense.\u00a0 If they can improve upon that though, Bieber and the pitching staff are primed to keep them in the hunt.\u00a0 Because two of Bieber&#8217;s best starts came in July, this particular award wasn&#8217;t a runaway.\u00a0 Pitchers from opposite sides of Chicago, Moonshiners&#8217; Yu Darvish and Cougars&#8217; Lucas Giolito, came in second and third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images If it feels like the 2020 baseball season just started, well, that&#8217;s basically true.\u00a0 However, we&#8217;re also more than half way through the abbreviated 60 game slate.\u00a0 I think we all entered this season ready to expect the unexpected, and that is pretty much what we have gotten.\u00a0 Critical injuries, particularly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-choppers","category-demigods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350","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=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1353,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}