TMTW - August

Diamond Dynasty:  The month that was…

AUGUST

News

Nothing, really.  Just a slow month overall.

After years (literally) of inactivity, Drew was finally called out league-wide on his managerial absence.  What followed was a shit-storm of confusion, anger, frustration, finger pointing, and name calling, the likes of which this league has never seen.  When the dust settled, Drew survived (for now) and some playoff-bound teams got stronger.  Drew’s days may be numbered as a manager (he violated the terms of his ultimatum in less than a week), but he has left an indelible mark on the 2014 season.  And as we make the final turn into the stretch run, we can once again enjoy the Diamond Dynasty’s finest tradition - the 13th Annual 6-Seed Shuffle.  

From the History Could Be Made department:

- We will have a first-time regular season champion - Neither Alex, Richie, or Jarrett have accomplished the feat.

- We are on pace to witness 3 managers win 120+ games in one season, a DD first.

- If TJ loses this week against Adrian, this would be just the third instance of two managers finishing with winning percentages under .400 (2007, 2013).

- According to my hastily gathered intel, Jarrett’s incredible 16 consecutive weeks without a loss is the longest such streak in Diamond Dynasty history.  The complete list:

Consecutive Wins

10 - Jarrett (2014)

9 - Richie (2014)

8 - Heath Bell (2011)

8 - Onion Man (2008)

6 - Six teams tied

Consecutive Wins/Ties

16 - Jarrett (2014)

13 - James (2013)

13 - Kurt (2012)

12 - Adrian (2011)

10 - Kurt (2013)

Consecutive Losses/Ties

13 - Drew (2013)

11 - Adrian (2011)

10 - Paul (2004)

9 - Paul (2004...yes, two different streaks)

8 - Four teams tied

Consecutive Losses

8 - Drew (2013)

7 - Colin (2005)

7 - Caroline Brink (2011)

6 - Three teams tied

Also, this happened!

Standings Analysis

Holy jabroni, we got a barn burner!  Jarrett’s historic streak has launched him all the way to first place, tied with Richie.  Alex, despite beating Richie 6-4 in week 21, slipped back one spot to third place and is three games back.  If Alex finishes in third, he will no doubt look to the 7-2 loss he took in week 19 against Staaf as one of the reasons.  Colin seems comfortable with the 4th spot (he’s been there in 14 of 21 weeks thus far), and then it gets a little hairy.  Ben and James are battling for a very important 5-seed and the right to play Colin in the first round.  The 6-seed will have to play Jarrett, Alex, or Richie, all of whom should finish with top-10 winning percentages in the history of the Diamond Dynasty.  Adrian and Kurt are lurking, but might not have enough time to sneak in the playoffs.  And Drew has locked up the first pick of the 2015 draft….for TJ.  A true stroke of genius from Geers, who has pulled off the improbable double-tank job.

Shutout Watch

Week 17 saw three teams score one category.  Richie was the closest to the shutout, taking TJ to town in everything except wins (5-3). Kurt took Ben for a ride, but lost WHIP by .11 and tied saves.  Adrian, making one hell of a playoff push, took Alex to the cliff but lost SB by 6 and tied saves.

Alex came back in a big way in week 18.  Going into Sunday night, he and his opponent, James, had the Sunday Night Baseball starters.  Alex, disregarding my advice to hedge his bet and guarantee him what amounted to a nice steak dinner (albeit at Chili’s) rolled the dice but could not get the win he needed.  They tied wins 3-3.  Honorable mention goes to Adrian’s 8-2 win over Drew, where he fell 4 RBI’s and 21 batting average points short of a pay day.

Following suit, James roared back from the previous week’s defeat with a 9-0 victory over Drew.  Neither team could muster a save.  James, how bad does that one hurt?  

There wasn’t a shutout scare in week 20.

Jarrett had a 6-day shutout over he-who-must-not-be-named, but Drew put up 7 RBI’s on Sunday to block the shutout and finish the match 9-1.

Battle for the Belt

This section of TMTW is officially a waste of time.  11 consecutive title belt defences.  He cannot be stopped, he will not be stopped.  For he is Jarrett, conqueror of fantasy opponents and keeper of the WWE Belt.  Challengers need not apply.

Who’s Hot

Jarrett got the nod last month, so let’s give it to Adrian!  After week 15, Adrian was 15 games behind James for the final playoff spot.  In the six weeks following, he’s won 5 out of 6 weeks for a 38-21-1 mark.  Macdonald’s last chance is against the 9th placeman, and with Ben’s struggles, anything could happen.

Who’s Not

I dragged Ben through the mud last month (he still qualifies this month) but let’s go to Drew.  It’s kind of pointless to spend any time on him but he is really making some history.  He’s 5-34-1 in his last 4 contests.  I have to go back to confirm but that has to be one of the worst marks ever.  And this handsome writer is not at all nervous with a 3 game lead for a bye and seeing him on the schedule to close the regular season.  Nope, not nervous.  Everything will be fine.  I’m fine, everything is ok.

2 Team Spotlight

This week - The Leftovers

Colin - Steady Eddie

Colin is Hunter Pence-ing his career so hard.  He’s been the 5-seed each of the last three years, and will most likely jump up one spot to the 4-seed this year.  Never too high, never too low, Colin has spent his entire season between 3rd (week 4) and 6th (weeks 2 and 13), with the majority of that time in 4th place.  He’s on pace for his best season since 2009 - a bye-week-earning but ultimately disappointing season (3rd place finish in the playoffs).  It’s Colin’s time in the spotlight.

Oh, look at that.  Mike Trout is fucking awesome.  He’s not quite living up to his O-Rank - he’s slipped all the way to 2nd ranked - but he’s on pace to set career marks in home runs and RBI’s while tacking on 100 runs scored and swiping at least 15 bases.  The wonderkid leads an offense that ranks above average overall with a 52-49-4 record.  The other bash brother, Miguel Cabrera, is having a “down” season, slashing 82/17/91/.299, but is still ranked in the top 20.  Jose Altuve has been quite a find; his .336 average leads all of baseball, and his 49 stolen bases ranks third.  Beyond the elite guys, Colin has had some solid bounce back seasons from Albert Pujols and Adam LaRoche (24 and 19 HR respectively).  With Yadier Molina on the DL and Wil Myers fresh off of it, Colin’s had some injury issues to contend with.  But if either of those guys can come back and contribute in the next couple of weeks, Colin would become very dangerous.  And I guess it didn’t hurt to trade for Ryan Braun, either.

The pitching doesn’t appear to be as strong, but the team stats say otherwise.  His 32 roto points are good for 3rd place.  He’s used 43 of his 63 moves thus far which is (you guessed it) in the middle of the pack.  Chris Sale is beasting and Mike Fiers has been a great #2 over the past month.  The rest of the numbers are coming from (I assume) spot starting as most of the ranks I’m looking at are...undesirable.  The relievers are solid and have given him an 11-5-5 record in saves.  If Colin falls short this year, it will be from the lack of depth at SP.  But that offense could peak at just the right time.  Colin will be very difficult out in these 2014 playoffs.

Jarrett - Witnessing History

After week 5, it looked like another typical season for Jarrett.  Coming off of four consecutive playoff misses, he was dead in the water, stuck in last place with a 16-32-2 record.  But then, something happened.  Something magical.  Something chemically enhanced.  Something...I don’t know.  But we may be looking at the greatest assembly of fantasy baseballers this league has seen.  Clayton Kershaw made his first start on May 6th - the second day of week 6.  And since that start, Jarrett remains unbeaten.  MAY SIXTH!  Can you comprehend that?  Because I can’t!  He’s 13-0-3 in his last 16 contests, which as I mentioned before is the longest unbeaten streak in DD history.  He’s 107-48-5 (.684) since his last loss, which, over a full season, would set the record for highest winning percentage and most wins.  And if you take out his back to back ties in weeks 6 and 7, he’s 13-0-1 in his last 14 matches with a 97-38-5 (.711) record.  Alright

that was a lot of numbers - lets look at some players.

Jarrett’s roster is littered with top-100 players.  Almost his entire offense are all top hundo.  And that’s not including his best player, Paul Goldschmidt, who is lost for the year after breaking his hand on a HBP.  He’s been all over free agency, adding guys like Todd Frazier (#23 on the season) and Chris Carter (#3 in the last month).  Jarrett leads the league in runs and stolen bases, and is second in average.  It’s just a really solid, deep offense with no holes to attack.  The offense makes this team go, and the above-average pitching Staaf just adds salt to the wounds.

Aside from the greatest pitcher since Pedro (and that’s debatable), Jarrett can throw out Madison Bumgarner and Julio Teheran every 5th day to complete one of the best top 3’s in the league.  You don’t fall too far before you hit the next level of starters, as Alex Cobb and Jered Weaver make for solid middle-rotation guys.  The ‘pen is deep, boasting two elite closers in Jansen and Robertson, and backing them up with newly minted closer Joaquin Benoit who has been quite good.  The rest are solid bullpen arms with mega k/9 and mini ratios.  Having lived through 18-1, anything is possible.  But this is the team you do not want to see.

Roto Power Rankings

Offense

1. Richie (40)

2. Alex (38)

3. Colin (37)

4. Jarrett (36)

5. Ben (29)

6. James (22)

7. TJ (21)

8. Adrian (18)

9. Drew (17)

9. Kurt (17)

Defense

1. Richie (44)

2. Alex (41)

3. Colin (32)

4. TJ (31)

5. Jarrett (30)

6. Adrian (28)

7. Ben (26)

8. James (20)

9. Drew (13)

10. Kurt (10)

Overall

1. Richie (84)

2. Alex (79)

3. Colin (69)

4. Jarrett (66)

5. Ben (55)

6. TJ (55)

7. Adrian (46)

8. James (42)

9. Drew (30)

10. Kurt (27)

August’s All-Stars (as of Monday September 1)

C – Buster Posey (Jarrett)

1B –  C. Carter (Jarrett)

2B – D. Ackley (Kurt)

3B –  A. Rendon (Jarrett)

SS – D. Santana (Kurt)

CI – V. Martinez (Jarrett)

MI – J. Harrison (Jarrett)

OF – A. Gordon (Richie)

OF – J. Upton (TJ)

OF – J. Ellsbury (Ben)

OF – H. Pence (Richie)

UTIL – C. Gomez (Richie)

SP – M. Bumgarner (Jarrett)

SP – M. Shoemaker (TJ)

SP – M. Fiers (Colin)

SP – C. Tillman (TJ)

SP – D. Smyly (TJ)

RP –C. Carrasco (Ben)

RP – A. Wood (James)

P – H. Rendon (Kurt)

P – K. Jansen (Jarrett)

P – F. Salas (FA)

My side of the story

Drew started the 2014 season as one of the ten managers in our league, all ten of us with the same rights and responsibilities.  On May 27th I began my attempts to open trade talks with Drew.  No manager made more attempts to reach out to him than I did over the summer.  I texted him, facebook messaged him, proposed trades on Yahoo, and even called him once.  He was a complete ghost, as most of us can attest. On Friday, August 1st, I expressed my concern and frustration about Drew’s absence to a couple of league managers and on August 4th I posted the following on our league message board:

“We can discuss his league membership in the off-season, but for now, what do we do with his team? He’s got a ton of pieces that would benefit a lot of teams in playoff race and I think it’s stupid to have them go to waste.”

Despite the important fact that Drew was still a manager at this time and had not been stripped of his managerial capabilities, I had no reason to think that Drew would manage his team the rest of the season based on the way he acted over the summer.  So, I naturally proposed ways that the league could seize his trade-able assets, re-stock his depleted 2015 draft board, and keep some decent keeper options for next season.  I proposed this so Drew’s team, whoever was managing it, had a chance in 2015, but also because I am a buyer on my way to the playoffs and, as a buyer, should be actively seeking ways to improve my team.  That’s what a good manager does.

To summarize the rest of the thread, Kurt, Alex, and I (the only ones who were voluntarily contributing opinions at the time) decided to reach out to Drew before auctioning his players off, as Kurt explained in the thread:

“I want to tell him before we do this because he's our friend and should know and if possible should do the auction himself.”

Alex took it a step further:

“I also think we need to have a vote on this. This shouldn't be a case where the 3 of us make a decision and force it through even though no one else wants this. We may need to do a Facebook or text chat where everyone needs to vote and 6 (2/3 majority) are needed to oust him. We also need to talk with him because he was a great member in the past and deserves it as our friend.”

And finally,

“We should make moves on his behalf if he doesn't respond by Monday. Need league majority though.”

Kurt asked if anyone else wanted to weigh in on the situation.  Colin reiterated what we had already said, and no one else contributed.  So all we had was a proposal for the league to seize his team that needed to be voted on and passed by ⅔ league majority.  But at that moment, Drew was still a manager with all his managerial rights.

On Sunday night, August 10, six days after I first proposed the auction idea that less than half the league commented on, Kurt (somehow) got a hold of Drew and started a discussion in the Diamond Dynasty facebook message group with all 10 members.  Drew apologized and said he wanted to still be a manager in the league, if we would let him.  Jarrett was vehemently against allowing Drew to have control of his team and execute trades.  Colin, Kurt, and I were open to giving him another chance, with an ultimatum that any period of inactivity would lead to league expulsion.  The other 6 members did not comment.

It’s important to note here that Kurt, Colin and I do not constitute a majority in any way and thus cannot make any league decisions.  But this was not a change in the league.  During this entire process, and within the timeline of everything I’ve presented to you thus far, Drew was a manager with all his managerial rights intact.  Kurt was just able to do something we were all trying to do - wake him up.

Back to the facebook message group:  Kurt still wanted to do the auction, but I argued that if he is in fact a manager, he should be able to manage his roster how he pleases:

Richie Travers

• Drew can you just focus for a week and deal with the trades as they come in?
• I mean, your ultimatum starts now essentially

Drew Donovan

• I'm committed from now until forever

Kurt Gottschalk

• Drew, you have one week until the trade deadline

Richie Travers

• Do we have to do this weird auction thing?

Kurt Gottschalk

• I was pumped to start the auction
• but its okay

Drew Donovan

• or you know the internet stops working

Kurt Gottschalk

• just one week until the trade deadline spend it making moves

Richie Travers

• If drew wasn't involved yes auction, but since he's here I say go back to regular procedures

Kurt Gottschalk

• get some picks back or a better flex keeper than alexei ramirez

My thought process was, why would we still hold an auction when Drew was right there to field offers, especially when less than half the league even commented (not voted, commented) on the plausibility of an auction at all? I asked Drew on the message board how best to contact him, and he posted his phone number.

As Drew and I came to agreements on trades for Wainwright and Ryu that evening, I knew there would be some kickback.  I did not expect the nuclear bomb that went off.  But if the situation were to present itself again in the same manner, I would do it again.  It was not a dick move.  Drew was and currently is a manager.  He was never suspended.  He was never not allowed to trade.  There were uninspired conversations on what to do with his team but no votes, no majority consensuses.  I did not have any advantages in the way that I found out.  I did not have any advantages in the way Drew and I negotiated.  If you think the trades were unfair, blame Drew.  If you think he didn’t get enough value for his players, blame Drew.  I didn’t hold a gun to his head or force him to make those trades without shopping his assets around.  If he’s a manager, he gets to make those decisions.  Wanna hear some shit?  I offered Drew a first round pick for Wainwright back in June.  I was in the same boat as you guys who feel slighted, saying you offered more and got no response.  I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself.

We all have different ways of managing.  TJ has no closers despite the roster changes we made to force closers.  I sell my players for draft picks when my season goes down the drain.  Drew kept a closer one year!  HE KEPT A CLOSER ONE YEAR!  Why is it so unthinkable that he would rather enter 2015 with a lesser keeper and some extra picks?  You don’t get high draft picks for average guys.  He had to replace his high draft picks.

If you want to get on my case for anything, yell at me because I flip flopped.  Yell at me because I said it was fair, then I said let’s veto, then I argued that it was fair again.  I wanted to summarize the past 11 days so you could all see, from start to finish, that it was legitimate. There's no back-door deals; everything we did was on public forum. I understand how it looks from an outsider's perspective, I understand some of the reasons why you're pissed, and that's why I wanted to explain it all.  If we come to the conclusion that Drew was just trading to trade and seem active, I am absolutely for vetoing the trades and starting fresh with a league controlled auction and a new manager next year. But if we undermine a manager’s right to trade, he’s not a manager at all and shouldn't be in the league.  I’m sure we all disagree at times with how other managers manage their rosters and this is just one of, albeit an historic, example.

TMTW - JULY

Diamond Dynasty:  The month that was…

JULY

News

The Diamond Dynasty celebrated it’s 13th Midsummer classic this season.  Unsurprisingly, the league failed to get together to commemorate the event.  Let’s see how many guys each manager had that actually saw playing time:

8 - Ben

7 - Alex, Colin, Richie

6- Jarrett

5 - James, TJ

4 - Adrian, Drew

3 - Kurt

There were 6 free agents who got in the game as well.

Drew’s Yoenis Cespedes beat out Jarrett’s Todd Frazier for the Home Run Derby crown.  When asked for a comment, Drew said “I have Yoenis Cespedes?”

In the first inning of the All-Star game, TJ and Richie hammered out a deal that sent All-Star SP Jon Lester to Travers for his 2015 8th round (4th after keepers) draft pick (and in the second inning, Lester came on in relief of Felix Hernandez and promptly got shelled.)  TJ now holds 8 of the top 42-ish picks in the 2015 draft and unloads a non-keeper that only would have hurt his draft position next year.  Travers picked up more ammunition for the stretch run in the Boston lefty, who’s enjoying a career year.  The acquisition is even more important with the news that star rookie Masahiro Tanaka will miss at least 6 weeks, if not this season AND next, due to that god damn Tommy John surgery.

Standings Analysis

Aside from Jarrett’s meteoric rise, this league looks much like it did 10 weeks ago.  At the top, Richie’s lead over Alex shrank and shrank and, finally, went into the red as Gentili took over the top spot in the DD.  Those two have occupied the top two spots nearly all season, but the gap has been cut down drastically.  Jarrett has stayed at or improved his rank in the standings since week 7 (he “stayed at” 10th place for a couple weeks before that but, c’mon) and is all the way to 3rd, one of the best mid-season runs this league has ever seen.  Colin, Ben, and James are all jumbling around in 4th-6th and still maintain a comfortable, double digit lead over the non-playoff bottom four; Adrian, TJ, Kurt, and Drew.  With only 6 weeks left, let’s look at the strength of schedule the rest of the way:

.541 - (10) Drew

.523 - (6) James

.522 - (9) TJ

.506 - (1) Alex

.502 - (8) Kurt

.496 - (7) Adrian

.487 - (5) Ben

.481 - (2) Richie

.481 - (3) Jarrett

.468 - (4) Colin

Hey Alex, we have company...

Shutout Watch

Blowouts abound in week 14 as four teams failed to score more than 3 categories.  Jarrett missed shutting out Richie by two stolen bases and .07 WHIP, Colin was 2 wins and .10 WHIP from shutting out Adrian, and in the closest call, Alex was one homer and two runs away from shutting out Kurt.

In the extended week 15, the matchups were competitive across the board.  The closest call on the surface was Jarrett’s 8-2 win over Adrian, though Adrian was never in real danger of being shut out.  Alex’s 7-3 win over TJ was probably the closest we came, as Alex fell 5 runs, 3 RBI’s and 2 wins short.

Week 16 may have been the most lopsided week all season.  Drew (WHAT?!?!) beat TJ 9-1 and missed the shutout by 11 K’s.  Colin missed it by 3 runs and 2 K’s over Alex.  Adrian and Jarrett only lost 2 categories in their matchups but didn’t have the homers to push for the shutout.

Battle for the Belt

What battle?  This is a bloodbath!  Stay the fuck out of Jarrett’s way!  Staaf retained the belt with consecutive wins over Richie, Adrian, and Ben.  That marks 7 straight belt defences for Jear-Bear and a 10-6 record for belt holders this season.

Who’s Hot (new!)

Jarrett.  He got the first ever WWE Belt payout in July and hasn’t lost since week 5.  He’s playing at a .717 clip over the last 9 weeks which has helped him move from 10th to 3rd.  And with the second-weakest schedule down the stretch, he will be pushing hard for one of the byes.  

Who’s Not (new!)

Ben.  His 15-31-4 (.340) record since week 12 has dropped him from 2nd to 5th, including 0-9-1 donut in week 13.  His solid play early on has afforded him some room for error, but he needs to turn the ship around before it gets hairy.

2 Team Spotlight

This week - Pre-season Power Ranking Bookends

Alex - Richie Saw This Coming

In my 2014 pre-season power rankings, I pegged Alex with the top spot.  And despite my best attempts to jinx Gentili and throw him into the DD gutter, he has risen to the challenge and is putting up some stellar numbers.  He hasn’t fallen out of the top 4 all year and currently sits in first place.  His current .600 regular season winning percentage would be just the 8th instance where a manager finishes with a winning percentage at .600 or above (let it be known that “The 600 Club” is now officially a “thing”).  He would join Ben as the only managers to do more than once.  He’s stayed mostly healthy (minus Matt Wieters) which is half the battle and his keepers (minus Jean Segura) have been excellent. With a bye week in reach and the playoffs all but a certainty, Alex hopes his third consecutive playoff appearance will give him his second championship, and his first since 2005.  It’s Alex’s turn in the spotlight!

The offense is solid (if not cliche), posting an overall 39-32-9 (.544) line with no specific strengths or weaknesses.  He has the high-powered stars in Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, and Yasiel Puig (and oh by the way, that was the starting outfield for the NL All-Stars this year...yowza.)  He’s got the resurgent-year guys like Victor Martinez, Justin Morneau, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.  And what team would be complete without a dash of the “lightning-in-a-bottle” guys like Brock Holt and Devin Mesoraco?  Despite his clear NL-bias, his offense is well-rounded and is capable of winning any category, any week.  But Alex has done most of his work thus far on the mound.

I haven’t tracked all of Alex’s pickups, but I have to assume with the most moves in the league and an imposing 52-27-1 (.656) pitching record, he is spot-starting the shit out of free agency.  Aside from Felix Hernandez and Craig Kimbrel, it’s a very pedestrian Staaf.  Despite all the spot-starting, Alex is surprisingly just 7-8-1 in Wins.  Even more surprising, his band of misfit starters are leading the league in ERA and WHIP!  Alex is due to get some reinforcements back for the fantasy playoffs in Gerritt Cole (pretty good numbers) and Michael Wacha (very good numbers).  The remaining schedule will be difficult; 4 of his last 5 games are against teams projected to make the playoffs.  But he’s playing great (fantasy) baseball right now and seems to be the team to beat.

Adrian - Richie Saw This Coming, Too

Also in my 2014 pre-season power rankings, I had Adrian finishing in last.  Luckily for him, Drew is “playing” in the same way that these guys are “doing pull ups.”  Adrian’s 2014 campaign is all but decided, as he is 10.5 games behind 6th place for a playoff spot.  Barring a miracle finish, he’ll miss the playoffs for the 3rd straight year and the 5th time in the last 6 seasons.  Let’s see where the train came off the tracks.

The offense is weak, to be polite.  His keepers were a declining second baseman, a solid but aging third baseman, and two outfielders; one who can’t stay healthy and one who had a good two months last season.  The only real power bats you can say that he drafted were Josh Hamilton and Ryan Howard, but he was five years too late on them.  He’s faced some injury adversity but no more than the average squad.  It’s just a weird mish-mash of All Stars from 2008 and 2017 which hasn’t worked out for the young lad.  Among his first 15 selections (keepers included), Jose Reyes and Adrian Beltre are the only guys he picked that have performed at or above their expected levels of production.  We didn’t get a chance to live draft this year but I imagine this was Adrian’s reaction to his offense once he finally saw the full picture.

The pitching is competitive, for the most part.  The 39-36-5 mark is skewed (but not invalidated) by a gnarly 3-13 record in K’s.   He found gold in 9th round draft pick Johnny Cueto, who is arguably the best pitcher in baseball this year.  Other diamonds in the rough like Tyson Ross (18th round NL All Star) and Zach Britton (FA pick up) are top 100 arms that have helped contribute to a top-5 team ERA and WHIP.  Along with Britton, closers Koji Uehara, Jonathan Papelbon, and Aroldis Chapman complete a bullpen that ranks 2nd in saves.  But with a .344 winning percentage on offense, this Staaf would have needed an historic effort to make up for it.  With 6 weeks to go and the trade deadline around the corner, it’ll be interesting to see how much longer Adrian is willing to fight for his 2014 playoff life.

Roto Power Rankings

Offense

1.  Colin (42)

2.  Richie (36)

3.  Ben (35)

3.  Jarrett (35)

5.  Alex (32)

6.  Drew (26)

7.  James (23)

8.  TJ (21)

9.  Kurt (14)

10. Adrian (11)

Defense

1.  Richie (44)

1.  Alex (44)

3.  Ben (31)

4. Colin (30)

5.  Jarrett (27)

6.  Adrian (25)

7.  TJ (23)

8.  James (20)

9.  Drew (19)

10.  Kurt (12)

Overall

1.  Richie (80)

2.  Alex (76)

3.  Colin (72)

4.  Ben (66)

5.  Jarrett (62)

6.  Drew (45)

7.  TJ (44)

8.  James (43)

9.  Adrian (36)

10.  Kurt (26)

July’s All-Stars (as of Monday July 28)

C – Carlos Santana (Kurt)

1B –  C. Johnson (Adrian)

2B – J. Altuve (Colin)

3B –  C. Coghlan (FA)

SS – J. Rollins (Alex)

CI – A. Pujols (Colin)

MI – A. Rendon (Kurt)

OF – J. Werth (Ben)

OF – Torii Hunter (Adrian)

OF – Andrew McCutchen (Alex)

OF – Kole Calhoun (Jarrett)

UTIL – K. Kiermaier (who?) (FA)

SP – C. Kershaw (Jarrett)

SP – D. Price (Drew)

SP – C. Sale (Colin)

SP – F. Hernandez (Alex)

SP – T. Ross (Adrian)

RP – J. Smith (FA)

RP – B. Boxburger (FA)

P – J. Lester (Richie)

P – C. Kluber (Richie)

P – J. deGrom (Colin)