Baseball Tri-Weekly: Was Las Vegas the deepest champion?

Former Dogg Justin Turner is now destined to play for the worst team in the league according to the B3W Power Rankings. How it all went horribly wrong for him and wonderfully right for the people of Las Vegas. 

Was Las Vegas the deepest champion?

By Aviator McShadeless

When Justin Turner got a call from the Tokyo front office today, a wave of relief and disappointment swept over him.

Relief because he is a huge Hello Kitty fan, and is looking forward to collecting the highly desirable Sholo Set when it is released next month. But disappointment because the talented third baseman went from the worst team in the league last season (San Fernando Valley) to the EHCC champs, only to be release a few months later. And in a 2017 major league draft was one largely devoid of international free agents and high profile prospects that fast tracked their way to the bigs.

Turner's circumstances are not unique on its own. Every season the champs dump five or more players into the EHCC talent pool. In 2016, Mike Moustakas was taken first overall after helping Weymouth to victory and Aaron Hill, also traded midseason from a pretender to a contender, was selected second overall in 2013 after Rakeville grabbed their first championship with him.

What makes Turner story unique is that he is one of four players from Las Vegas selected in the first round, the most in recent memory. Turner, starter Jeremy Hellickson, and relievers Sam Dyson and David Robertson had exceptional 2016 campaigns propelled Las Vegas to a fourth title, but when it came time to make cuts they surprising found themselves the odd men out.

It makes sense that so much ability came from one squad. Las Vegas mortgaged their future, trading almost all of their 2017 draft picks and cleaning out much of their minor league pipeline to create on of the most talented teams in EHCC history and it paid off in a title. Since 2012, no more than 2 players from the top squad the prior season were selected in the first round.

2017 Draft (Las Vegas)

• Tokyo - Justin Turner - R1P4
• Santo Domingo - David Robertson - R1P7
• Dublin - Jeremy Hellickson - R1P10
• Quebec City - Sam Dyson - R1P12

2016 Draft (Weymouth)

• San Fernando Valley - Mike Moustakas - R1P1
• Weymouth - Starlin Castro - R1P12

2015 Draft (Quebec City)

• Weymouth - Trevor Rosenthal - R1P3
• Weymouth - Mike Fiers - R1P8

2014 Draft (Santo Domingo)

• Weymouth - Jim Henderson - R1P11

2013 Draft (Rakeville)

• Dublin - Aaron Hill - R1P2

2012 Draft (Quebec City)

• Bridgewater - Alexi Ogando - R1P7
• Weymouth - Jake Peavy - R1P11

Does that make Las Vegas the deepest champion of all time? Probably. I'm too lazy to go further back. Depth is massively important when competing for an EHCC title, and the rule changes enacted in 2016 make it even more important. 

The question however, is whether or not the Doggs were an aberration or if they are an indication of what will be needed to take home a title moving forward. With increased starting spots, will teams need to be absolute juggernauts to compete at the highest level? Will the level of sacrifice portrayed by the Doggs be needed year-in and year-out for the teams that hordes enough talent and resources? Will that strategy across the league lead to a larger discrepancy between the buyers and sellers in a given season, but also create more turnover annually as teams bankrupt themselves to keep pace? 

While much of the focus with the rule changes has been on player value, the Doggs may have inadvertently set the mark for how to win in the EHCC in the coming decade.