HOT STREAKS ADD SIZZLE TO THE SPICE
When you think of the top pitchers in the Frick League, there are several names that can pop up, and a lot of those names are throwing pretty well. You’ve got your Jesus Ramos in Edmonton who’s kicking some butt. San Fernando’s Feliciano Rafael is always in the discussion. He still leads the league in FIP, and has won six of his last nine starts, even as he’s gotten beaten up a bit recently. Seattle’s young gun Hector Marquez has been winning a ton (eight of his last nine decisions, all in a 10 game stretch), though he too, is getting hit around a bit in the process.
There’s even a few weird dark horses in there, too. Folks like Long Beach’s Diogo Lindt or Yellow Spring’s Tristan Alfama—both bullpen guys who are picking up innings like they’re starters, and turning in numbers serious to be at the top of several leaderboards, including ERA (if Manny Gabriel qualifies, he will easily be the league's leader in that category).
All these guys, and a handful of others, might get some interesting conversation when it comes to the Frick Nebraska, and they all deserve it. They’re solid pitchers doing things solid pitchers do. One can argue that for a while this has been Rafael’s to lose, but there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and one never knows what’s going to happen. And if there’s a set of spotlights focusing on Frick pitchers right now, those spotlights need to be focused on three guys who are so hot they’re leaving the rosin bags as puddles of goo.
If it keeps up, I suggest one of these three guys—listed here in alphabetical order—will come out ahead:
Gracia—a 33-year-old lefty who throws 101—leads the league in ERA and sits #2 in FIP. Overall his numbers are flirting with career best, and indeed by ERA+, he’s there. More to the point, he’s won 12 of his last 14 starts, dropping his ERA from 4.26 to that gaudy 2.91. Yes, he’s getting a little run support at times, but he beat Seattle 2-0 in that streak, and beat both Long Beach and Boise by 2-1 scores. He’s held teams scoreless in four of those starts, including allowing Nashville only two hits in seven innings to win 1-0. It’s easy to say that Gracia’s stretch was a big element in keeping the Crusaders firmly at the top of the Pacific division. He’s got 18 wins vs. seven losses. If he keeps this up, he may find himself kicked out of the Great Pitchers Who Never Won A Nebraska Award club.
Like Gracia, Valle’s ERA has been in freefall for a couple months, dropping from 4.02 before the All-Star game to 3.03 after beating Brooklyn in a laugher this week. He’s won nine straight decisions, striking out 55 and walking only nine in that span. Like Gracia, his 17-6 record is coming with some pretty good run support (4.9/game from what is currently the most prolific set of bats in the league), but he’s allowed as many as three runs only once in this span, holding opponents scoreless twice, and allowed only one run three times, including an impressive victory at Rockville. He’s the clear ace of the ball club and sits #3 in Frick League ERA, #4 in FIP. He’s probably a longer shot than some of the others right now, but if his last five or six starts keep momentum flowing, Valle could become the third Yellow Springs pitcher in recent history to wear the Nebraska crown.
At just 25 years old, Walter knows what it’s like to be in a Nebraska chase, having won the award in 2036, and gathered enough votes to come in third a year earlier. With a month left in the season he sits #2 in ERA behind Gracia, and #3 in FIP behind both Gracia and Rafael. He just allowed three runs in a loss to Omaha, but before that he’d won eight straight decisions, and nine of his last ten, dropping the ERA from 3.73 to 2.99. His 15-10 record doesn’t shine as brightly as some others, but the FIP doesn’t lie. Across the season, he’s gotten 3.2 runs/game from his offense, which is the least of the “hot three.” (It perhaps is worth noting that Rafael is getting 4.4 runs a game). Given Seattle’s position, voters could be swayed by the argument that says without Walter, the Storm would likely be sitting out the playoffs. If it works, and if Walter’s surge keeps the pedal to the metal, he could collect his second Nebraska.
Hot streaks end, of course, so each of these three will cool off eventually. No one knows for sure when, though. An earlier poll suggested the race was between Gracia and Rafael, with Walter lagging third. But that was before Valle made his full claim, and definitely before some of the big-inning relievers appeared on the radar screen.
Stay tuned, though, because our only real prediction is that the gas is getting cranked up from “hot” to “sizzling.”
