Can A Reliever Win the Steve Nebraska In 2043?
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 12:52 pm
Back in 1974, a year after the BBA (back then the Monty Brewster Baseball Association) began, a Major League Baseball player named Mike Marshall became the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. Marshall threw 106 games that year and over 200 innings and didn't have a single start that year, and is the only relief pitcher ever to win a Cy Young with those sorts of stats, probably incorrectly beating out Atlanta's Phil Niekro (who should have won at LEAST two such awards in his distinguished career).
Why does this matter? Because while eight relievers since then have won Cy Youngs, no relief pitcher has ever won a Steve Nebraska Award, not the great Jason Egan, for who the reliever award is named, not the great Skip Glendenning, not Peter Grady, who, lest we forget, was once easily the best reliever in the game, not Lionel Sanguinacco's 40 save, 0.90 ERA, 115 K season in 2017, not one...single...reliever...ever. Until maybe now.
Welcome to the Year of the Reliever.
Enter Danny Leach, a 10th round draft pick who has somehow made himself into a superstar. Leach's numbers would look amazing on a starting pitcher: 10-2, 1.79 ERA, 126 innings and 169 strikeouts, 22 walks, 4 homers allowed, and a 0.71 WHIP, all of which translates into a BBA-high 5.7 WAR in 2043, half a point above anyone else.
"I knew I'd broken through last year, but this year I've just been able to take it to another level," said Leach, 23 years old out of Hammond, Louisiana, population 20,000. "It's been the most incredible thrill ride I could imagine."
It is believed that Leach may one day be a starting pitcher, but right now he's too busy dominating the bullpen innings. In fact, four out of every nine bullpen innings the Pikemen have thrown this year has been from Leach, and he's on pace for 185 innings of insanely efficient baseball.
"There hasn't been a pitcher who's had the innings, the efficiency, and the superior strikeout numbers, and maybe 15 wins, too," said a Johnson League scout. "He's been the complete package."
Lest you think that Leach is the only candidate, though, this is happening in a banner year for relievers, where at least four have a very likely chance to get Steve Nebraska votes.
Lorenzo de' Medici:
Lorenzo de' Medici might have a fairly good claim to the Steve Nebraska in the Frick League, despite a 6-9 record and just a 3.38 ERA (FIP 2.20), because his strikeout numbers have become the thing of legend. The lefty currently is averaging 17 strikeouts per nine innings, which would absolutely shatter the record of 13.50 K/9 IP set before the modern era by Albert Diaz and thoroughly crush the modern era mark.
He has - not a typo - 227 strikeouts in 120 innings and has allowed 73 hits in that time and 29 walks. Just as crazy a stat: he has struck out almost exactly one out of every two batters he has faced, including HBP and walks. He's struck out HALF the batters. He's on pace for 337 strikeouts, which would shatter the modern record. And did I mention he's a RELIEVER? My lord.
He's got some competition from Allen Wullenweber and the other pitchers on this list, but no pitcher in the BBA, maybe ever, can match the sheer power of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Tiernan O'Macken:
Currently second in the FL in pitching WAR, lefty O'Macken has kicked it up a notch in 2043. It's a combination of volume and performance that in most years would easily be the best reliever season in the BBA. His line: 100 innings, 57 hits allowed, 22 walks, 159 strikeouts, and a 1.88 ERA, which is stunning in every way.
While he's projected to fall just short of qualifying for an ERA title, if he were to get to 162 innings at his current pace he'd smash the rest of the competition; his 1.88 ERA would be almost a full point lower than Sacramento pitcher Luis Gracia's current 2.63 ERA. If that's not enough, his FIP is an absurd 1.33 this year, and he's allowing a completely outrageous .397 OPS to lefties. He's not too bad at striking out batters either: he's got a 14 K/9 rate himself, which would also be a record if he qualified.
So O'Macken potentially has an equal claim to the JL Steve Nebraska as de' Medici, or even potentially better, depending on your metrics.
Shaun Huber:
Huber's on the outside looking in on the race, even at 4 WAR so far this year; that's 8th in WAR in the Johnson League. However, that's nothing new; Huber has posted a 4.9, 5.5, 4.2 and this year so far a 4.0 WAR over the past few years with zero starts during that time.
We are seeing history made with Huber every day, as the superstar lefty at this point may be the greatest reliever in the history of the BBA. He is currently second in WAR among pitchers with less than 100 starts, and by next year he will likely be first on that list and could extend his lead out to something resembling insurmountable.
While I don't see him winning the Steve Nebraska, Huber's excellence is on display for everyone to see. Huber did finish fourth in the JL in 2041 in the Steve Nebraska voting and there was a very reasonable case made for him that year (he got 7 first place votes) but traditional starters carried the day on that one.
Obviously, a lot can change between now and October, but a lot of these pitchers are going to make it very interesting down the stretch, in the Year of the Reliever.
Why does this matter? Because while eight relievers since then have won Cy Youngs, no relief pitcher has ever won a Steve Nebraska Award, not the great Jason Egan, for who the reliever award is named, not the great Skip Glendenning, not Peter Grady, who, lest we forget, was once easily the best reliever in the game, not Lionel Sanguinacco's 40 save, 0.90 ERA, 115 K season in 2017, not one...single...reliever...ever. Until maybe now.
Welcome to the Year of the Reliever.
Enter Danny Leach, a 10th round draft pick who has somehow made himself into a superstar. Leach's numbers would look amazing on a starting pitcher: 10-2, 1.79 ERA, 126 innings and 169 strikeouts, 22 walks, 4 homers allowed, and a 0.71 WHIP, all of which translates into a BBA-high 5.7 WAR in 2043, half a point above anyone else.
"I knew I'd broken through last year, but this year I've just been able to take it to another level," said Leach, 23 years old out of Hammond, Louisiana, population 20,000. "It's been the most incredible thrill ride I could imagine."
It is believed that Leach may one day be a starting pitcher, but right now he's too busy dominating the bullpen innings. In fact, four out of every nine bullpen innings the Pikemen have thrown this year has been from Leach, and he's on pace for 185 innings of insanely efficient baseball.
"There hasn't been a pitcher who's had the innings, the efficiency, and the superior strikeout numbers, and maybe 15 wins, too," said a Johnson League scout. "He's been the complete package."
Lest you think that Leach is the only candidate, though, this is happening in a banner year for relievers, where at least four have a very likely chance to get Steve Nebraska votes.
Lorenzo de' Medici:
Lorenzo de' Medici might have a fairly good claim to the Steve Nebraska in the Frick League, despite a 6-9 record and just a 3.38 ERA (FIP 2.20), because his strikeout numbers have become the thing of legend. The lefty currently is averaging 17 strikeouts per nine innings, which would absolutely shatter the record of 13.50 K/9 IP set before the modern era by Albert Diaz and thoroughly crush the modern era mark.
He has - not a typo - 227 strikeouts in 120 innings and has allowed 73 hits in that time and 29 walks. Just as crazy a stat: he has struck out almost exactly one out of every two batters he has faced, including HBP and walks. He's struck out HALF the batters. He's on pace for 337 strikeouts, which would shatter the modern record. And did I mention he's a RELIEVER? My lord.
He's got some competition from Allen Wullenweber and the other pitchers on this list, but no pitcher in the BBA, maybe ever, can match the sheer power of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Tiernan O'Macken:
Currently second in the FL in pitching WAR, lefty O'Macken has kicked it up a notch in 2043. It's a combination of volume and performance that in most years would easily be the best reliever season in the BBA. His line: 100 innings, 57 hits allowed, 22 walks, 159 strikeouts, and a 1.88 ERA, which is stunning in every way.
While he's projected to fall just short of qualifying for an ERA title, if he were to get to 162 innings at his current pace he'd smash the rest of the competition; his 1.88 ERA would be almost a full point lower than Sacramento pitcher Luis Gracia's current 2.63 ERA. If that's not enough, his FIP is an absurd 1.33 this year, and he's allowing a completely outrageous .397 OPS to lefties. He's not too bad at striking out batters either: he's got a 14 K/9 rate himself, which would also be a record if he qualified.
So O'Macken potentially has an equal claim to the JL Steve Nebraska as de' Medici, or even potentially better, depending on your metrics.
Shaun Huber:
Huber's on the outside looking in on the race, even at 4 WAR so far this year; that's 8th in WAR in the Johnson League. However, that's nothing new; Huber has posted a 4.9, 5.5, 4.2 and this year so far a 4.0 WAR over the past few years with zero starts during that time.
We are seeing history made with Huber every day, as the superstar lefty at this point may be the greatest reliever in the history of the BBA. He is currently second in WAR among pitchers with less than 100 starts, and by next year he will likely be first on that list and could extend his lead out to something resembling insurmountable.
While I don't see him winning the Steve Nebraska, Huber's excellence is on display for everyone to see. Huber did finish fourth in the JL in 2041 in the Steve Nebraska voting and there was a very reasonable case made for him that year (he got 7 first place votes) but traditional starters carried the day on that one.
Obviously, a lot can change between now and October, but a lot of these pitchers are going to make it very interesting down the stretch, in the Year of the Reliever.
