Nine Hurler Picks Up the Mantle
Valle Joins Leaderboards
With the recent whirlwind performance of rotation mate Ernesto Ramos sucking up all the oxygen in the room (he's twice been named Pitcher of the Month this year), it’s been easy to overlook what Valle has been doing. But the still-young right hander, who led the league with 19 wins and a 3.00 ERA last season yet still lost the Nebraska voting the Seattle’s Hector Marquez, hasn’t skipped a beat, sitting at 9-3, 3.07.
“That’s find by me,” he said during a recent interview. “It’s kind of nice to be flying under the radar screen right now, and Ernesto has deserved all the attention. He’s been lights-out.”
VALLE STAYS LOW PROFILE, DESPITE LALOOSH COMP
Humility aside, a recent poll in YS9’s Utopia Field found that Valle could use a little limelight even within the friendly confines.
Perhaps it feels odd, but the numbers don’t lie. Carlos Valle is finding his way onto a lot of the team’s career leaderboards—and the name Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh keeps coming up.
Exhibit A: Valle’s not technically on the Nine’s ERA leaderboard today only because at 3.52, he’s tied with LaLoosh, at the system doesn’t rank ties.
Exhibit B: After his age 27 seasons, LaLoosh was sitting at 84 victories. As we head toward late June, Valle sits at 80, and barring health issues it’s hard to believe he won’t be passing LaLoosh before September is over. Overall, Valle sits at #9 in YS9 history, needing four more victories to pass Guy Comgood. If he were to manage 12 more victories before the end of the year, he’d edge into 7th.
Exhibit C: Until Valle and his .684 winning percentage came along, LaLoosh stood atop that career leaderboard with a .636 record. “That’s the thing about guys like Carlos,” said infielder Lucas McNeill, “he just doesn’t lose, you know?” Yes, we know. In this era where the pitcher Win has been devalued, there’s still the fact that winning ballgames is what this sport is about, and winning ballgames is where the story of the sport is. Carlos Valle is great story.
Exhibit D: By age 27, LaLoosh had created just over 27 WAR. Carlos Valle today sits at 24.6, ninth best in the organization’s register. Arguably, this is the figure that cost him the Nebraska last season—despite leading the league in wins and ERA, his FIP was up a little, and his 4.7 WAR paled against Marquez’s, but Valle hit the scales at 7.1 the year before, and is sitting at 3.4 now. There’s every reason to think that the kid will edge past LaLoosh by September.
Despite all this, it’s always interesting to hear various folks talk about value or have the classic “ace” conversation, and realize that the name Carlos Valle rarely gets brought up as a top-tier guy. He came fourth in the Nebraska voting in 2038, and second in 2039. He’s arguably putting up better numbers than LaLoosh did, a guy who was on track for the Hallof Fame until injury hit. Yet, the guys people talk about are always someone else.
“I think a lot of it has to do with 2037,” said one call-in show host. “It was really Valle’s team to lead, and he was just too young. The whole team struggled, and Carlos took the brunt of it in the court of popular opinion. But you have to realize that a guy like LaLoosh spent his first few seasons playing third fiddle to Jose Chavez and Eduardo Lopez, and that he also had (current pitching coach) Alberto Sanchez around to pick up the pieces, too. Carlos had to swim at the top of the rotation right away, and that’s just absurdly tough.”
YS9 HOPES TO KEEP VALLE HAPPY
What’s going to happen with Valle through 2040? The future is, of course, never certain. Things are looking good though, and—knock on wood—he’s been healthy. He’s making $6M this year and is in line to make another $6M next as he heads toward free agency. The team’s front office has made it known to the team’s fans that they have every intention of finding ways to keep him happy, and therefore keep him in a Nine uniform.
If that happens, and if Valle can pitch into his mid-to-late 30s, we could be seeing the emergence of a franchise legend.
One step at a time, though. Or, as Valle says (laughing): “I think Ernesto might have something to say about that.”