Sticking Points 2043.7: Making the Case for Danny Leach as Steve Nebraska

[aaronweiner]

Aki Kondo has moved up on Danny Leach to close to the Johnson League WAR lead, and the sigh of relief you hear is from all the purists that are going to vote for Kondo as Steve Nebraska, since he's a starting pitcher with outstanding numbers that plays for San Antonio, the team with the best record in the Johnson League.

Here's why Danny Leach not only deserves to be the first reliever to win the Steve Nebraska but also has it over Kondo.

First, this is not a 2041 Shaun Huber argument.

Three things were not true of Huber's amazing 2041 that are true of Leach's 2043 season:

1) Leach has qualified and will likely win the ERA title, barring a absurd late-season implosion. Huber did not qualify, though he came close (152 innings).

2) Leach is currently in the league lead with 8 WAR. Huber finished fourth in WAR that year, two full points behind Dan Cannon, with an amazing 5.5 WAR. Cannon had more than 80 innings on Huber in 2041. (It's also worth noting that Cannon is having another amazing year, but that's just an aside.)

3) Because Huber didn't qualify, you won't find his name at the top of a lot of charts where you'll find Leach in 2043.


Oh, yes, the charts.

Examine the leaderboards, and you will find Leach in first place in the following categories: ERA, games pitched, K/BB, WHIP, H/9, Opponents AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS, and, of course, WAR. No pitcher has ever placed first in every single one of these categories, and if you just cut out the games pitched, the last person to do this might have been Steve Nebraska himself. He's also first in FIP, if there were any doubt. He's second in the league in strikeouts and K/9. There are some comparable seasons in recent years from Cannon, Arthur Dempster, and Ricardo Rivera, but only a handful of pitchers have hit the 8 WAR mark at any point in their career.

Kondo can be found on several of these charts. For example, he's third in opponents' OPS, but he's over 100 points behind Leach - in fact, every pitcher in the JL is over 100 points behind Leach. He's also 36 strikeouts behind Leach.

AND, if you're making the starting pitcher argument all by itself...Kondo has only thrown - get this - four more innings than Leach. If he had thrown fifty more of the same innings than Leach this also probably isn't an argument (Leach finishes second and Kondo might have over 10 WAR) but that's not how that went.


Sumtotal: Leach is at the top of all the leaderboards, is going to win the ERA title, has 15 wins of his own (currently same as Kondo), and is the Steve Nebraska for the JL. There's a 100% chance he'd get our vote even if he weren't a member of the Pikemen.

[bigmike13]

Leach is having an unbelievable season and is well worthy of the award. Gonna be a tough call

[aaronweiner]

Leach is having an unbelievable season and is well worthy of the award. Gonna be a tough call

Nice work this year dude.

[RonCo]

Very tight race.

[aaronweiner]

This is an historical season no matter what the outcome. No reliever has ever had a year like this.

[usnspecialist]

This is an historical season no matter what the outcome. No reliever has ever had a year like this.

agreed, and it says something about the season of kondo that it is even a serious debate between the two. I think a reasonable case can be made either way.

[bcslouck]

I voted for your boy in the end. Just insane. This explosion of RP's is why I posted on the comp thread that we may have to consider Type A comp again for RP's.