Sticking Points 2045.3: Danny Leach, Bullpen Superstar

[aaronweiner]

Danny Leach won the 2043 JL Steve Nebraska Award, but few expected him to repeat the feat. Yet here he was, going down the stretch, leading the league in games pitched, ERA, WHIP, and strikeouts per nine innings. He didn't win his second consecutive Steve Nebraska, but he was far and away third place in the voting and was a runaway winner in the Jason Egan voting, gathering 24 of 32 possible first place votes.

"I'm just a small-town boy from Louisiana who's still kind of amazed at the bright lights of the BBA," said Leach, famously a 10th round pick in 2038. "It's still all dazzling to me."

Leach's numbers this year weren't quite as mind-blowing as in 2043, but they were plenty good: a league-leading 2.45 ERA and 88 games, second in the JL in strikeouts with 261, a dazzling 1.96 FIP, a .185 opposing batting average, and just for fun led the JL in holds, with 18 this year, to go with 10 wins and 21 saves.

"He might be the best of all of us," said starter Dave Martin. "He's just amazing."

Many have speculated that Leach would be a good choice to replace Dan Cannon in the rotation, but from the bullpen, Leach was third in the league in wins above replacement among all pitchers, and even in adjusted WAR he's fifth. It's hard to imagine he'd be more valuable in the rotation: only Hawaii's Alaric Wullenweber can match Leach's 14.3 WAR over two seasons as the bullpen stopper.

"Danny Leach and Yun Zhang are the future of this ballclub in the rotation," said long-time rotation ace Arthur Dempster. "If they keep this up that'll be a very bright future."

[jleddy]

Interesting...