Sticking Points 2045.10: Chris Kelly Plays Last Game For Rockville

[aaronweiner]

Rockville starting pitcher Chris Kelly came over in a midseason trade from the Las Vegas Hustlers, and immediately set the league on fire with his work for Rockville. Prorated over the whole season, Kelly put up a 3.0 WAR in 9 starts, a pace well over 10 WAR, which would be the best pitching performance in the BBA. So it was much to Rockville's dismay that Kelly, 33, suffered his third major arm injury in his star-crossed career, one that will almost certainly end his tenure with Rockville and could be the end of his career.

"Chris' injury is such a blow for us," said Rockville manager Denny Dooley. "He's been such a gamer since coming over from Las Vegas and it's so hard to see him go down this hard."

Since coming over from Las Vegas, Kelly had posted a 6-0 record, a 2.40 ERA, and 64 strikeouts in 56 innings for Rockville with an outrageous 21/1 K/BB ratio. He was allowing less than a baserunner per inning and simply unstoppable.

"Listen, I'm very grateful for my right arm," said Kelly. "It's made me a lot of money over the years. But I feel cursed, too, with so much pain there and suffering. This is the worst, because now I have to decide whether it's worth it to come back in 2047. I mean, come on, 2047, that's not even next year."

Rockville's pitching staff has suffered a great deal of attrition over the past year, with Dan Cannon retiring, Dave Martin released because of his own massive arm injury, and Arthur Dempster posting a 7 flat ERA this season that nobody quite understands. Rockville does have some young pitchers who are throwing well, like Yun Zhang and Dwight Dunn, but nobody like Kelly, of course. Rockville still leads the JL Atlantic by a game and a half, but one shudders to think where they'd have been without Kelly's superior run.

"We'll just have to see what happens down the stretch," said Dooley. "We still have a great offense and we're still in the lead."

[Jwalk100]

That is going to make the race in the Atlantic REALLY interesting.

[aaronweiner]

It would be nothing if Arthur Dempster were pitching like a BAD pitcher.

[usnspecialist]

It would be nothing if Arthur Dempster were pitching like a BAD pitcher.

Among the 102 qualified (more than 25 starts) pitchers, here is where Dempster ranks in both game score and adjusted game score (which factors in ballparks).

Game Score: 97th (ahead of 3 El Paso and 2 Portland)
Adjusted Game Score: 98 (ahead of 2 El Paso and 2 Portland).

Ya that is not good....

[aaronweiner]

Yup. Yun Zhang has 15 wins and he's just okay this year.

[usnspecialist]

Zhang rankings:

GS: 76/102
AGS: 74/102