The Shoeless Joe League:
As was expected since at least mid-season, Washington's Rich Freeman walks away with the Harris/Lee in the SJL. He led the league in wins, ERA, innings pitched, WAR, and HR/9, among other categories where he was at or very near the top of the leader boards. The 24-year old lefthander who was a 4th round draft pick in 1979 has a plus plus curveball as his best pitch, induces a high rate of groundballs, has great stamina and really shuts down the running game of the opposition. Don't be surprised if this isn't his last Harris/Lee hardware.
Jacksonville's David Parker is only 22 years old, throws his devastating fastball up to 100 mph, and has a high baseball IQ. He also possesses a plus plus slider and changeup in his 3-pitch mix. Another young pitcher with a great future.
It is no surprise that two Chicago starters got votes, led by 28-year old righty Joe Sykes, who mitigates average stuff with plus movement and control and a sparkplug attitude and work ethic. He induces groundballs, which is a plus with a great infield defense behind him, and has very good stamina. His 26-year old teammate Mike Low would appear to have an even higher ceiling with three elite pitches (curveball, changeup, sinker) and plus plus stuff. Low is also one of the leaders of the club, particularly in keeping things light and fun (prankster) and has strong baseball smarts.
Nice to see veteran Columbus left-hander Luis Ramirez, almost surely a future Hall of Famer, have yet another fine season, even though with a poor team around him he no longer gets rewarded with winning records (he went 15-15 this year). At age 33 he remains one of the most talented arms in the game and profiles as an Iron Man.
Rounding out the voting was another Night Train starter, fan favorite Eric Bisbey, who gets lost in the shuffle sometimes in the SJL but put up his second straight 15 win season with an ERA in the mid-3's.
The Moonlight Graham League:
Through July or so it looked like Jon Harrington of San Francisco, who won this award the past 2 seasons, was going to add another Harris/Lee to his trophy case. But then Oklahoma City's Matt Greene went on a tear, going from 7-7 with a 3.32 ERA on July 2nd to finish 19-8 with a 2.50 ERA. He led the league in wins, innings pitched, WHIP, and WAR. The 24 year old durable sparkplug lefty is just getting started too.
Not that Jon Harrington exactly fell to earth- he still led the league in ERA (2.49) and finished the season with 7.2 WAR and a record of 15-10. He is 31 now but is an Iron Man and isn't showing any signs of decline yet.
Portland's Matt Jenkins has taken advantage over the years of having a home park that favors pitchers (rivaling San Francisco's Bank of the West Ballpark for best pitchers' park in the MGL). The not very well liked and reportedly unmotivated 29-year old is soft-tossing lefty who uses deception to induce weak contact from hitters (his 2 best pitches are a changeup and a circle change and he also has a plus curveball), often getting them to ground out. He doesn't profile as anything special but he has led the league in lowest BABIP for 2 years running now (last year he led the league with 21 wins) and it is hard to see that as just good luck.
Detroit's Ryan Rystrom was at one time considered the 4th best prospect in the game but his big league career has mostly been disappointing. Up until this season, that is. Rystrom went 12-8 with a 2.71 ERA for a poor Detroit club in 1985. He is considered very baseball smart and durable. On the other hand he really only has two plus pitches and his other two offerings aren't even average. At age 29, this may have just been his career year. Still nice to see him finally start to live up to earlier promise.
Brad Stephens was last year's MGL Rookie of the Year and Greg Grieve was in the running for that same honor this year.
Watch for 23-year old Andy Boudreaux to very possibly be the next Oklahoma City starter to win a Harris/Lee. Boudreaux just needs a bit more improvement on his now below average changeup to complement a tremendous sinker and solid slider and he could be a premiere ace in the game. He has great control to go with plus stuff and movement, he induces groundballs with his upper 90's to triple digit sinker and he has good stamina. Just another reason that the Diamond Kings rotation has a chance to be special for years to come.
Nate Liuzzo is the only reliever to get some Harris/Lee votes. He pitched just under 91 innings this year, going 11-7 with 38 saves (though he also blew 10 save opportunities) with a 2.58 ERA. He's not the easiest to get along with, but he is a valuable multi-inning arm out of the 'pen.
And Phoenix Jonathan Riechman is likely to be in the running for this award in the future as well, in spite of pitching his home games in a hitters haven. The biggest weakness for Riechman might be that he is a flyball pitcher, in a park where home runs are abundant, and his movement is just above average. On the other hand, he has three out pitches (changeup, curveball, forkball) and a still developing cutter which is currently an average offering.