#10 Starting Pitcher: Jon Dages

The problem with choosing starting pitchers over a 44-game season is that pitchers in a team's starting rotation all year will get, at most, 10 or 11 starts. This means that one or two bad starts can severely affect a pitcher's final statistics.  Waynesboro's Jon Dages, for example, could have finished as a top three starter on my list if he hadn't struggled in two of his starts. In late July, Harrisonburg scored 7 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings off Dages, and 8 days later, Woodstock scored 5 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. Take those two starts out of Dages's final statistics, and he would have finished 7-1, with a 1.25 ERA.

As it is, he still had a very impressive year. Over 13 games, 10 of them starts, Jon finished with a 7-2 record, 2.62 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 0.7 BB/9, 6.2 K/9, and .267 opponent's batting average. He walked a total of 5 batters in 68 2/3 total innings- an incredible show of control.  Jon was 9th in the league in ERA, tied for 2nd in wins, 2nd in innings pitched, and tied for 2nd in starts.

Dages, a rising senior at Butler, has performed thusly in college:

Junior: 6-7, 3.40, 1.34 WHIP, 1.8 BB/9, 5.7 K/9 in 98 innings
Sophomore: 3-5, 6.54, 1.69 WHIP, 4.0 BB/9, 7.1 K/9 in 63 1/3 innings
Freshman: 3-3, 4.76, 1.52 WHIP, 3.3 BB/9, 8.1 K/9 in 56 2/3 innings

Anecdote: I got to see Dages pitch in Harrisonburg- the game that he struggled. I was surprised to see him reading a book in the "bullpen" while his team took batting practice. I couldn't remember ever seeing that at a baseball field before. (Jon was finishing up Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morris, if I remember correctly.)