Now that we’ve finished up the top hitters of the 2017 Valley League season, we’ll turn our attention to the list of the top ten starting pitchers.

Some thoughts before we begin:

  • Pitchers needed to qualify for the ERA title to be eligible for this list (that means .8 innings per game played by the player’s team).
  • The most important categories are strikeouts (by extension, K/9), walks (and BB/9), WHIP (walks+hits divided by innings), and batting average against. Innings can be a tie-breaker.
  • Wins are not very important in this exercise.

As usual, there were many pitchers who appeared in the 2017 VBL season who did not reach the innings threshold, but who were excellent all the same.

Here is a list of the starters who had excellent to pretty good summers but fell short because of innings:

  • Conor Gillispie, Charlottesville: 2-0, 1.58, 22 2/3 IP, 14 hits, 4 ER, 5 BB, 22 K’s, .175 BA, 0.837 WHIP, 2.0 BB/9, 8.7 K/9
  • Jordan Cox, Staunton: 0-1, 1.65, 16 1/3 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 8 BB, 24 K’s, .145 BA, 0.982 WHIP, 4.4 BB/9, 13.3 K/9
  • Colin Brown, Woodstock: 1-1, 3.46, 13 IP, 9 hits, 5 ER, 5 BB, 9 K’s, .200 BA, 1.077 WHIP, 3.5 BB/9, 6.2 K/9
  • Justin Sorokowski, Charlottesville: 3-1, 4.17, 32 1/3 IP, 25 hits, 15 ER, 10 BB, 22 K’s, .216 BA, 1.084 WHIP, 2.8 BB/9, 6.1 K/9
  • Andrue Hughart, Purcellville: 1-0, 1.45, 12 1/3 IP, 9 hits, 2 ER, 5 BB, 11 K’s, .200 BA, 1.138 WHIP, 3.7 BB/9, 8.0 K/9
  • Deacon Medders, Staunton: 2-1, 3.54, 33 IP, 30 hits, 13 ER, 9 BB, 32 K’s, .234 BA, 1.182 WHIP, 2.5 BB/9, 8.7 K/9
  • Ryan Ruggles, Front Royal: 3-2, 3.03, 32 2/3 IP, 36 hits, 11 ER, 5 BB, 27 K’s, .273 BA, 1.254 WHIP, 1.4 BB/9, 7.4 K/9
  • Michael Dailey, Charlottesville: 2-1, 3.17, 28 1/3 IP, 26 hits, 10 ER, 10 BB, 25 K’s, .243 BA, 1.272 WHIP, 3.2 BB/9, 8.0 K/9
  • Sean Lawlor, Covington: 1-2, 3.21, 28 IP, 29 hits, 10 ER, 8 BB, 24 K’s, .259 BA, 1.321 WHIP, 2.6 BB/9, 7.7 K/9
  • Ryan Leckich, Front Royal: 1-1, 2.02, 26 2/3 IP, 17 hits, 6 ER, 19 BB, 23K’s, .179 BA, 1.348 WHIP, 6.4 BB/9, 7.8 K/9
  • Mark Moclair, Front Royal: 2-2, 2.92, 27 2/3 IP, 14 hits, 9 ER, 25 BB, 46 K’s, .154 BA, 1.408 WHIP, 8.1 BB/9, 14.9 K/9
  • Matthew Young, Harrisonburg: 2-1, 3.20, 19 2/3 IP, 18 hits, 7 ER, 10 BB, 28 K’s, .243 BA, 1.421 WHIP, 4.6 BB/9, 12.8 K/9