Our 9th best starting pitcher in the 2017 Valley League season is Daniel Collins, the 6-foot-4, 190 pound righthander who threw for Winchester!
Here is what Daniel did for the Royals in the regular season, along with his one start in the playoffs:
| Win | ERA | W | L | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | BAVG | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2017 | 3.73 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 43.3 | 45 | 27 | 18 | 11 | 47 | 0.259 | 1.293 | 2.3 | 9.8 |
| Play | 3.52 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7.7 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0.185 | 0.649 | 0.0 | 11.7 |
Among the pitchers surveyed for this list, Daniel finished 2nd in innings pitched, 2nd in K’s, 9th in batting average against, 10th in WHIP, 6th in BB/9, and 3rd in K/9. Including his 10 playoff strikeouts, Daniel led the league in that category (slipping past Woodstock’s Nick Fuchs, who struck out 53 in the regular season).
His best start was turned in on July 7th vs Strasburg, when he went 6 innings and allowed 3 hits, 1 hit, 1 earned run, and struck out 9. He earned a game score of 70. Winchester gave Daniel the Hugh Irwin Sportsmanship Award at the end of the season, and the league named him 2nd team All-Valley.
Daniel has spent his first two college years at Montreat College, an NAIA school in North Carolina. Here are his stats for his freshman and sophomore years:
| Mont | ERA | W | L | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | BAVG | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2017 | 7.21 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 12 | 68.7 | 83 | 62 | 55 | 27 | 50 | 0.290 | 1.601 | 3.5 | 6.6 |
| 2016 | 7.41 | 1 | 7 | 22 | 5 | 54.7 | 86 | 56 | 45 | 20 | 49 | 0.368 | 1.938 | 3.3 | 8.1 |
Watch for an uptick in Daniel’s stats after his excellent summer!
