In our continuing march towards the top, today we have Jonathon Murphy, the 8th best reliever from the 2017 Valley League season!
Murphy, who pitched for Woodstock in the summer and West Virginia State in the fall, is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound righthander who put the following stat line:
| WRB | ERA | W | L | G | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | BAVG | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2017 | 1.54 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 23.3 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 28 | 0.220 | 1.116 | 3.1 | 10.8 |
Among the pitchers surveyed for this list, Jonathon finished 9th in ERA, and tied for first in saves. He ended his season on a 13 inning scoreless streak, in which he allowed 7 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 15. He earned 4 of his 5 saves in that stretch as well. That sounds like someone who “clicked” at that point- it will be interesting to see if he continues his lights-out pitching this next college season.
His college stats:
| ERA | W | L | G | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 | |
| 2014 | 7.16 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 27.7 | 27 | 26 | 22 | 14 | 11 | 1.480 | 4.5 | 3.6 |
| 2016 | 11.57 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 4.7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2.128 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
| 2017 | 5.27 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 0 | 27.3 | 39 | 22 | 16 | 7 | 27 | 1.685 | 2.3 | 8.9 |
Murphy pitched at Glenville State in 2014, redshirted in 2015, and spend 2016 and 2017 at West Virginia State. (By the way, the assistant coach at WVS, Greg Keaton, managed in the Valley for the Rockbridge Rapids a few years ago.)
Good luck this spring, Jonathon!
