Keuchel Corpus Christi's 2011 Pitcher of the Year
Published on September 13, 2011 under Texas League (TL1)
Corpus Christi Hooks News Release
CORPUS CHRISTI - Left-handed starter Dallas Keuchel has been selected as the Hooks 2011 Pitcher of the Year. His achievements will be recognized at the eighth annual South Texas Winter Baseball Banquet early next year.
Keuchel, 23, posted the highest win total for a Hooks pitcher over the last two seasons. His nine victories in 2011 were the most by a Corpus Christi pitcher in a single season since Sergio Perez won 11 games in 2009.
Spending the first four months of the campaign with the Hooks, Keuchel finished the year ranked second in the Texas League in WHIP (1.12) and fourth in ERA (3.17). He also posted the fourth-lowest opponents' batting average (.244) among starters and, within that group, stood second in both lowest walks/9 IP ratio (1.90) and fewest base runners/9 IP ratio (10.36).
Keuchel was twice named the Texas League's Pitcher of the Week (April 7-17 and June 6-12). Neither of those weekly accolades covered his performance at Dickey-Stephens Park on May 29 when blanked the Travelers 4-0, tossing the first complete-game shutout by a Hooks pitcher in two years.
A seventh-round selection of the Astros in 2009 out of the University of Arkansas, Keuchel was the only pitcher to get more than three outs in the June 29 Texas League All-Star Game in San Antonio. The southpaw hurled two innings of shutout relief to help the South Stars defeat the North 3-2.
Recognition for Keuchel's efforts in 2011 was also doled out by the Astros' Player Development Department. The organization named Keuchel as Corpus Christi's pitcher of the month in both June (3-2, 2.18 ERA, 5 starts) and July (3-1, 4.23 ERA, 6 starts).
Earning an early-August promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City, Keuchel finished the season with the RedHawks. At year's end he ranked fourth in the Astros system in ERA (4.12) and was the only pitcher in the organization with as many as 10 wins.
In his 20 starts this year with the Hooks, Keuchel was 9-7 with a 3.17 ERA, with 27 walks and 76 strikeouts in 127.2 innings. Fourteen of his outings met the standard for a "quality start," while the durable lefty pitched a minimum of six innings on 15 occasions.
During a seven-start stretch from June 20 through July 25, Keuchel went 5-0 with a 3.33 ERA, leading the Hooks to six wins in that span. The only loss came in extra innings to Tulsa on July 9.
Illustrative of his value to the club, the Hooks were 11-9 in Keuchel's 20 starts. In all other games while Keuchel was with the club, the Hooks won 30 and lost 55.
Texas League Stories from September 13, 2011
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