A week after the championship, the season Chris Overman (NC State) turned in for Harwich continues to stick out. By getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the clinching game, Overman finished off a summer in which he didn’t allow an earned run.
That’s not an unheard of feat in a Cape League season, but Overman’s performance is all the more impressive considering how many innings he threw. This wasn’t a small sample size — Overman finished second in the league in appearances and, between the regular season and the playoffs, he pitched 33 innings.
Since 2000, only six other players have pitched 20 innings or more without allowing an earned run. Two pitchers did it last year: Marcus Stroman went 25 innings for Orleans and Anthony Ranaudo — the rare starter on this list — didn’t allow an earned run in 29.2 innings.
Ranaudo’s regular-season innings pitched mark beats Overman’s, but Ranaudo didn’t pitch in the playoffs. With the 4.2 innings Overman accumulated in the post-season, he officially has the most innings on the list.
The other guys over 20 innings were Daniel Tillman in 2009, Derrick Lutz in 2005, Ryan Speier in 2001 and Brandon Luna in 2000.
Interestingly, Overman wasn’t the only 2011 Cape Leaguer flirting with a year of zeroes. Falmouth’s John Simms didn’t allow an earned run in 18.2 innings of work. Overman’s teammate Carter Capps allowed one run in 23 innings and Brewster’s J.T. Chargois surrendered one run in 21 innings.
However you shake it, there were some great bullpen arms on the Cape this summer. Chris Overman takes the cake.
The 2007 Y-D Red Sox are the best team I’ve seen since I’ve been doing RFF, and the talent from that club continues to shine through at the next level. Collin Cowgill made his Major League debut on July 26 with the Diamondbacks, becoming the fourth player from that Y-D team to make the bigs. Cowgill joins Buster Posey, Gordon Beckham and Jason Castro. Cowgill has played in 14 games so far and is hitting .171. Cowgill hit .290 for Y-D in ’07.
Another player from that team should be joining the list soon. Grant Green, who hit .291 for the Red Sox before an MVP caliber season the next summer with Chatham, is one of the top prospects in the Oakland A’s organization. Playing for Double A Midland this season, Green is hitting .300 with eight home runs, 30 doubles and 55 RBI.
Fresh off his CCBL Manager of the Year honors, Hyannis head man Chad Gassman has been named the head coach at the University of Pikeville in Kentucky. Pikeville plays in the NAIA. Gassman had previously been the head coach at NAIA Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa.
Good story on the Georgia Tech web site about Harwich’s Jake Davies. Undrafted after his junior year, Davies managed to hook on with Harwich and had a memorable summer. He hit .370 in the playoffs. Davies, on his summer: “The baseball part is extremely good. Guys are throwing 90-plus fastballs every inning. It’s great competition. The host families are fantastic. The guys are fun, the towns are small and all the fans love it. It’s a great environment.”
Louisville’s Justin Amlung, who was named an all-star with Wareham, left the Cape just before the all-star game, reportedly to sign with the Reds, who had taken him in the 39th round. Amlung, however, did not sign with the Reds and will return to Louisville for the 2012 season.
Will, the 2007 Redsox had the best hitting team maybe to ever play on the Cape, they were loaded with first round draft choices as you mentioned! However, another team which had in my opinion a better all around (Pitching and Hitting) that failed to win the championship was the 2005 Chatham A’s! They had in the field Evan Longoria, Chris Coghlan- NL ROY, Alex Pressley- Pirates, Todd Frazier- Reds, and on the mound Andrew Miller, Brooks Brown 1st rounder, David Huff- Indians, Andrew Lutz, Jared Hughes. That team started my love for the cape league! The best pitching staff I have seen was the 2007 Falmouth Commodores Shooter Hunt, Aaron Crow, Kyle Gibson, Christian Friedrich, Aaron Shafer, Alex Wilson- Red Sox, Kyle Weiland- Red Sox. All high draft choices! They lost to the 2007 Red Sox team in the finals.
2005 Chatham A’s vs 2007 YD Red Sox would be a great dream matchup!
I remember the 2005 A’s well. They were one of the first Chatham teams I really followed closely. Serious talent on that team. It’s amazing that they didn’t win the whole thing.