It was July 2, 2008 when Falmouth’s A.J. Pollock had one of the best games of his Cape League MVP season and Wareham’s Dallas Keuchel went eight strong innings in spite of it.
It’s always cool to look back at match-ups like that when you know what has happened since. In the case of Pollock and Keuchel, a lot has happened – they’re leading the way for a new generation of Major League stars with Cape League roots.
Keuchel emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball for the Astros last year, a status that was solidified when the left-hander won the American League Cy Young award.
Pollock, in his fourth year in the bigs, earned an All-Star nod for the Diamondbacks and hit .315 with 20 homers and 39 stolen bases. He’s one of the game’s top emerging power-speed combos.
So what can they do for an encore?
Keuchel is eager for postseason success and figures to be a key part of it. The former Arkansas standout – who spent two summers with the Gatemen – had a steady rise through the Houston system. After a solid, under-the-radar season in 2014, he surged to 20 wins, a 2.48 ERA and 216 strikeouts last season. The K rate saw a significant uptick from 146 the year before.
Whenever a player has a big breakout, it’s tough to be sure what comes next, but FanGraphs, for one, believes Keuchel will come close to a repeat. The K rate may go down, but he still profiles as one of the best pitchers in baseball.
As for Pollock, his breakout campaign included big increases in home runs and extra-base hits. As with Keuchel, projections favor a bit of a regression, but with a young player like Pollock, there’s also the possibility that what came before – two partial seasons and one with 137 games – was just the beginning, as opposed to the mean for him. The former Notre Dame and Falmouth Commodore star could be poised to solidify himself as one of the league’s best outfielders.
Whatever happens, Keuchel and Pollock will continue carrying the torch for the Cape League in the Big Leagues.