September 28, 2022

Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

Modern baseball took a turn on Sept. 15.

Drey Jameson, the 34th player taken in the 2019 draft, was promoted to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ varsity. He started against San Diego. He made it through the first, second and third innings. Suddenly, he found himself in the seventh and he got through that, too.

That’s right. A major league debut by a starting pitcher lasted seven innings and, not only that, braved the horrors of the Third Time Through.

As you’ve no doubt learned over the past few years, a pitcher can’t be expected to make the Third Time Through a lineup unless he’s wearing Kevlar and is fully bound in PPE. Jameson not only faced six Padres for the third time, he retired them all, including Juan Soto on a swinging strike three.

Jameson needed but 90 pitches in his first major league voyage. He beat San Diego, 4-0. Then he went six innings against the Dodgers, allowed two runs, and got another win. In that game, Jameson faced seven Dodgers for the third time. This time the dragons took a small bite, thanks to a home run by Max Muncy. Still, he sent down five of the seven.

Jameson’s third start was a no-decision against San Francisco. At that point his ERA was 0.98 and he had pitched 18 1/3 innings with one home run, 14 strikeouts and five walks.

He will be presented with a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Flying Cross after the season.

Jameson is one reason that you should pay attention to September, as taxing and distracting as it might be. There’s no pennant race to speak of, unless you’re transfixed by the Phillies and Brewers jousting for the No. 6 playoff spot in the National League.

Too many teams are just crossing off the calendar days. Too many players are filling out their stat lines. But there are a few who may be dropping hints of the future.

After Washington stripped itself down to the studs by trading Soto to the Padres, a 30-year-old named Joey Meneses showed up. The games still counted for him. He’s a true vagabond who has slipped through the Braves, the Phillies and the Red Sox, played in Japan for a while, was a fixture in the Mexican Winter League. He only hit 87 home runs in his whole minor league career. Suddenly he hit 20 for triple-A Rochester, and when the Nationals called him up he hit 12 more in 47 games.

He is hitting .326 with a .942 OPS. Is he live or a mirage? Meneses will at least get a spring training to answer that question.

Deep in the rubble of the Tigers’ season comes faint beeping that indicates possible life. Reliever Alex Lange, another high pick of yore, has thrown 7 1/3 innings this month and hasn’t allowed a hit. He has struck out 11 and permitted only five base runners.

Lange is already famous for the almost-comical movement he gets on his running fastball. Is he an aberration or an asset? We’ll know next spring in Lakeland. But Jameson and the other young pitchers for the Diamondbacks already look like something real.

Some have been established for a while, and some aren’t so young. Merrill Kelly went to the Korean Baseball Organization for four years to realign his career. At 33, he is 13-7 with a 3.13 ERA.

Zac Gallen, 26, has an 0.608 WHIP in September, leads the NL with a 0.890 WHIP, and is 12-3 overall with a 2.46 ERA. He was a part of that misbegotten trade that sent himself and Sandy Alcantara from St. Louis to Miami in exchange for Marcell Ozuna. Then the Marlins dealt him to Arizona for dynamic infielder Jazz Chisholm.

Ryne Nelson roared through the system and had a 1.47 ERA in three starts, with nine hits in 18 1/3 innings, although he’s on the injured list now. Tommy Henry, the lefthander from the U. of Michigan, went seven innings in his second major league start and lived to tell about it. He’s been touched up since then and has a 5.98 ERA, but he’ll be one of the prime applicants for a starting job next year.

The Diamondbacks have already won 71 games, 18 more than in all of 2021.

Christian Walker has 36 home runs. Daulton Varsho, 25, is a catcher-outfielder with 26 home runs.

Corbin Carroll, 21, was advertised as an elite prospect and has done nothing to disprove that. But starting pitching remains the foundation of real hope. Jameson, only 5-foot-11, is already famous for beating Carroll decisively in a footrace and establishing himself as the fastest player, not just pitcher, on the team and maybe even in the National League. He also can dunk from a flat-footed position.

“He’s just a freak athlete,” Carroll told the Arizona Republic. “He does things that are jaw-dropping.”

Walking through the Valley of the Shadow of the Third Time Through and living to tell about it is perhaps the best of those things. Who knows? Maybe all pitchers will start to think they can do it.