On Tuesday evening I listened to the Great Lakes Loons game against the Fort Wayne TinCaps. I was particularly interested in the game as just turned twenty-two year old Jose De Leon started for the Loons and was a bit disappointed it wasn’t being carried by MiLB.TV. The game was delayed by rain for 53 minutes and I wondered how the delay would affect De Leon.

Jose De Leon
(Photo courtesy of MiLB.com)

Jose De Leon was the Dodgers 24th round selection in the 2013 First Year player draft. Born in Isabela, Puerto Rico he was drafted out of Colegio San Antonio. Being such a late draft pick it was thought he might not sign with the Dodgers. However the 6’2” 185 lb. right-hander did sign and was assigned to the Arizona League Dodgers.

The scouting report on De Leon did not indicate anything that would suggest he should have been taken earlier in the draft. The report at that time did include a fastball of 90-94 with good movement and he relied heavily on that fastball. His secondary pitches were considered to be inconsistent but his slider showed potential. Control , not surprisingly, was considered to be an issue. Perhaps what the Dodgers saw in De Leon was his live arm.

He started the 2013 season with the Arizona League Dodgers and had a very ordinary season going 2-3 with a 4.01 ERA. He did strikeout 35 in 33.2 innings. Control was an issue as suggested in his scouting report. He walked 18 hitters in his eight starts. He was promoted to the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League and really must have been discouraged. In 19.1 innings he had an ERA of 12.10 and a WHIP of 1.97. He struck out 18 and the good news was that he walked only three.

De Leon again started the 2014 with the Raptors. After a shaky first outing he settled in and may well have been the most effective starting pitcher in the Pioneer League. He went 5-0 and led the league with a 2.65 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 77 strikeouts. In 54.1 innings he walked 19. He was twice named the league’s Pitcher of the Week.

He was promoted to the Great Lakes Loons and in his first start on August 14th he continued his winnings ways allowing only three hits in six innings while striking out six and walking none.

One would think his first game performance would be hard to top unless he was listening to Tuesday’s game. It seems the rain delay did not affect De Leon’s focus. Not even Julio Urias has had a game like the one spun by Jose De Leon tonight. “An old school pitcher…” , in the words of Loons announcer Brad Golder, De Leon has a wind up with his hands over his head. In bright red baseball shoes he pitches from the right hand side of the rubber.

At one point in the game De Leon struck out nine TinCaps in a row barely missing a tenth consecutive strikeout with a weak grounder and two strikes on the batter. The league record for consecutive strikeouts is 10. De Leon had a first pitch strike to practically every hitter he faced. Catcher Spencer Navin did a great job behind the plate collecting five assists on third strike pitches in the dirt that he had to block. De Leon struck out every WhiteCap at least once. Announcer Brad Golder commented that the bottom was just dropping out of his breaking ball and he was painting the corners with an umpire restricted strike zone. Relying on his fastball, he supplemented it with a change up to left-handed hitters and a breaking ball to the right-handed hitters. His change up dropped to 77 mph.

Lefties Clayton Kershaw and Victor Garante struck out 12 hitters to hold the Loons record for strikeouts in a game until tonight. De Leon struck out 14, gave up four hits, and walked none before he exited the game after six innings. He threw 91 pitches, 67 of them for strikes. He has now issued no walks in his 12 innings pitched as a Loon.

Some say minor league baseball isn’t exciting. It doesn’t get much more exciting that this.