Reds Pitcher of the Year

Not difficult to come with four pitchers to place in this poll. All four were extremely important to the success of teh Reds for 2012. You may have another arm or even two you would place among these four, but you’d be hard press not to include any of them.

2012 brought us potentially a closer of the future, the continued maturing of an ace, the once-vilified acquisition making good on that monster deal, and another acquisition that performed as we expected, maybe even better.

1. Aroldis Chapman

There was the bad stretch. There was the roll.

Simply stunning season elsewise from the man dubbed the Cuban Missile. Chapman’s move to the closer’s role in mid-May enabled the Reds to move Sean Marshall to the of the role of set-up man, the role for which Marshall was brought to Cincy.

Chapman converted 27 consecutive save opportunities, a club record, from June 26 to September 4. During that 31 game stretch, Chapman posted an ERA of 0.29 while striking out 56 batters in 30.1 innings. What may be more impressive is that he only walked 6 within those same 30.1 innings. Didn’t hurt that the Good Guys were 31-0 during this run of games.

(Frank Victores-US PRESSWIRE)

2. Johnny Cueto

Cueto furthered his reputation as being the staff ace. Some fans believe that if Cueto had been able to go in the NLDS, the Reds would still be playing in the postseason.

Set career highs in wins (19), innings pitched (217), strikeouts (170) and SO/BB ratio (3.47). Also established a career-low BB/9 of 2.0. Easy to see why Reds owner Bob Castellini and GM Walt Jocketty presented Cueto that 4 year, $27MM deal prior to the start of last season.

Worth every penny of the $5.4MM he made this season. If you think about it, the Reds got a great deal if you consider what other starters are making.

3. Mat Latos

So 2012 didn’t exactly get off on the right foot for Latos. We read and heard the beginning of a season didn’t particularly agree with him. Those reports proved to be correct. After struggling out of the gate, Latos picked up his game substantially toward the end of the season.

One area that had Reds fans worries was moving from PETCO Park to GABP. While Latos did allow a fair share of home runs at home, the majority of the other numbers reflect Latos was actually a better pitcher at home than on the road.

4. Sean Marshall

Marshall served a number of roles this season: closer, set-up, lefty specialist (I still call it that). Performed rather well regardless of the situation.

Marshall got on quite the roll as the season wore on. He did not allow an earned run over his final 15 appearances (only an unearned run on Sept. 1) and allowed only five hits and four walks in his final 12 innings of work (0.750 WHIP). Also held opposing batters to a BAA of .122 over that same span.

He along with Chapman and Jonathan Broxton were touted by some Reds fans as Nasty Boys 2.0.

Your choice for Reds pitcher of the Year is…

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