Steven Brault has dominated the International League all season, so when the end-of-season awards were announced on Wednesday morning, it should have been no surprise that he was named the Most Valuable Pitcher. He was also named to the league’s Postseason All-Star team.
With less than a week left in the IL season, Brault leads the league with a 1.94 ERA. Even with three trips to Pittsburgh, including his current stint, he threw 120.1 innings. That ranks him 22nd in the league, but only nine innings away from being among the top ten leaders in the IL. Brault has 109 strikeouts, which ranks 12th in the league, and his 1.04 WHIP has him fourth overall among league leaders.
Since putting up a 3.86 ERA in five April starts, Brault has put up a 1.26 ERA in May, 1.32 in June, 2.25 in July and 1.35 in August. He has held batters to a .199 BAA and he has posted a 1.29 GO/AO ratio. He was named as our Pitcher of the Month in both May and June.
Back on April 28th, he gave up four earned runs over 4.2 innings. Since that point, he has given up a high of three earned runs in a game (twice) and has five starts consisting of at least seven shutout innings.
According to the press release from the Indianapolis Indians “Fritz Ackley (1963), Ben Hendrickson (2004) and Zach Duke (2005) are the only pitchers in Indians history to be elected as the IL’s Most Valuable Pitcher”
Brault ranked 15th in the system during our mid-season prospect rankings and he is just 4.1 innings away from losing his prospect status. With the Pirates, he has a 3.55 ERA in 12.2 innings over five relief appearances.
