Here are the results of the remaining four “Best” polls.  Well, final three polls and one example that some people can’t follow instructions.  These final polls are for Right-Handed Starters, Left-Handed Starters, Closers, and the too difficult for people to comprehend Relievers Poll.  This concludes the “best of” polls for 2018.

Right-Handed Starter – Sixto Sanchez is the Phuture Phillies selection as the top right-handed pitcher in our minor league system.  Other pitchers who received substantial votes were Adonis Medina, Spencer Howard, and Enyel De Los Santos.

This poll could have been used to recognize RHPs that had good seasons.  It seems that voters chose to vote for the #1 prospect regardless of the incompleteness of his season due to injury.  So be it.  Sanchez started 8 games before an elbow injury cut his season short.  In 46.2 innings, he posted a 4-3 record, 2.51 ERA, 11 walks (2.1 BB/9), and 45 strike outs (8.7 K/9).  The strike out rate was the highest of his career.  The walk rate was an improvement over the career-high 2.9 BB/9 he posted in his 5 games at Clearwater in 2017.  His two best games were the last two he pitched in 2018, a six inning, 3-hitter on May 5th where he allowed a run but walked none and struck out 10, and a seven inning, 2-hit, shutout on June 3rd where he walked two and struck out five.  His game scores were his season highs of 72 and 76.  I guess that with even just an 8-game sample size, he’s still a pretty phenomenal prospect.  I’m curious how his low number of innings pitched might affect his assignment next season.  One hundred-plus innings might be difficult to expect.

Left-Handed Starter – Cole Irvin is the Phuture Phillies selection as the top left-handed pitcher in our minor league system.  Other pitchers who received substantial votes were JoJo Romero and David Parkinson.

Cole Irvin made 25 starts for Lehigh Valley and posted a 14-4 record with a 2.57 ERA in 161.1 innings.  He walked 35 (2.0 BB/9) and struck out 131 (7.3 K/9).  He held the opposition scoreless in 8 of his starts.  In a 7.1 inning relief appearance (a reliever started due to weather and Cole took over after a long delay), he had another shutout appearance with 2 hits, 2 walks, and 6 strike outs.  His best start was an 8.2 inning, 4-hitter on May 30th where he walked one and struck out six with an 81 game score.  He also nad a seven-inning 2-hitter with 8 strike outs and a 78 game score.  The number of healthy starters in Philadelphia probably delayed his major league debut until 2019.  He certainly should be up for consideration.

Closer – Kyle Dohy is the Phuture Phillies selection as the top closer in our minor league system.   Other pitchers who received substantial votes were Zach Warren and Addison Russ.

Kyle Dohy pitched at 3 levels in 2018.  The 21-year old lefty dominated at Lakewood where he posted a 3-3 record with a miniscule 0.80 ERA and 7 of 9 save conversions in 24 appearances, 33.2 innings.  He made a short stop in Clearwater and posted a 2-1 record with a 1.64 ERA and 2 of 2 save conversions in 7 games, 11.0 innings.  He reached Reading and stumbled slightly, but still held opposing batters to a .169 batting average and struck out 30 batters in 22.2 innings.  For the entire season, he struck out 111 batters in 67.1 innings (14.8 K/9).  He’ll need to improve his control (5.6 BB/9 in 2018) as he moves forward.

Reliever – I shut this poll down early after over 40% of the recorded votes were useless.  The results are below if you care to see how dense people can be.

I only added this poll so that pitchers other than starters and closers could maybe get some recognition.  Sorry guys.  My bad.

Results