Dallas Keuchel

Dallas Keuchel (/ˈkaɪkəl/, KY-kəl; born January 1, 1988), nicknamed Kid Keuchy, is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is a left-handed starting pitcher. He previously attended the University of Arkansas, where he played baseball for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Keuchel made his MLB debut in 2012. In 2014, he was awarded both the Gold Glove Award and Fielding Bible Award. The next year, Keuchel was named the starting pitcher for the American League in the 2015 MLB All-Star Game and won the Cy Young Award, in addition to his second Gold Glove and Fielding Bible Awards. In 2016, he was awarded a third straight Gold Glove Award.

Career

Amateur career

Keuchel pitching for the Arkansas Razorbacks

Keuchel attended Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he led the baseball team to the state championship.^[1]

Keuchel then attended the University of Arkansas, where he played college baseball for the Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team. He registered a 5.88 earned run average (ERA) as a freshman, a 4.58 ERA as a sophomore, and a 3.92 ERA as a junior.^[2]

During the 2009 season, Keuchel led the Razorbacks as the Friday-night ace. Entering May, Keuchel had a 6–1 record before defeating Anthony Ranaudo and #4 LSU. Keuchel pitched 8.1 innings and allowed only four runs. The following week, the Razorbacks lost at #21 Alabama, 2–1, with Keuchel taking the loss. The final regular season series was against Drew Pomeranz and #9 Ole Miss at Baum Stadium. The Razorbacks committed four errors in Keuchel's last regular season start, and he was tagged with the loss, ending the regular season with a 7–3 record.

Professional career

Keuchel with the Houston Astros in 2013

After his junior year at Arkansas, the Houston Astros selected Keuchel in the seventh round of the 2009 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft.^[3] He signed with the Astros and began his professional career with the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League, where he had a 2.70 ERA. He began the 2010 season with the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League. After posting a 3.36 ERA, the Astros promoted him to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League in July, where he had a 4.70 ERA for the remainder of the season. He began the 2011 season with Corpus Christi, and after pitching to a 3.17 ERA, received a promotion to the Oklahoma City RedHawks of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League, where he struggled with a 7.50 ERA.^[2]

Keuchel began the 2012 season with Oklahoma City. Keuchel made his MLB debut on June 17, 2012 against the Texas Rangers.^[4] He threw a complete game in his second start.^[5] Keuchel finished the 2012 season with a 5.27 ERA in 16 games started, while allowing more walks (39) than strikeouts (38). He pitched to a 5.15 ERA in the 2013 season.^[6]

In 2014, Keuchel had a 9–5 win-loss record and a 3.20 ERA at the All-Star break, and was a finalist for the final American League (AL) roster spot in the 2014 MLB All-Star Game.^[7] He finished the season with a 12–9 record and a 2.93 ERA.^[8] For his strong defense, Keuchel won both the Gold Glove Award^[9] and Fielding Bible Award.^[10]

Keuchel pitching in 2015

In April 2015, Keuchel pitched to a 3–0 record and a 0.73 ERA in five games started. He was named the AL's Pitcher of the Month for April 2015.^[8] He was honored as the AL Pitcher of the Month for May 2015, in which he pitched to a 4–1 record and a 2.62 ERA in six starts.^[11] Keuchel was selected for the AL roster in the 2015 MLB All-Star Game,^[12] and was chosen as the AL's starting pitcher.^[13] He won his third AL Pitcher of the Month Award for August, after pitching to a 4–1 record and a 1.94 ERA in six starts.^[14] Keuchel finished the 2015 season with a 15–0 record at Minute Maid Park, becoming the first player in MLB history to finish with an undefeated record at home with at least 14 wins.^[15] His overall record for the year was 20–8, and he had a 2.48 ERA and 216 strikeouts.^[16]

Keuchel started and won the 2015 American League Wild Card Game on three days rest.^[17] On October 11, he followed up by beating the Kansas City Royals, 4–2, in Game 3 of the AL Divisional Series, to move the Astros within one game of advancing.^[18] In Game 5, Keuchel was brought in for a relief appearance on just 2 days of rest in the 8th inning and surrendered a 3-run home run as the Royals extended their lead to 7-2 which they held on to win the game and the series. Following the season, Keuchel won the Cy Young Award, the Gold Glove Award, the Fielding Bible Award, and the Warren Spahn Award, given to the best left-handed pitcher in MLB.^[19] Keuchel became the third Astro to win a Cy Young Award, Mike Scott and Roger Clemens having won the National League honors in 1986 and 2004 respectively.

Pitching style

Keuchel throws five pitches: a sinker averaging 89 miles per hour (143 km/h), a four-seam fastball averaging 89 miles per hour (143 km/h), a cut fastball averaging 86 miles per hour (138 km/h), a slider averaging 79 miles per hour (127 km/h), and a changeup averaging 80 miles per hour (130 km/h).^[20] He had learned a slurve while in high school, which he did not use in college, as he relied on his sinker and changeup. Needing a breaking ball in his arsenal when he became a professional, he learned to throw a curveball. He did not succeed with the curveball in the major leagues, and he developed a slider, which helped his results.^[21] Keuchel's sinker and slider both induce more ground balls than average across the league.^[20]

Personal life

Keuchel was born to Dennis and Teresa Keuchel. He has an older sister, Krista.^[22]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dallas Keuchel.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Arkansas Razorbacks bio
• Dallas Keuchel on Twitter