An update and an interesting story on Dalbec.
First, the update. Currently, he is at Portland and in 9 games (33 AB, a SSS) he is hitting:
.364/.421/.848 with an OPS of 1.270.
Second, the story. Below is being directly stolen from Soxprospects' drrigormortis post. Thank you Doc.
http://forum.soxprospects.com/thread/4623/another-homer-bobby-dalbec-thread?page=11
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Dalbec had been recruited as an infielder by Arizona (
UA bio page) and practiced accordingly. It was the dire situation of the 2014 team's pitching staff that led to him throwing 38 innings in relief. The coaches would pull him off 3B in the middle of a game to replace whoever was struggling on the mound. Since college practice periods and their duration are limited by NCAA rules, Dalbec's pitching reps had to stand back behind hitting and fielding. Of course there were still voluntary practices in absence of the coaches. Nevertheless, with classroom work and reps at three positions, it had been widely acknowledged that he was one of the busiest students in the whole athletic program.
In 2015, with Arizona's pitching situation further deteriorating, Dalbec got his first starts in the later stages of Pac-12 conference play. Despite coming in cold, he had pitched better than some of the weekend starters. He tossed 61.2 innings in his sophomore season.
After a coaching change ahead of the 2016 season, initial plans saw Dalbec back on 3B full time. While the overall performance of the pitching staff had improved, an injury to one of the weekend starters brought Dalbec back to his least favorite task. He ended up pitching 100.2 innings, 36.1 of them as a postseason starter, all the way to the College World Series final.
With the 2016 postseason looming and the Friday starter still out, the coaches ordered Dalbec to take more pitching reps in practice. He showed above average control on all of his pitches (slider, changeup, 95 mph fastball, off-speed, IIRC). One reason behind it might have been his tremendous arm. He threw relatively effortless in favor of better control and location and was able to keep his fastball in the low to mid 90s throughout nine innings.
Dalbec became one of the most dominant pitchers of the 2016 college postseason (1.49 ERA, 36.1 IP, 10 BB, 41 SO in six games) and would have been drafted higher, had he been willing to pitch.
How good was he? On
June 10th Dalbec pitched 8.2 shutout innings, allowing five hits, to beat Cardinals #4 prospect Dakota Hudson in the 2016 Super Regional in front of 13,000 rampaging Mississippi State fans in Starkville, MS (
news article).
One of the craziest games I've seen. With Dalbec dominating opposing hitters, including Twins #7 prospect Brent Rooker, MSU desperately cut off the power around campus in the 8th inning in an attempt to ice Arizona's starter. That happened around 7 pm with still enough daylight to finish the game. However, the floodlight MSU kept running throughout the game for no (apparent) reason had gone dark, too. As scripted, MSU's coach John Cohen refused to continue until power was restored, while Arizona's skipper insisted on finishing the game. With the discussion at home plate heating up quickly, both schools' athletic directors went down and joined the party. But there was a twist: Arizona's AD, Greg Byrne (now at Alabama), used to be MSU's AD before he left for Tucson. Not only had he hired MSU's baseball coach, he also used to be their new AD's boss. After 30 minutes of mostly yelling between those guys, MSU turned the power back on and the game continued with a 40 min delay. Dalbec, who had kept loose in the bullpen, went back on the mound. For MSU's last batter, but also for the sake of Dalbec's safety, Arizona brought in a lefty to finish the shutout. The crowd had become hostile towards Dalbec's calm demeanor and methodical dominance to such an extend that the coaches decided to pull him early.
The next day, in
game #2, Dalbec contributed a HR in a 2-4 outing to sweep MSU and advance Arizona to the College World Series. Subsequently, MSU fans and local media branded him "Starkville's Most Hated Man". Here's a
video recap of the second game, including Dalbec knocking it out of the park.
Read more:
http://forum.soxprospects.com/thread/4623/another-homer-bobby-dalbec-thread#ixzz5OGVsKm8O