Joshua James leads one of the Minors' best staffs to playoff berth

Quad Cities saw several top prospects post some pretty impressive numbers for short stints, like Francis Martes' 1.04 ERA in 10 outings, or David Paulino with a sub-2.00 ERA and a 4.57 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Near the end of the season, Dean Deetz was promoted to full-season ball and threw up a stunning 0.76 ERA in seven games. And then, of course, there was Joe Musgrove and his 23.00 K/BB ratio before moving up to Lancaster.

It's little wonder the club posted a combined 2.66 ERA, the best in the league by nearly a half of a run. The result of so many guys hanging around for short times before moving on was that there wasn't a very consistent rotation of guys.

In fact, just two pitchers logged 100 or more innings for a club, and no one else tossed even 70 innings. Those two men were Brock Dykxhoorn and the ultimate winner, Joshua James.

James is the clear choice. A 34th-round pick out of community college, he led the team in innings with 116.1, and his 2.63 ERA meant they were good ones. While Dyxhoorn was less than 10 innings behind him, he went through several periods of struggles, leading to a less-impressive 3.88 ERA.

Keeping the ball on the ground was a big factor in his success. He posted a 48.9% ground ball rate on the season, and allowed just two home runs all season. His consistency was impressive as well; he allowed more than three earned runs in a game on just three occasions, and never allowed more than four.