Keys’ Arrieta named Carolina League Pitcher of the Year
Frederick Keys starting pitcher Jake Arrieta has been named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Year, the team announced in a news release today.
Arrieta becomes only the second Keys player to receive the honor. Orioles relief pitcher Jim Johnson also won the award with the Keys in 2005. The award has been given to the league’s top pitcher since the 1979 season.
Arrieta was the starting pitcher for the Carolina League in the Carolina/California League All-Star Game in Myrtle Beach, S.C., earlier this season. He also pitched for Team USA in the MLB Futures Game at Yankee Stadium and started one game for the United States during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The 22-year-old starting pitcher was 6-5 with a league-leading 2.87 ERA in 20 starts for the Keys this season. He had 120 strikeouts in 113 1/3 innings and held opposing hitters to a .199 batting average. The Orioles selected the right-hander in the fifth round of the 2007 MLB draft.
Keys pitching coach Blaine Beatty won the award as a member of the Hagerstown Suns in 1987, two years before the Keys became a franchise. Other notable winners of the award include former Orioles Randy Myers (1984) and Kent Mercker (1988), as well as Charles Nagy (1989), Bartolo Colon (1995) and Rick Ankiel (1998).
