Dalbec’s Pitching Continues To Out-Shine His Bat

OMAHA—At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, Bobby Dalbec looks like a pitcher in a lot of ways, except for maybe the single-digit No. 3 on his back. Usually, pitchers wear double digits.

Dalbec looked like a pitcher in every way Monday night in the College World Series, tossing eight innings and striking out a career-best 12 batters while walking one in a 1-0 loss to Oklahoma State. The strikeouts gave him 82 on the season in 88 innings.

“He pitched spectacular,” Arizona coach Jay Johnson said. “I mean, he’s as good as anybody in the country.

“He pitches 91-94 up to 95, and in the ninth inning in (the super regional in Starkville, Miss.) last weekend he was up to 97-98. The changeup is a real pitch. I think it’s a major league pitch right now. I think his breaking ball tonight was special. That’s a good offense . . . so for him to really roll through them is impressive, and he’s got a great future as a hitter or a pitcher.”

Of course that’s the rub. The Red Sox drafted Dalbec—who now now has more strikeouts as a pitcher than he has as a hitter, where his 79 (in just 215 at-bats) rank among the national leaders—as a third baseman in the fourth round.

Dalbec didn’t hit Monday, getting the night off from hitting when he starts, but when he doesn’t pitch, he usually hits in the middle of Arizona’s lineup, and he’s second on the team in home runs (seven) while batting .265/.379/.447. He essentially was picked as a hitter off his 2015 performance, when he hit 15 homers for the Wildcats in a .319/.410/.601 campaign, and then led the Cape Cod League in homers with 12 in just 92 at-bats.

Dalbec’s offensive struggles didn’t stop Arizona from getting to regionals this year for the first time since its 2012 national championship, and the Wildcats obviously made it to Omaha, in large part due to his pitching. The Colorado prep product had seven saves early in the season and leads Arizona with 10 wins despite making just his sixth start Monday night. Scouts and Pacific-12 Conference coaches credited him during the season with being a key to Arizona’s late-season surge as he entered the rotation, and he has pitched often and well in the postseason.

He had three pitches working in his third start of the year with 115 or more pitches, getting swings and misses with his fastball, a breaking ball he called a curveball and his changeup, his best secondary pitch. “I had . . . some good sink on my fastball, inside to righties especially,” Dalbec said. “I’ve thrown that changeup since I started pitching. I’ve always had good feel for it. The big thing that’s come along for me is instead of the slider, having more of a curveball, too, over the slider.”

The one run he gave up came in the fourth inning, starting with a two-strike double by Donnie Walton, who then scored on a bloop single to center field by Garrett Benge on a changeup off the end of the bat. “That’s just the way it goes,” Dalbec said in his pitcher’s demeanor, shrugging off the hit because it came on a good pitch.

Former Oklahoma State coach Tom Holliday, father of current coach Josh Holliday, worked Arizona’s regional at Louisiana-Lafayette and remarked over the weekend at the quality of Dalbec’s stuff. He was likely one source of scouting reports for his son and his hitters, but the younger Holliday said Dalbec was better than the reports.

“I give him credit because I think his ball had big league action,” said Holliday, whose brother Matt has been one of the big leagues’ best hitters for more than a decade. “Was he drafted as a pitcher or hitter? (Answer: Hitter.) He must be a really gifted kid. But his slider had big depth. And his changeup has action. And he’s doing that with 92, 91, 92, 93, and he’s getting the ball in and moving it around. I mean, that’s a tough split. The guy’s making the ball cut, spin the other way and he’s running it up there pretty quick.”

In other words, everyone at TD Ameritrade Park saw an impressive pitcher who continues to look like a pitcher as a pro. But as one Pac-12 coach reached Monday night said, “Believe me, when he’s in the batter’s box, he looks like a hitter. And he looks like a third baseman, he moves really well for his size. He was a shortstop in high school and a good one.”

Ultimately, the Red Sox will make the call on Dalbec’s position as a pro, and they intend to have him hit first in the minor leagues. He has plus raw righthanded power and athleticism, profiles well at third base and obviously has arm strength for the position. If he fails as a hitter, he can always go back to the mound.

This season, though, he’s made his greatest contribution to Arizona as a pitcher, and that trend continued in Omaha.