Millard Curtis is a 26 year old southpaw who’s pitched well for Irvine as a starter and reliever…and he’s got a cool nickname “Machine Gun!” He leads all NL rookies in WAR with a 1.8 WAR and has solidified his starting spot in the rotation the last month. He must be toiling in anonymity since Plymouth’s GM asked who he was in a recent series – I’m told Plymouth’s Moran came over after the game and comforted Curtis letting him know that he shouldn’t let this anonymity/hate get him down and to keep pitching well. Curtis has pitched 71 innings this season with a 3.30 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 0.4 HR/9, 8.0 K/9, going 6-3 with 1 save in his 20 appearances (7 starts). Curtis did get a brief call up late last season and pitched twice against Baffin, once impressively and once less so. Curtis was drafted in the first round of the 2022 draft and signed immediately by Irvine. He has won the 2024 Pioneer League Pitcher of the Year and was runner up in the 2027 PCL voting for Pitcher of the Year in a league that is dominated by hitters. In 2022 right after being drafted he helped Jasper win the A ball championship and in 2026 he lead the Houston Hammertime to winning the championship while also winning the PCL Championship MVP award.
Arthur Lopez is a 22 year old rookie starting pitcher for Nevada who has come on strong recently after enduring a bit of a rough stretch where he gave up 33 runs in 6 games. He currently sports a 1.6 WAR, 4.59 ERA, 7-3 record, 1.39 WHIP, and 5.5 K/9 although he does give up over 3BB/9. Lopez was drafted and signed by the KC Kings in the 2024 second round and was traded to Los Cabos. He was named the #37 prospect in early April in the BSA. He has jumped straight up to the pros this season after pitching only pitching 31 innings in AA last season (he also pitched over 100 innings in A ball last season). With three plus pitches, he looks to overtake Curtis in the WAR race. Talk about coming out of nowhere. However, he is currently unhappy about the number of slackers/selfish players on the Cartel and we’ll see if his performance suffers as a result! 
Another fellow rookie on Nevada’s team that probably should be in the conversation as honorable mention, D. Wiggins, also thinks there are too many slackers/selfish players on Nevada’s team!
I would be remiss not to include Nassau’s new closer to this list as well! Guan-cai Yong is a 28 year old free agent signing this season who has been dominant closing out games – he’s saved 17 of 18 opportunities this season for Nassau and has yet to allow any inherited runners to score. With a 14.4K/9, hitters fear to face his fearsome cutter and changeup which makes hitters look silly. He’s also the only NL rookie to be selected to the all star game this season. Since he was a free agent, he also is the best paid rookie earning almost 5 million per year.
John Foster looks quite promising in his potential and Boston may really have a future Cy Young candidate on hand with this 23 year old drafted by the Cartel in the 2025 second round before being traded to Boston in 2027. Foster was named as the #2 prospect in the BSA in April. He still has some development to do in order to become that ace, but considering how poor Boston’s pitching staff is, he at least provides a promise of better things to come. While only going 4-11 thus far with a 4.91 ERA, he’s earned a 1.2 WAR, 1.40 WHIP, and 6.2 K/9 including an impressive 8 inning game against Southern Cal where held that offensive powerhouse to 1 run on 6 hits and a complete game shut out of Southern Cal early in the season as well. Apparently, he hates Southern Cal – I don’t blame him. With five pitches in his arsenal including a killer changeup and cutter he could be dangerous moving forward.
Troy Lau is a 34 old rookie playing a surprisingly solid RF for NFF after toiling in AAA Portland the last 8 years. There’s even an Irvine connection as the team apparently released him back in 2017 (I don’t particularly have any memories of him). The last few seasons in Portland, he demonstrated some power hitting 30-40 home runs each season but he largely appeared to be one of those AAAA players. To be honest, he probably still is but he’s loving his time on the big stage for the first time in his career thus far. He currently leads all rookie hitters in the NL with a 1.0 WAR and has hit 9 home runs in 198 plate appearances slashing .253/.354/.830. Believe it or not, he’s on pace to earn a higher WAR in the BSA than he did in 6 of his 8 AAA seasons! His most memorable moment thus far in this season was the grand slam he hit against Maui back in April.
Miguel Colon is a more typical rookie who is aged 26 playing for the Looters primarily in CF (let’s just say that Colon must be enduring a colonoscopy when he’s playing in LF where he’s committed 2 errors in 120 innings and sports a -2.2 ZR) while playing very well in CF where he sports a positive 2.2 ZR! Colon was initially drafted by Austin in 2020 but did not sign, drafted by Seattle in 2021 but did not sign, drafted again by Austin in 2022 but did not sign, and finally was drafted in the first round by New Orleans in 2023 and signed with a 3.8 million dollar bonus. Guess everyone else wasn’t willing/able to pay up? Colon did win rookie of the month for June. Colon did get called up in 2027 for 88 plate appearances and appears to now be established in New Orleans this season. Colon sports a slash line of .298/.353/.779 and likely has to be the front-running hitter to be considered for the award at the moment. He also isn’t very good on the base paths as he’s only been successful in 46% of his 24 attempts.
Honorable Mentions:
Kenji Kudo was a potential contender until a concussion sidelined him for a couple months. He was off to a hot start and had won the April Rookie of the Month honors with a 0.8 WAR for Nassau.
Don Hooper plays a utility role for Irvine this year after a couple injuries and has stuck with the club due to his all around solid play when he gets his chances. In his 46 plate appearances, he’s hit .366/.422/1.178 with 4 homers and 14 RBIs for a 0.7 WAR in very limited playing time.
Alfredo Montalvo was selected by Irvine in the Rule V draft from Southern Cal this year and has pitched well for the team as a member of the rotation. He leads all rookie starters with the required number of innings in ERA (3.63), wins (7), 8.18 hits/9, 1.19 WHIP. He is second in a number of other categories including innings pitched (106), 1.10 HR/9, 2.53 BB/9, 70 Ks, 5.91 K/9, 2.33 K/BB, and 4.57 FIP.
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