2023 Eck Award winner: Daniel Bard

A tie for the league lead in saves came down to a difference of opportunities and losses for the 2023 Dennis Eckerlsey Award.

Daniel Bard took home Sardine City's third Eck Award, outdistancing Hopatcong rookie Jimmy Herget. Both led the DMBL in saves with 35.

The Eck Award, recognizing the DMBL's top relief pitcher, is based on a formula, awarding pitchers 3 points for each save and 2 points for relief wins but minus 2 points for each blown save and each loss.

		Sv	BSv	%	W	L	H	POINTS
1	BardD, SCS	35	4	0.897	6	3	4	103
2	Herget, HPG*	35	7	0.833	6	8	0	87
3	Clase, ERI	29	3	0.906	5	5	3	81
4	BautistaF, ARK*	29	3	0.906	2	4	13	77
5	Romano, ALN	30	5	0.857	3	5	6	76
6	DiazE, BR/LIV	21	2	0.913	4	2	11	63
7	BarlowS, ARK	24	6	0.800	7	6	3	62
T	MunozA, EP*	20	3	0.870	7	3	4	62
9	Hendriks, TUC	22	6	0.786	7	4	4	60
10	Raley, POO	22	7	0.759	7	5	1	56
11	Effross, SF	20	4	0.833	7	6	8	54
T	RobertsonD, HIL	22	5	0.815	3	4	7	54
13	Finnegan, VAN	17	5	0.773	6	7	8	39
T	Hader, EC	23	8	0.742	2	9	3	39
15	Almonte, VAN	12	7	0.632	9	3	8	34

* denotes rookie

Daniel Bard contemplates what
it means to win the Eck Award

Herget blew 3 more opportunities and recorded 5 more losses to finish a distance second behind Bard. Emmanuel Clase of Erie finished 3rd with 81 points thanks to 29 saves and a league-best .906 save percentage. Arkansas rookie Felix Bautista was 4th with 77 points, who matched Clase with a .906 save percentage, edging Allentown closer Jordan Romano with 76 points. Last year's winner, Joe Barlow of Rockland (4-6, 9 saves), would have finished somewhere around 20th with 17 points.

Daniel Bard

Bard, 38, signed as a free agent with the Straphangers just before the 2022 trade deadline. His 103 points is the third time in recent memory that the Eck Award winner reached triple digits. Liam Hendriks, who finished 9th this year, compiled 114 points in 2021. Andrew Miller racked up 107 points when he won the Eck in 2018, the last time a Straphanger took home the award. The other instance when Sardine City won the Eck was 2010 when Michael Wuertz recorded a league-record 50 saves (matched in 2013 by Philly's Ryan Cook).

Jimmy Herget

Hopatcong selected Herget with the 2nd pick of the 7th round (122nd overall) of the 2023 draft. The 29-year-old led the league in games finished (67) and tied with Romano for 4th in inherited runners scored (.122, 5/41).

Livingston's Nick Sandlin, with a league-best 12 wins out of the bullpen, finished 16th with 30 points. He also ranked 3rd in inherited runners scored (.105, 4/38).

For the unheralded middle relievers, Arkansas rookie Alexis Diaz led the league with 33 holds, coming within 2 of John Curtiss's DMBL record set in 2021, also with Arkansas. Erie's Clay Holmes was 2nd with 32 holds.

Green Lake's bullpen was busy, with three relievers leading the league in appearances: Steven Wilson, (112), Giovanny Gallegos (108), and Trevor Gott (106).

San Francisco's Scott Effross topped the DMBL with just .098 (4/41) inherited runners scored, followed by Hopatcong rookie Domingo Acevedo (0.100, 4/40).