What Alek Manoah is Doing is Special & It Needs to be Recognized
Baseball may be the third-most-popular sport at WVU, but it has produced arguably the best professional athlete the University has seen in quite some time.
Alek Manoah dominated the Big 12 in his three years in Morgantown, specifically in his final season in 2019 where he posted a 9-4 record, an ERA of 2.08, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 144:27. That year, WVU hosted an NCAA Regional for the first time in program history and much of that was due to the outstanding pitching the Mountaineers received from Manoah, Nick Snyder, Jackson Wolf, and Kade Strowd.
After a phenomenal junior season, Manoah was drafted 11th overall in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. He zipped through the minors, skipping both high A ball and AA. Manoah didn't pitch in 2020 due to the minor leagues not having a season during the pandemic but the organization felt like he was ready to make the leap to AAA. It was a brief stint in Buffalo as he only made three starts before getting called up to the big leagues.
In his Major League debut, Manoah shined against the New York Yankees punching out seven batters while only allowing two walks and just two hits in six innings of work. Ever since, he's been tabbed as one of the best pitchers in the entire league.
So far this season Manoah has the 2nd-most wins (8) and has the third-best ERA among all pitchers (1.67). As of four days ago, the WVU product also has the third-best odds (+800) to win the American League Cy Young Award, behind only Shane McClanahan and Justin Verlander. That is elite company right there and there's a portion of the WVU fan base that isn't talking about this enough.
Not only is Manoah the face of the Blue Jays rotation for years to come, but he's also quickly turning into one of the faces of Major League Baseball.
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