Duplantier tosses another gem for Cougars

There are a few things anyone should understand about Jon Duplantier's season.
First, he leads all qualified Minor League pitchers in ERA (0.50), WHIP (0.66) and average-against (.139). Second, his teammates have taken to nicknaming him "Zero" for the obvious reasons.
Third, no, he didn't see this coming either.
"It's been pretty nuts," the eighth-ranked D-backs prospect said. "I don't think anybody saw this coming. Those are some crazy numbers, no matter what league you're in. Stats like those aren't really goals for me. I'm not trying to have an ERA below 3.00 or something like that. My goals are more like strike percentage, amount of first-pitch strikes, strikes in 2-2 counts. I knew if I could execute in those goals, then stuff like this could happen."

Well, it happened again on Monday.
The right-hander allowed only one hit and struck out six with no walks over six scoreless innings in Class A Kane County's 3-2 win over Cedar Rapids at Northwestern Medicine Field. Duplantier (5-0) has thrown 29 straight innings without allowing an earned run and hasn't given up one in nine of his last 10 appearances. 
Gameday box score
The lone hit surrendered by the 22-year-old came on first-inning single by Jermaine Palacios, who was wiped out by a double play in the next at-bat. Only one Cedar Rapids hitter reached after that -- Hank Morrison got aboard to lead off the next frame on a fielding error by third baseman Ramon Hernandez.
The Kane County starter then retired 15 in a row to complete his outing. He threw 53 of 75 pitches for strikes.
"Shoot, I felt like I was cruising," Duplantier said. "We went away from the slider as the day went on, but that was only because everything else was so effective. I could throw the curveball down in the zone. The changeup really felt automatic to me. [Because of the wind out to right], we focused on working the fastball inside to right-handers and could throw it outside well to left-handers.
"Everything felt awesome to the point where there wasn't really a shake-off situation. It was more like, 'OK, you think we can plug in a changeup here? Let's make this work.'"

That's been the story for the first two months of the 2016 third-rounder's first full season. If something isn't clicking -- and Duplantier added that his velocity was a little less than normal at around 88-90 mph on Monday -- then there are plenty of other offerings at his disposal that are capable of carving up Midwest League lineups.
But this past weekend provided the right amount of retrospection to remind Duplantier that wasn't always the case. This time last year, the Newark, Delaware, native was a big part of a Rice University team that was heading to its 22nd straight NCAA tournament. On Sunday, the Owls won the Conference USA tournament to clinch their 23rd consecutive bid but first since 2013 that didn't involve Duplantier. 
He pointed to the zero in Monday's walk column to illustrate the strides he's made since pitching for Rice. 
"I'm starting to consider myself a command guy," said Duplantier, who averaged 3.8 BB/9 during his junior year but has seen that number drop to 1.8 through 54 1/3 innings with Kane County. "It's not exactly where it should be, and there's still room for improvement. But I don't think anyone in college would have thought that I wasn't going to walk guys.
"My mentality is a lot different. I'm a lot calmer in the way that I can sit back and analyze on the mound or know when to pick and choose when to turn on my brain or when to just throw pitches. ... I'm a lot better at dealing with whatever I have on a certain day."
Nobody can doubt that now, given the results this season, and it's gotten to the point where it's a legitimate question to ask if Duplantier is being challenged at all at Class A. College pitchers of his caliber and Draft status typically look at Class A Advanced in the beginning of their first full seasons, but after elbow soreness forced him to make only one pro appearance last season and shoulder issues knocked him out for the entire 2015 season at Rice, the D-backs took a different tack with him. That's none of Duplantier's concern right now, he says.
"I don't think about trying to prove anything," he said. "A lot of that comes from the D-backs, who never made me feel like I had to prove anything to them. We never had a conversation like that, other than proving that I can be healthy and stay healthy. Now that I'm doing that, it's all about going out every fifth day, going late into games, putting my team into a position to win. I'm showing I can do that, I think."

In fact, if there is something he wants people outside the organization to know -- fans and prospect prognosticators alike -- it's that he's healthy.
"My shoulder's holding up fine," he said. "My elbow's good. If anyone can do anything, it's breathe in deep and exhale because everything there has been really good so far."
It's not all external attention that Duplantier is garnering with his special start. Kane County broadcaster Joe Brand wished his Twitter followers, "A Happy Memorial Day to all and Happy Jon Duplantier Day to all #Dbacks fans," before Monday's game. After Duplantier's gem, Cougars outfielder Marcus Wilson tweeted, "We call him Zero," in reference to that day's starter.
Duplantier knows the confidence he's getting from others and can feel every time he takes the mound.
"It plays, stuff like that," he said. "It's not a physical thing. It technically does nothing for me. It doesn't make me better. It doesn't make hitters struggle. But it boosts my morale and my mentality. When people believe in you, you believe in yourself, and when you believe in yourself, anything's possible. ... It makes your day to see guys ask, 'Oh snap, who's pitching today? Yes!' when they see your name. But I tell them to quit playing around and told Marcus to stop with the Zero thing because I don't need that [pressure]."
Duplantier did not factor into the decision after the Kernels scored twice in the eighth to take a 2-1 lead.
The Cougars regained the lead on an RBI double by Jose Herrera and a run-scoring single by Manny Jefferson in the bottom of the frame.