He should have warned the camera man…

Where’d Kenny go?

In the decisive fifth game of the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals on Friday night, 22-year-old Trevor Rosenthal once again melted faces and missed bats with his third straight dominant appearance out of the Cardinals’ bullpen.

A 21^st-round draft pick in 2009, the right-hander truly came into his own this season for Double-A Springfield, posting a 2.78 ERA, 6.4 H/9, 7.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 17 starts spanning 94 innings. The Cardinals promoted Rosenthal from Double-A to the major leagues in mid-July, where he worked as a reliever exclusively. As a starter, his fastball consistently sits in the mid-90s with considerable sink, and he’s adept to cutting it, as well. His secondary offerings consist of a sharp, late-breaking downer curveball and solid-average changeup, though he’s rarely thrown the latter given his role. During the regular season, Rosenthal registered a 2.78 ERA, 5.6 H/9, 9.9 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 22 2/3 innings over 19 appearances with the Cardinals. He thrived during the final two weeks of the season, even tallying seven consecutive scoreless outings headed into the postseason. Most importantly, his late-season success carried into the NLDS, where allowed only one hit over three appearances (3 1/3 innings). Not only did the right-hander get crucial outs with the game on the line, he did it in style by fanning six of the 11 batters he faced. Out of the bullpen, Rosenthal’s arsenal is simply electric. His average fastball during the regular season was 98.71 mph, which ranked fourth among all relievers. (He trailed Kelvin Herrera, Carter Capps and Aroldis Chapman, in that order.) In Game 5, facing the heart of the Nationals’ order, Rosenthal needed only 16 pitches to retire Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche. Amazingly, seven of those pitches (all four-seam fastballs) registered at 100 mph—Ryan Zimmerman’s three-pitch strikeout is pictured above via MLB.com’s GameCast. There’s no other way to put it: the Nats’ best hitters were utterly helpless against Rosenthal. Here’s a GIF of the unhittable breaking ball that he threw to strikeout Harper: And here’s a look at the final triple-digit fastball he threw to Ryan Zimmerman for the second out of the inning. While the images above clearly highlight his future as a big league reliever, the majority of his value will come as a starter. After their respective seasons across both the minor and major leagues, I honestly believe that Rosenthal has a higher ceiling than Shelby Miller as a starting pitcher.

The Golden Sombrero presents MLB Look-alikes: Jason Motte and Animal (The Muppets):

The Golden Sombrero presents MLB Look-alikes: Jason Motte and Yukon Cornelius

National League:

West: Diamondbacks

Central: Cardinals

East: Phillies

Wild Card: Marlins

Wild Card: Giants

NLDS: Phillies def. Marlins in 4; Cardinals def. Diamondbacks in 5

NLCS: Cardinals def. Phillies in 6

NLCS MVP: Lance Berkman

Awards:

NL Rookie of the Year (hitter): Devin Mesoraco

NL Dark Horse Rookie of the Year (hitter): Bryce Harper

NL Rookie of the Year (pitcher): Trevor Bauer

NL Dark Horse Rookie of the Year (pitcher): Shelby Miller

NL Reliever of the Year: Jonathan Axford

NL Dark Horse Reliever of the Year: Jason Motte

NL Comeback Player of the Year: Hanley Ramirez

NL Dark Horse Comeback Player of the Year: Dan Uggla

NL Strikeout King: Clayton Kershaw

NL Dark Horse Strikeout King: Madison Bumgarner

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw

NL Dark Horse Cy Young: Josh Johnson

NL Batting Champ: Carlos Gonzalez

NL Dark Horse Batting Champ: Starlin Castro

NL HR Champ: Giancarlo Stanton

NL Dark Horse HR Champ: No one is going to hit more HRs than Stanton

NL MVP: Justin Upton

NL Dark Horse MVP: Giancarlo Stanton

American League

West: Angels

Central: Tigers

East: Rays

Wild Card Winner: Yankees

Wild Card Winner: Rangers

ALDS: Angels def. Yankees in 3; Tigers def. Rays in 4

ALCS: Tigers def. Angels in 7

ALCS MVP: Prince Fielder

AL ROY (hitter): Jesus Montero

AL Dark Horse ROY (hitter): Yoenis Cespedes

AL ROY (pitcher): Matt Moore

AL Dark Horse ROY (pitcher): Yu Darvish

AL Comeback Player of the Year: Ichiro Suzuki

AL Dark Horse Comeback Player of the Year: Vernon Wells/Adam Dunn

AL Strikeout King: Felix Hernandez

AL Dark Horse Strikeout King: Matt Moore

AL Cy Young Winner: Felix Hernandez

AL Dark Horse Cy Young Winner: Ubaldo Jiminez

AL Batting Champ: Adrian Gonzalez

AL Dark Horse Batting Champ: Eric Hosmer

AL HR King: Jose Bautista

AL Dark Horse HR King: Evan Longoria

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera

AL Dark Horse MVP: Albert Pujols

2012 World Series:

2012 World Series: Tigers def. Cardinals in 6

2012 WS MVP: Justin Verlander