I'm running out of Kevin Gausman puns as I've led with him a decent amount this year but I feel like I need to make some noise after his 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 3 BBs, 8 Ks start yesterday against the Rays. I've been suggesting that Gausman could be on the road to recovery over the last month and here are some startling numbers. Prior to his July 2nd start (five games ago), Gausman held a 8.5% whiff rate, 58.1% First Strike Rate, 28.2% O-Swing overall, with a -3.5 pVal mark on his Splitter as he threw his best pitch just 16.0% of the time. The result was a 7.01 K/9, 4.29 BB/9, and 5.20 xFIP. Atrocious. But since July 2nd, here are those numbers across five starts: 16.4% whiff rate. 65.2% First Strike rate, 32.9% O-Swing overall, with a 0.7 pVal on his Splitter as he bumped his usage rate to 27.1%. And what do you know, he has a 12.81 K/9, 2.77 BB/9 and 2.78 xFIP in that time. Yeah, you get the idea. He's getting ahead more often, allowing him to set up his Splitter plenty and boosting his strikeout numbers in the process. Now I'm not going to tell you it's going to stick - small sample size and it's possible his Fastball command dies away so he stops getting ahead as often - but this isn't just some mirage and a random fluke as there's a clear reason for his success. If you're in dire need, Gausman is a better bet than you think.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
