Several starting pitchers have delivered exceptional performances each week, capturing the attention of fans and analysts alike. From established aces reaffirming their dominance to emerging talents making significant impacts, these pitchers have set the tone for excellence on the mound. Let’s take a look at who tore it up and made noise last week around the league, in no particular order.
Merrill Kelly, Arizona Diamondbacks
Week’s Line: 14.0 IP, 0.64 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 19 K, 12.21 K9, 2 QS
Merril Kelly had himself a week! Not generally known as a strikeout maestro, Kelly cooked this week with the changeup, generating 51.2% whiffs (20/39) and racking up the Ks. Yes, it was the Rockies on the road, but it was also the Giants.
Bryan Woo, Seattle Mariners
Week’s Line: 13.1 IP, 0.68 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 11 K, 7.56 K9, 2 QS
Woo has been really good this year, working at least 6.0 innings in every outing, and turning quality starts in all but two of them. And real quality starts, not the ones that result in a 4.50 ERA. And these were big boy starts this week – Yankees and Padres.
Framber Valdez, Houston Astros
Week’s Line: 15.0 IP, 2.40 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 15 K, 9.00 K9, 2 QS
Steady. All season. That’s Framber for you. Seven to eight innings (very efficient with his pitch counts), seven to eight punchouts (all his breaking stuff just drops), and a win here and there. 15 innings this week of decent work against the Royals and Rangers.
Jeffrey Springs, Athletics
Week’s Line: 13.2 IP, 1.32 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 9 K, 6.14 K9, 2 QS
Springs has really evolved into a reliable guy in the Athletics starting rotation, and is generally good for six innings and a quality start. True, the strikeouts are sporadic, but he limits the damage through soft contact. Don’t love the LD% or the FB%, but it’s working for him so far.
Tyler Mahle, Texas Rangers
Week’s Line: 12.1 IP, 1.46 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 8 K, 5.95 K9, 2 QS
Crazy thing about Mahle this season – the Statcast profile is sort of meh, but it’s translating to fantastic results (98th percentile in pitching run value and fastball run value). His four-seamer isn’t fast (92.0), but man, does it move. And yes, one of the gales was the Rockies on the road (notice a trend here), but the other was Houston.
Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates
Week’s Line: 14.0 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 15 K, 9.64 K9, 2 QS
It’s about time I featured Skenes in this column. Obvs we all know who he is, and the pitch profile is just insane (Pitching+ @ 115). Check Statcast if you don’t believe me – zero blue indicators. Two big boy starts on the road this week – the Mets and Phils – cement the stones on this kid even further.
Jacob deGrom, Texas Rangers
Week’s Line: 8.0 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 7 K, 7.88 K9, 1 QS
My second Ranger to feature this week (they’ve got a solid rotation, btw), deGrom seems to have put the injuries behind him. Sure, the load management is there (has only finished six innings three times in nine starts), but hey – we’ll take whatever we can get when it comes to deGrom. Rivalry Weekend (yawn), and Jacob showed up and out with eight innings of hold ‘em down baseball.
Andrew Abbott, Cincinnati Reds
Week’s Line: 11.0 IP, 0.82 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 12 K, 9.82 K9, 1 QS
Best mustache in the bigs? Debatable. What’s not debatable is Abbott’s ability to control runs – he’s given up one run or less in all but one of his starts. And that changeup? And the curve that looks just like his four-seamer until it drops off a table? From a lefty? Yeah, it works.
Joe Ryan, Minnesota Twins
Week’s Line: 6.0 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 9 K, 13.5 K9, 1 QS
Still swooning over that sweeper that Ryan dropped on Kyren Paris a few weeks back. 30 inches of horizontal break. Thirty.My god. Anyways. Ryan was masterful again this week, more so with the four-seamer than the splitter, cooking the Brewers in Milwaukee.
Corbin Burnes, Arizona Diamondbacks
Week’s Line: 6.0 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 10 K, 15.00 K9, 1 QS
Is Corbin back? Like back back? I mean, it was the Rockies (yes, on the road), so the 10 strikeouts come with an asterisk. But last week he handled the Dodgers and Mets in his previous two starts, so maybe he’s back. He’s still walking too many batters, contributing to the unsightly WHIP. But he’s pitching deeper into games, so we don’t hate that.
