Lance Maturation

Let's talk a minute about Lance McCullers after another solid outing of 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 8 Ks. I find it odd that Cole, Duffy, and Fulmer have been requested to get the Aces Gonna Ace tag, but nothing about McCullers yet. I'm not giving him it today, but man does that 2.48 ERA and 10.06 K/9 look super sexy especially with a 2.62 BB/9. Holy Wade Boggs' Mustache! One of my biggest worries entering the season for McCullers was his history of poor walk rates...which makes sense given that his Curveball is his best pitch and his Fastball command is questionable. But there it is, well under 3.00 and he's looking like a stud because of it. The other knock on him was a poor injury history, but that doesn't seem fair now since everyone and their barber's cousins are on the DL. Lance has been healthy as a kite and I can't dock him for "potential health" anymore. Healthy as a kite? Yes. A soaring kite is the symbol of good health. Duh. Anyway, I won't deny that I have my gut telling me this is going to slow down (maybe it's his sub 6.0 IPS? Or that this is still just 11 starts and not a full season's worth of data?), but my head says the dude is going to be your #1.5 for the season. Random Sidenote: Bonus points if you guess can guess the reference used for today's headline pun. It's a bit of a stretch. And by bit, I mean "yes, it's definitely a stretch."

Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:

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