I rated Gio Gonzalez as top 7 pitcher in last weeks (for this week) starting pitcher rankings because the improved control he showed the past four starts. However, his control problems creept back up again against the Orioles. The fastball and changeup were consistently thrown out of the strike zone – 56 percent and 88 percent respectively. Every Gonzalez fantasy owner is never going to feel completely comfortable starting him because it appears his command issues are always going to be there. Ryan Zimmerman had another throwing error; every ball hit at him is going to be adventure. I bring this up because this will negatively effect every Nationals pitcher.

Sean Dolittle is one of the five relievers in the majors. In 70.1 innings he has 83 strikeouts and only 14 walks. If were a full time closer he would be easily in the top 3.

Dan Straily had another solid outing against the Giants as he threw any of his four pitches at any time in the count. He threw a lot of quality strikes and pitched to contact; most the of the contact was weak as he pitched inside to both sides of the plate, which induced a lot popups. That said, he’s very fly ball prone and benefits from the A’s ballpark. To begin his career Straily has been very homer pone and in his last two starts he’s started to throw more quality strikes.

I wasn’t overly impressed with Tyler Skaggs’ outing despite the very nice box score. The biggest thing I noticed was he threw the fastball and changeup up in the zone a lot (35 percent of the time). With his fastball sitting 89-91 I don’t know how effective he’ll be in the long term throwing the ball in that location. With a 50 percent line drive rate suggests there was a lot of hard contact, which indicates he got lucky. Despite allowing zero runs he pitched with runners in scoring position 4-5 innings of the six he threw. The curveball looked really good, generating a lot of swings and misses. My only question is how often will be able to throw it before it loses its effectiveness in a game? With a “meh” changeup and average fastball I don’t think he has the stuff to keep hitters off the curveball consistently.