Guthrie

I don't think I'm alone among O's fans when I state that I am starting to love Jeremy Guthrie. He has been absolutely spectacular in his 6 starts this year, and is performing better than any of our starters over that stretch of time. His era is currently at 3.02, but that includes several lousy bullpen performances at the beginning of the year. With my math, his era has been 1.91 as a starter. With a .232 BAA and 1.02 WHIP, it certainly doesn't look like an aberration that he has given up so few runs. His BB/K ratio is good and so are his homerun totals. At some point Guthrie may drop off in his performance, but I don't think he will slide far. He appears very athletic out on the field. I loved watching the O's game against the Nats when he almost beat out an infield hit by busting his ass down the line. At the same time though, he seems to be a very cool guy on the field. He doesn't seem to get worked up, and has a very efficient business-like approach on the mound.

Its amazing to me that the O's got this guy for practically nothing with the way he has been playing. I understand a bit why Cleveland couldn't keep him. They have a pretty good rotation, and Guthrie didn't really show them much according to his stats.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/guthrje01.shtml

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Jeremy%2520Guthrie&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=425386

However, he had a good year in the minors in 2006. Perhaps he just wasn't accustomed to coming out of the bullpen, which is all he did with Cleveland besides 1 start.

Guthrie is making it very easy for O's fans to forget the O's acquired Jaret Wright this past offseason. I truly don't care about the progress Wright may be making, because his spot has been taken by somebody who is pitching like an All Star lately. Its pretty impressive that a guy who was waived back in January is now proving his worth as a big league starter.