Seriously, what the hell?  They went from “meh” last year to one of the best rotations in baseball seemingly overnight.  I mean, of course you have Halladay who’s consistently been one of the best pitchers in the game, and Burnett who when he’s on his A game is a legit ace, but Dustin McGowan?  Shaun Marcum?  Jesse Litsch?  I want to know what they’ve been eating and/or drinking…that Canadian water must add some miles per hour to their fastballs.

All joking aside, these guys are good, and they’re all young, but who knew they’d all put it together at the same time.  McGowan showed flashes last year with his near no-hitter, as did Marcum.  Litsch had a few decent starts but tailed off.  Not this year, though.  They’ve helped solidify the Blue Jays’ pitching staff and the team as a whole, and they’re still hanging around in the AL East when a lot of people picked them to have a sub-.500 record.  Some even picked them to finish 4th behind the Rays.  Those three young guys have helped them out tremendously, though.  Through May 7, their stats stand at:

McGowan: 7 starts, 42.2 IP, 2-2, 2.95 ERA, 34 K, 17 BB

Marcum: 7 starts, 48.2 IP, 4-2, 2.59 ERA, 44 K, 16 BB

Litsch: 6 starts, 33.1 IP, 4-1, 4.32 ERA, 23 K, 7 BB

All of them have great control, can strike guys out when they need to, and McGowan and Marcum both have less hits than innings pitched.  Litsch has 38 hits to 33.1 innings pitched, which isn’t terrible at all, but I’m sure they’d like for him to change that statistic.

If the Jays want to have any shot of contending, they need those guys to keep performing.   I think that all three will have a cold streak, all young pitchers seem to, which will take them out of any playoff hunt that they were previously in.

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