Santana's Back!

[KolbSaves]

I just picked him up earlier this week for K. Brown

[Zito is God]

Three starts against three easy teams does not an elite make.

EXACTLY what I was thinking.

[thehat]

I'll reiterate what I said earlier (while he was struggling). This guy has tremendous stuff and is an All Star caliber pitcher. The only question will be durability as he enters the 200 IP range for the first time, and that's still down the road. Generally, any difficulties manifest themselves a year or two later.

To those who impatiently dropped him, hopefully it's a lesson learned. To those who bought him cheap, nice job!

[ramble2]

Three starts against three easy teams does not an elite make.

EXACTLY what I was thinking.

As I said above, you don't want to read too much into three starts. Just the same, it's just as unfair to discount his excellent performance against those three teams. After all, he's doing exactly what elite pitchers are supposed to do against weaker teams. Credit where credit's due.

As it stands, the first third of the season was a bust for Santana. The last two seasons he showed that he's got great potential, and that K/BB ratio was excellent. Anyone who Ks more than a batter an inning, while also maintaining a K/BB ratio of greater than 3 is worth keeping an eye on. His success as a starter last year warranted optimism for Santana this year, and continues to warrant optimism for the rest of the season.

Just as three starts against weaker teams does not make an elite starter, a bad third of a season does not a bust make.