If you have yet to realize just what kind of impact Jake Odorizzi could make for your Fantasy team, time to look beyond the 3-7 record and 4.29 ERA.
Let's start with his year-to-date numbers since a smaller sample size is inherently open to criticism. He's averaging 10.5 stikeouts per nine innings -- third-best among qualifying starting pitchers, behind just Yu Darvish and Stephen Strasburg -- and has a 3.15 FIP. In case you're unfamiliar with FIP, it's an estimate of what a pitcher's ERA would be with luck and defense removed from the equation. Quite simply, he's pitched better than his overall numbers show.
And his more recent numbers bear witness to that. In his last nine starts, he has a 2.88 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings -- numbers without comparison at starting pitcher. The closest would probably be Madison Bumgarner, but even his strikeout rate is a little off.
Which isn't to say Odorizzi is on the verge of becoming a Cy Young contender -- he at times has trouble pitching deep into games, for one thing -- but a nine-start sample is nothing to scoff at. Nathan Eovaldi is still 80 percent owned because of a not-as-impressive eight-start stretch to begin the year. Right now, Odorizzi is looking like the more attractive of the two.