Perhaps Zack Wheeler's six shutout innings in his major-league debut Tuesday at Atlanta would mean more if he didn't walk five batters in the game, but before you dismiss Mets right-hander as another Trevor Bauer, you should know he's in pretty good company with the performance.
You know Matt Harvey, arguably this season's biggest breakout at starting pitcher? Most Fantasy owners were pretty satisfied with what he did as a rookie last year, and he issued three walks over 5 1/3 innings in his first career start. What about five walks in six innings? That came in his fourth start, when he presumably wasn't dealing with the same nerves that Wheeler was Tuesday night.
In fact, for as much grief as Wheeler has gotten for his walk rate in the minors, Harvey's was actually worse leading up to his promotion. He issued 3.9 per nine innings at Triple-A compared to Wheeler's 3.5 per nine.
That doesn't necessarily mean Wheeler will follow the same path as Harvey going forward. Al Melchior said on Fantasy Baseball Today that he'd be surprised to see Wheeler develop that quickly. But it does mean you shouldn't view the walks as a death sentence. His debut actually improved his stock in my eyes. I now rank him 59th among starting pitchers.