I was bullish on Drew Pomeranz even before he joined the Athletics starting rotation in early May, seeing him as a clear victim of the Coors effect given the prospect he was before landing with the Rockies. And the way he dominated in his first three starts only seemed to validate my theory.
But none were more than five innings, which made sense as he transitioned from the bullpen but raised concerns regardless. And then when he followed those three dominant starts with two shaky ones (again, neither lasting six innings) I'll admit my confidence wavered -- not so much that I was dropping him or anything, but enough that I wondered privately if I had oversold him on videos, podcasts and posts such as this one.
Given his performance at the Yankees Thursday, my confidence is fully restored and then some. He went not only six innings, but seven, and threw consistent strikes after battling control issues in those two shaky starts, finishing with just one walk to seven strikeouts.
He took the loss -- which is the price for going against Masahiro Tanaka -- but even with several good starts already on his resume, this was Pomeranz's best. Now that you can trust he's fully stretched out, he's definitively must-own.