Astros starting pitcher Jordan Lyles flopped in his first two seasons in the majors, to the point that he did not even earn a spot in the rotation despite making 25 starts a year ago. In two starts since being recalled, however, he has looked more major-league ready this time around, racking up big strikeout numbers in his first two starts.
Lyles has 12 strikeouts and just three walks in his first 10 innings of work after posting just 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings last year and 6.41 in 2011. The key for Lyles will be whether he can sustain this strikeout rate, as his minor-league numbers have not hinted at dominant swing-and-miss potential in the past few years.
When Lyles established himself as a prospect worth watching, he put together consecutive seasons of at least 8.0 strikeouts per nine innings. He has been below 7.0 in each full season since, in both the majors and minors. It is a good sign that he has induced a swinging strike on 14.1 percent of his pitches so far, compared to just 6.9 percent a year ago.
Lyles is worth a look in AL-only Fantasy formats at this time, but he will need to keep generating plenty of whiffs to be someone who should draw interest in mixed-league formats.