Clearly, Odrisamer Despaigne's stock has improved since he first reached the majors in late June. Then, he was a 27-year-old mystery coming off a miserable seven-start showing in the minors. Now, he's nearly throwing no-hitters.
But while the shrinking walk rate and growing strikeout rate over his last two starts are both encouraging signs, something about his early success smells fishy to me.
For one thing, neither the walk rate nor the strikeout rate, even with the recent improvement, is all that good. For another, I actually saw him pitch this time. It's entertaining to watch, I must admit, but it also kind of reminds me of Freddy Garcia.
I hate to use the word "gimmicky," but like Garcia, Despaigne is a bit of a junkballer. He throws a wide variety of pitches -- many of them the slow, loopy kind -- and while it can catch teams off guard at times, as happened to the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLDS against Garcia last year, it doesn't have much staying power. As the scouting reports catch up to Despaigne, I think we'll see him get hit harder, especially since he's not exactly missing bats now.
It doesn't mean he's useless in Fantasy, but in standard 12-team leagues, I think you can do better off the waiver wire, especially if Rubby De La Rosa or Danny Salazar are still available.