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Great pitcher and an even greater teammate. Dude is one of the many reasons I'm on the Sunshine train.
7-1 with a miniscule 2.04 ERA. He's tied for the most wins in the National League (7), top 5 in ERA, and top 5 in WHIP. To say that he's a stud would be an understatement. Oh yeah, he made us look good on national TV for once. Nat Gio has been our best starter this season.
You forgot number one in Ks. A category he may blow away the league in when Strasburg gets shut down. Cy young voters like strike outs.
Five months after Washington GM Mike Rizzo raided the farm system to acquire him from Oakland, Gonzalez enters Sunday night's start against Atlanta's Brandon Beachy with an All-Star-worthy portfolio. He's 6-1 with a 1.98 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP and a major league-best ratio of 11.36 strikeouts per nine innings.Gonzalez, a relatively compact 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, is that rare left-handed pitcher with true swing-and-miss stuff. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he ranks 21st out of 119 qualified big league starters with a fastball velocity of 92.7 mph. He's fifth among lefty starters behind David Price (94.6 mph), Matt Moore (94.3), Derek Holland (93.1) and Clayton Kershaw (92.....Gonzalez's trademark pitch is a classic 12-to-6 curveball that he began throwing as a high school freshman in South Florida. Since 2010, he has recorded a major league-high 235 strikeouts with the pitch. Last year his ratio of outs to hits with the curveball was 187-to-47. This year it's an astonishing 41-to-3.It's a rarity when a left-hander's curveball can buckle the knees of both lefty and righty hitters, but Gonzalez's bender does not discriminate."Remember when you were a kid and you'd grip a Wiffle ball with all the holes on one side and throw it as hard as you could, and it would go straight down with a 'Whoosh!"' said Nationals broadcaster F.P. Santangelo. "Well, this guy is doing that against big league hitters."
I said a month ago and I'll say it again, Gio is the egg mcmuffin of pitchers.
A few minutes with Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez On the biggest adjustment in moving from the American League to the National League this season: "I want to say sliding. Seriously. The first time I tried to slide I came up short of the base and almost broke my leg. It had been a long time since I slid—probably high school. I'm not going to do that again anytime soon." On the biggest adjustment as far pitching in a new league: "The main thing is learning the hitters I haven't faced before. With interleague and guys getting traded from one league to the other or moving as free agents, it's not like everyone is new, but it's also been great to have a pitching coach like Steve McCatty, who prepares us so well for each start, to lean on for information on the hitters I haven't seen." On getting traded in the offseason after representing the Athletics at last year's All-Star Game: "I wouldn't have thought it would happen a year ago. I thought I was guy they were building the rotation around along with Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill. Things change, though. The A's are just trying to keep afloat financially, and there are no hard feelings. They gave me my first chance to pitch in the major leagues, and I'll always be thankful to the organization for that." On signing a five-year, $42-million contract with two team/vesting options after coming to the Nationals: "Mike Rizzo is a great general manager, and it made me feel really good when he approached us about a long-term contract. It made me feel good that I was wanted. Once I got to spring training I got a chance to see how much talent is on this team and I knew I made the right decision. Beyond that, we all like each other, and we all have each other's backs. There's a real team feeling here that I like being part of. We've got something special going here. We're set up to be a good team for a long time."
ESPN has a blog post up about Stras, Gio, and the rotation in general, it would appear that the Nats are striking out a whole lot of batters this year...The interesting part of the article is in the explanation of how Gio has improved, in particular his curve ball against right handed hitters is unhittable. Last year opposing righties were hitting .212 against his curve, this year .026! And he is throwing fewer of the pitches for strikes. The chart below shows how he has moved the pitch from the heart of the strike zone to just beyond the lower inside edge of the zone.(Image removed from quote.)http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/44889/nationals-pitching-has-been-more-than-ok
http://espn.go.com/mlb/features/cyyoung
