Collin McWho?

Collin McHugh is an example of precisely why fantasy owners shy away from spending a whole lot on pitching at their auctions/drafts. There is simply so much more value that comes along during the season from pitchers plucked from free agency that it makes sense to spend the majority of your budget on offense. McHugh has only started three games, but if he did qualify for the leaderboard, he’d rank fourth among all starters in strikeout percentage. Naturally, 99% of fantasy owners are likely asking themselves the same question — Collin McWho?

McHugh was a one time New York Met, which means that given the perception of the organization in past years, he’ll become a star after being let go by the team. Throughout his minor league career, he had always posted solid strikeout rates above 20%, to go along with respectable walk rates. But nothing in his record suggested he ever had the potential to be an elite strikeout artist at the big league level. And while three starts and 19.1 innings is a tiny sample size, you can’t really fluke your way into punching out 23 batters.

McHugh hasn’t done it with smoke and mirrors. He’s legitimately giving hitters fits, having posted a 13.9% SwStk%. That mark would rank sixth among all starting pitchers. He has also displayed pinpoint control, throwing strikes at a rate significantly above the Major League average. The only real concern when looking at his underlying skill metrics is his extreme fly ball tendency. Since Minute Maid Park inflates home run totals, it’s a bad idea to be such a fly baller there.

So how exactly is McHugh doing this? Unfortunately with only 66.2 total Major League innings, we don’t have a lot of performance history and PITCHf/x data to work with. He doesn’t throw hard, as his fastball has averaged just 91.3 mph this year. But, that’s nearly a full mile per hour higher than where he sat last season while with the Mets and Rockies. It’s still a below average velocity, but all else being equal, more velocity leads to better results.

And that fastball is getting lots of whiffs. While in his previous two stints his four-seam fastball generated a SwStk% in the mid-7% range, it is now getting swings and misses at a splendid 10.1% rate. That’s well above the 6.9% league average. But still, it’s hard to believe a fastball traveling just 91 mph could sustainably generate swinging strikes at that high a rate.

The amazing thing about McHugh is that he has displayed a four-pitch arsenal and every pitch has induced tons of swinging strikes. Check out this table comparing his current SwStk% marks versus the league average:

One might think they are looking at the pitch mix of someone like Stephen Strasburg. But no, it’s the 26-year-old Astros starter Collin McHugh. The biggest question of course is whether or not he can continue to strike out a high rate of batters. And if he had this in him, how come he’s never performed like this in the minors?

One might want to point out that in two of his three starts, he has faced the Mariners. The team ranks eighth highest in strikeout rate, but the Athletics who he faced in his second game rank just 24th, and he struck out about 22% of A’s batters.

While I cannot predict the future and have no real answer for where this is coming from, I can say that the fact that all his pitches have been fantastic and he’s doing this by inducing swinging strikes are all very positive signs. I haven’t a clue if he’ll turn into a pumpkin and get demoted to the minors in a month or actually earn positive mixed league value the rest of the way, but it sure will be interesting to watch this story unfold.