Eliopoulos has fantastic numbers. His ERA may be a little higher than other pitchers, but I find that to be misleading. ERA is based on scoring decisions and what may be one man's error is another man's hit. Additionally, we've all seen plays by defenders that save runs a dive in the gap, a great backhand deep in the hole at SS, so a pitcher's ERA may be deflated by a good defense. ERA is a simple tool to get a rough idea on how a pitcher is doing, but it can certainly be misleading. Pitchers realisticly control three things; strikeouts, walks (and hbp obvi), and homeruns allowed. Eliopoulos is striking out more than a batter per inning, walking less than 3 batters per nine innings and has allowed no home runs in 74.1 innings. That is darn impressive. His 83:22 K:BB ratio is nothing less than elite, and there is no doubt in my mind he should be a frontrunner for pitcher of the year.
