It certainly has been surprising that Jake Peavy has seemed to have found his 2007-self, the one who pitched 223.1 and a career best 2.24 FIP (not to mention, this was his Cy Young-winning season). Last Thursday, David Schoenfield proclaimed Peavy as the best pitcher in baseball, and while only 7 starts into the season he's laying claim to the title of the best pitcher in the AL. Always hard to judge this early into the season, is this just a hot start, or is he set to drop off sometime soon?
2009: .278
2010: .276
2011: .250
Something to note from ESPN Stats and Info, this is Jake Peavy 2.0:
To make up for a decline in velocity, Peavy has exercised control. Among American League starting pitchers, Peavy's strikeout-to-walk ratio of 6.29 is tops. Peavy's never finished a season with a strikeout-walk ratio higher than 4.32 (2005).
Now the OLIVER-projected 3.7 WAR for the full season seems to be showing a drop off at some point during the season, but even that puts him closer to his mid-2000's form and is a happy improvement for a pitcher that has been battling injuries the past 4 seasons. Best of luck the rest of the season. At the least, I've picked him up in a fantasy league of mine for the time being.
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