Joel Roza has a good take on Jordan Lyles, saying that maybe the Astros should pump the brakes a bit on anointing Lyles 2011's SP5:
What leads me to believe that Lyles isn’t quite ready is that in his two appearances (2 IP against NYY, 3 IP against STL), while he’s putting zeros on the board; he’s not putting any Ks in the scorecard. Sounds trivial, but for a guy who averaged over 9 strikeouts per 9 innings in his minor league career, it tells me that he needs to get comfortable attacking hitters again. He’s not being knocked around now, but his straight-forward approach, minus the strikeouts, would almost certainly be a disaster at the big league level.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
