5 Starting Pitchers Quietly Having a Great Start to the Second Half

Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers hurler Justin Verlander is easily the most recognizable name on the list (you haven't seen the last dude, but trust me, Verlander is). A Cy Young and MVP award, along with two other top-two finishes in Cy Young voting since 2011, will do that.

But after having a resurgent 2016 campaign in the Motor City, he limped through the first half with a 4.73 ERA, 4.89 SIERA, 21.0% strikeout rate, 10.9% walk rate, and an eye-popping (in a bad way) 37.7% hard-hit rate allowed. He was reportedly available via trade, but given his rough performance, increasing age, full no-trade rights, and huge contract, there didn't seem to be any legitimate interest.

Could he play his way onto a new team via a waiver trade this month if a contender really needs to make a move? It's not totally impossible given how he's turned things around thus far in the second half. Plus, his performance has gone under the radar since most of the narrative regarding Verlander is focused on how this year hasn't been going well.

The right-hander just twirled eight shutout innings on Wednesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates for his third consecutive victory, which is just part of his current dominant stretch.

Verlander owns a 2.01 ERA since the break, and he has ramped up his strikeout rate to 27.5% while cutting down his walks (7.5% rate). He's also allowing much less hard contact (27.2%), and although his 3.74 SIERA tells us he may not pitch this well going forward, it's a huge jump in productivity when compared to his rough first half.