TCB Astros Pitcher of the Week: May 13-20

Thinking about a theme song for these. Maybe I can steal Craig Ferguson's "tweet mail" themes to scar all of you once he leaves the air at the end of the season.

At any rate, here are the picks. As always, they are entirely subjective and most likely wrong. Deal with it.

Honorable mentions

Tony Sipp

Keep on trucking, T-man. So far, so good. No baserunners allowed yet. I feel like he should have a permanent place carved out in this honorable mentions section, waiting on the day when he finally gives up a hit or a walk. Until then, he's always worth a mention.

Jerome Williams

Outside of Chris Carter, no one has drawn more fan ire than Williams this season. It's warranted to some degree, as Williams performed poorly and doesn't have elite stuff. He's also a stand-up human being, by all accounts, and the favorite to win the Darryl Kile Good Guy award at the end of the season.

But, at least for the past week, Williams has been pretty solid. He threw 3 1/3 innings over that span, giving up four hits and one run while striking out three. His tiny 2.70 ERA was actually more than either his FIP or his xFIP, mainly because of his inflated .364 batting average on balls in play. That's pretty good, and plenty worth a mention here.

Brad Peacock

I can't really explain Brad Peacock right now. I don't get how he's been effective, with just decent strikeout and walk rates. His fastball is good, but middle-of-the-pack on this team in terms of velocity and effectiveness. His slider has been very good and his other pitches pretty average.

But, he does have a pretty cool last name. As we were listening to his last start in the car, my son thought Robert Ford was talking about a new team he hadn't heard of. He asked, "Who are The Peacocks?" I told him, "Peacock's gotta fly." He did not get the reference, because he is four.

Winner

Dallas Keuchel

Can it be anyone else?

Let's just say he's closing in on locking up the award for May with 10 days left in the month. I seriously considered giving him a spot on my fake Cy Young ballot, even if it would have outed me as an out-and-out homer. He's got the best ground ball rate in the league, by far. He's got the third-best SIERA at 2.50 in the league.

And, in the start that matters for this award, he baffled the Angels hitters for 8 2/3 innings, nearly throwing his second straight shutout. He's striking guys out. He's not walking people. He's getting whiffs by the bucketful.

That wins him this award, hands down.