Trading For Jason Hammel Looks Good So Far

When the Orioles traded Jeremy Guthrie for Jason Hammel (and Matt Lindstrom), I said " It's entirely possible that Hammel and Guthrie are similarly good pitcher... If the Hammel of old shows up in 2012, there's a good chance the Orioles will have actually upgraded their rotation." It's incredibly early, but so far the returns have been positive: Guthrie Hammel ERA 5.92 1.73 FIP 5.98 2.40 xFIP 5.69 2.74 K/9 1.9 8.7 BB/9 3.7 2.8 HR/9 1.5 0.4 fWAR -0.2 0.9 Obviously Guthrie is unlikely to continue walking twice as many batters as he strikes out (especially since batters aren't really making any better contact against him than they used to). Hammel has looked really good so far though. Here's a rough update of his whiffs per year chart: Year Fastball Slider Curve Change Two-seamer Overall 2009 12.7% 23.4% 46.8% 31.9% 21.5% 2010 11.7% 27.3%...