After arriving from the Texas Rangers in the Cole Hamels deal in August of 2015, Jerad Eickhoff was better than anyone could have expected. And through the end of 2016, he continued to impress, steadily and consistently.
He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t blow people away with a mid-90s fastball or have a wipe-out slider or anything like that. Instead, he used pinpoint fastball control and a plus-curveball to get hitters out with regularity.
He was, as I called him, the Human Metronome.
Last year, in my annual 10 Bold Predictions piece, I predicted Eickhoff would make the National League All-Star team (I was wrong about that and a TON of other things as you’ll see if you bang the link).