Originally posted on 09/16/2014:

Is it Matt Shoemaker? Guy's 27 years old and he's been a bad minor league pitcher. Career ERA of 4.52 in the minors. Completely lit up in the PCL league in both 2012 and '13. Yet here he is, 16-4 overall and dominating the league in a pennant race for the Angels. Go figure.

Is it Wade Davis? Career ERA right around 4. ERA of 5.32 last season, with 169 hits allowed in 135 innings. His numbers this year are almost fake. 31 hits allowed in 64 innings and 96 strikeouts with a .7 ERA and .8 WHIP isn't even possible.

Is it Collin McHugh? This guy gave up over a run per inning (58 ER in 52 IP) a year ago (equally hard to do). Cut by the Jays. Cut by the Mets. Cut by the Rockies for chrissakes. Now he somehow has a 2.7 ERA for the Astros, and he's suddenly untouchable. 3-0 with a .81 and .49 WHIP in September. 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA in August. WTF?

I know fluke stretches and even fluke runs are a part of baseball, but these three cats are completely defying the odds and not only having career years, but putting up Cy Young-esque numbers despite having zero track record of being anything better than journeymen pitchers.

Bizarro baseball at its finest. And watch, all three will be toiling away in mediocrity at this time next season. Jim Johnson, here they come.