Three pitchers on the rise

When evaluating a player, it's generally a good idea to look at larger sample sizes so that short-term swings in performance don't mislead you into an incorrect conclusion. However, there are some cases in which looking at a player's line from the entire season will cause you to miss some adjustments and improvements that player has made in-season. In fact, just focusing on the overall performance in 2012 might cause you to come to the wrong conclusion about several pitchers who have recently gotten back on the right track after tough starts to the year. So while you shouldn't completely ignore that they struggled out of the gate, here are some pitchers whose turnarounds might fly under the radar if you only focus on full-season numbers.

Ubaldo Jimenez, Cleveland Indians

For the first two months of the season, Jimenez appeared broken. He had more walks than strikeouts in April and May, pacing MLB by issuing 28 free passes in the second month of the season. His velocity was down and his command was off, and the former ground ball machine had turned into a fly ball pitcher who couldn't throw strikes. However, once the calendar flipped to June, Jimenez began to right the ship.

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