How is it BS? It's normal to see a pitcher like Clemens, Maddux, Martinez, Schmidt, Schilling...etc have a good season. But when an unestablished pitcher has a break out 1st half, you can generally speculate that they won't continue that success the 2nd half. Look at Garland and Buerhle (Buerhle is considered to be a very good pitcher, probably just one step up from the likes of a Schilling and Martinez) they had an awesome first half last year and then dropped off in the 2nd off. Look at Garland this year, 5+ ERA, even Buerhle's ERA is in the 4's. The main thing is regardless of whether you duplicate your 1st half performance in the 2nd half, is that you pitch your best ball in the playoffs, and that's what the white sox did along with a timely hit/play here and there. Before I claim that any pitcher is good/great, I want to see at least 2 good seasons, not necessarily judged by win/loss record, but more by ERA & WHIP. With that said...Verlander looks great, he throws the ball extremely hard, but so does Bobby Jenks and I saw him get hit hard a lot last year and occasionally he still gets hit hard. Takes time to develop, Verlander will still have to make changes and develop certain pitches.