28-year old righty starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy has had a very nice comeback in 2011. He has pitched in 23 games (all starts) for the A’s so far this year and he is 9-8 with a 3.35 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. McCarthy has only walked 26 batters in his first 155 2/3 innings this year for the A’s and that’s very impressive. He has now pitched in 133 games (79 starts) in his first six years in the majors and he is 29-32 with a 4.21 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. The A’s found themselves a nice pitcher in McCarthy off the junk heap due to his past issues with his shoulder.

27-year old righty closer Andrew Bailey missed the first couple of months of the 2011 season while he was recovering from surgery. But, he has looked like he has never missed a beat so far with the A’s. Bailey has pitched in 24 games (0 starts) for the A’s so far this year and he is 0-2 with 13 saves, a 1.93 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP. He has only given up 16 hits while whiffing 24 batters in his first 23 1/3 innings for the A’s so far this year which is pretty impressive. Bailey has now pitched in 139 games (0 starts) in his first three years with the A’s and he is 7-8 with 64 saves, a 1.73 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. Bailey is quite simply, one of the best closers in the major leagues when he’s healthy. That’s the catch though as Bailey always seems to miss part of a season.

31-year old righty submarining righty reliever Brad Ziegler burst onto the scene for the A’s back in 2008. He was awesome that year but in 2009 and 2010, he was merely ordinary for the A’s. This season though, Ziegler is back to dominating. He has pitched in 37 games (0 starts) for the A’s so far this year and he is 3-1 with 1 save, a 1.82 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. Ziegler has now pitched in 217 games (0 starts) in his first four years with the A’s and he is 11-12 with 19 saves, a 2.40 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. It will be interesting to see if some team comes calling about Zieger at the trade deadline.

25-year old lefty starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez will be the A’s only representative in next week’s All-Star game. Gonzalez broke through in 2010 with the A’s. He started 33 games for the A’s last year and he was 15-9 with a 3.23 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. There were a lot of skeptics thinking that Gonzalez’ 2010 was a fluke as it literally came out of nowhere. But, Gonzalez has been pitching even better in 2011 for the A’s. Gonzalez has started 17 games for the A’s so far this year and he is 8-5 with a 2.31 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He only has given up 85 hits in his first 109 innings this year and he has 106 whiffs, which shows how nasty he can be. His only weakness is his control as he has walked 49 batters already this year. If Gonzalez could tighten his control up a little bit, he would be even more dominating than he is right now.

26-year old lefty starting pitcher Josh Outman missed the entire 2010 season due to Tommy John Surgery. He then started this year in the minors before getting a chance due to injuries and he’s running with it. Outman has started in 4 games so far this June and he is 2-1 with a 3.32 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He has now pitched in 6 games (all starts) for the A’s and he is 3-1 with a 2.86 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. With the way that Outman is pitching, the A’s won’t be able to take him out of the rotation when the other guys come off the D.L.