"The best pitching performance we've seen out of him to date," manager Bob Melvin said. "I think he just gained confidence as the game went along."

"I think this can be a jumping off point for him," reliever Sean Doolittle said. "That was pretty impressive."

It's not like Straily was doubting himself after a series of rocky starts since returning from the minors. He only backs up what the numbers say. "The last few times out, I walked people, hit people, hurt myself. I wasn't getting hit hard. I was hurting myself. The whole goal today was go out and fill up the strike zone."

Like I said on Wednesday's Fantasy Baseball Today, this is the real Dan Straily. He isn't the first high-upside hurler to have a rocky transition to the majors. He also wouldn't be the first to take off once he found his groove. With Brett Anderson potentially out another two months, I'm willing to ride the wave.

"I was really myself out there," Straily said, per the San Francisco Chronicle. "It felt different. I had confidence to start the game. I was not going to let 'hurting myself' be what happened in the ballgame. The last few times out, I walked people, hit people. I wasn't getting hit hard. I was hurting myself. Tonight, my goal was to fill up the strike zone."

Straily didn't issue a walk and allowed just two hits, and afterward said he's never been more confident in his big-league career.

"Any time you're a young player and not having the type of success you would like to have, yeah, you want to have one of these games where you go out and believe," manager Bob Melvin said. "It would've been nice to give him three, four, five runs for a little breathing room. But who knows? Maybe that's what he needed, an outing where he had to be borderline perfect."

Straily shut out the Rangers' offense over seven innings on just two hits and no walks and the Oakland bullpen did the rest in the 1-0 win. Straily struck out five batters and threw just 88 pitches before he was removed. His ERA drops to 5.73 from 7.27. 

Straily had not gone seven full innings this season before Tuesday and the win runs his record to 2-2. It was his first win since his first start on April 5 at Houston. Straily will look to start a winning streak when he next gets the ball Monday against San Francisco in interleague action. 

While Straily is due to strand a higher proportion of runners going forward, there may not be much hope for him to reduce a 4.2 BB/9 rate that has also put a damper on his value. The Athletics rookie has walked 22 batters in 26 career innings against lefties. He uses his changeup much more frequently against lefties, but he hasn't commanded the pitch well.

While Straily can continue to provide strikeouts, he'll be like a right-handed Felix Doubront -- too wild to provide any real benefit from his high K-rate. He's worth stashing in deeper leagues in the event that he resolves this issue, but there aren't signs of Straily turning his season around in the immediate future.

Straily's ERA ballooned to 7.27 after his fifth start of the season, and he has failed to toss a quality start in any of his outings since he debuted with 6 2/3 strong innings. He struck out 11 batters in that first start, but has fanned just 10 in his three most recent starts, with 11 walks.

Straily still seems to have a ton of upside, but he has not been able to figure out the majors through his first 12 starts. If it weren't for the fact that I have him for $1 in a keeper league, I would have already dropped him. In yearly formats that are not restricted to AL-only player pools, Straily should be jettisoned immediately.