Kyle Gibson is out of control

Among the players who have taken a step back since the All Star Break is Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson. Gibson took the loss again last night against the White Sox, with the highlight against him an enormous homerun from Jose Abreu. While that big blast was a high profile issue on one night, that hasn’t been Gibson’s problem of late. In fact, when taken in contrast to his other starts since the Break, this might even qualify as a hopeful outing.

Despite everything, Gibson only walked one batter on Monday night, in contrast to his 11.8% walk rate in the month of August. He didn’t even breach 7% in any month during the first half of the season, but has trended the wrong way in July and August, and so too have his results

There is a bit of good news, though. While the first few months of the season, Gibson was over his head, this August has been significantly worse than his career numbers. One must assume that, unless he is injured, at the very least, his control problems will subside a bit. Maybe we won’t the Kyle Gibson from the beginning of the season, but regular Kyle Gibson is better than what we’ve been seeing.

Also encouraging is a strange quirk of Gibson’s career. He’s always lost touch with the strike zone during the month of August. His career walk rate in the month of August is 10%, with an average of 8.3% for his career. Not only is this tough month out of the ordinary for his career, but it isn’t an aberration for his career Augusts. While the phrasing makes those facts sound at odds, but they both point to the same thing: Kyle Gibson will be better when September rolls around.