Henderson Alvarez is picking up the slack in the Miami Marlins rotation. Alvarez has also been a bright spot for fantasy owners both in daily and league long fantasy seasons. The only downside to Alvarez is the Marlins ability to win games in which he starts.

In his last five starts, he has only one win, but a dominating.81 earned run average in those starts. In those starts he has gone 33.1 innings, but has only allowed three earned runs. Alvarez is one of many surprises for starting pitchers over the past 30 days around baseball.

Seven Surprise Starters Over The Past 30 days:

Henderson Alvarez, Miami Marlins: In five starts Alvarez has only yielded three earned runs in 33.1 innings pitched. The bad news for fantasy owners is he is part of Marlins team that doesn’t score a ton of runs.

Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays: The Rays have been terrible this season, but it hasn’t been because of Archer. In his last five starts Archer has allowed only four earned runs in 28.1 innings, but has only two losses to show for it. In those five outings the Rays have scored a combined six total runs.

Kevin Gausman, Baltimore Orioles: Since being called back up Gausman has pitched well in his last two outings. Gausman made appearances against two high powered offenses in the Oakland A’s and Toronto Blue Jays and only allowed two earned runs in 13 innings picking up wins in both starts.

Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs: The former Oriole is finally putting his abilities together has put together a solid five game stretch going 2-1 with a 1.82 earned run average. In 29.2 innings Arrieta has struck out 31 batters and allowed only six earned runs.

Tanner Roark, Washington Nationals: Roark has been a surprise for the Nationals this season pitching well in 13 starts. Over his last five outings Roark posted a 2-3 record with a 1.85 earned run average with 25 strikeouts.

Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros: Keuchel might be the biggest surprise of all starting pitchers this season. Keuchel has an 8-3 record for the Astros in 13 starts this season. He has been very efficient over his last five outings putting together a 4-1 record with a 1.43 earned run average only allowing six earned runs in 37 innings.

Colin McHugh, Houston Astros: Much like his teammate Keuchel, McHugh has pitched very well of late posting a 2-2 record in his last four outings. In the five starts McHugh has allowed eight earned runs in 28.1 innings with 32 strikeouts.