Gavin Stone hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his last five starts. He’s done this by successfully limiting hard contact (86th percentile hard-hit percentage, 83rd percentile average exit velocity), and avoiding walks (three in his last 20 innings). One area that hasn’t been a strength yet is the ability to strike batters out. The Central Arkansas product is averaging 6.39 strikeouts per nine innings for the second year in a row and his K-rate is a measly 17.1%. However, he generated a ton of punchouts in the minors, averaging over 10 strikeouts per nine innings. If we looked at only swinging strike rate (14.4% last year, 12.2% this year), we’d expect Stone to have generated a lot of strikeouts. While that hasn’t been the case yet, there are enough positive signs to expect an uptick sooner or later.