Commanding

The 5 Phillies starters have a collectively struck out 98 batters and walked 21. That's a 4.7 to 1 ratio. Anything over 2:1 is considered very good. I scanned the top major league pitchers and could only find a few individual pitchers in that neighborhood (Dan Haren 27 K, 2 BB!). For the most part, pitchers have limited control over what happens once balls are in play, so keeping balls out of play (AKA strikeouts) and not allowing extra baserunners with walks is one of the most accurate predictors of pitchers' success. On that measure at least, things are looking promising for this group of starters.