Had Colby Rasmus' weak groundball somehow found a glove, Tampa Bay starting pitcher Chris Archer would have had himself his first career no-hitter. As it was, the 26-year-old righty was forced to settle for a one-hit, 11-strikeout, complete game shutout.

If you were not able to see Archer's most recent masterful performance, you really missed out. It was one of the more dominating pitching performances so far this year, as one of Major League Baseball's most electric pitchers was at his best.

The thing that stood out most in the game was all of the feeble swings that the Astro hitters took against Archer. He kept the entire Houston lineup off balance and repeatedly made them look downright silly.

It's not like this is Archer's first impressive start, though. He has made plenty of opposing hitters look foolish, and he has also garnered plenty of respect from people around the league.

"He was in complete control," Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters after the game. "He's the real deal. He's got every pitch and he had it tonight. I don't know if that was his best because I'm not around him on a day-to-day basis. But it's the best we've seen and certainly he was in total command."

In Baseball America's annual release of MLB Best Tools - where every manager votes for the best players in a variety of categories - Archer was named the best slider and the third best pitcher in the American League. Speaking of his slider, it is ridiculously nasty. It has been such an effective pitch that his fellow big leaguers are taking notice.

"I don't think baseball has ever seen this pitch before," said 2012 Cy Young winner David Price via Marc Topkin of Baseball America. "It's the best pitch in baseball by far.

"If anybody in baseball could have one pitch, it's got to be Archer's slider."

Wow, that is extremely high praise. The sheer speed of the pitch is what makes it unhittable. Archer consistently throws his slider 90 mph or harder, and the fact that he still gets wicked vertical and lateral movement at that speed is incredible.

Writes Topkin: "Think of a pitch that has fastball velocity but curveball break and you get a sense of why it is so effective." In other words, it's the best of both worlds. It is fast and it breaks a ton, which gives hitters fits.

In addition to the wipeout slider, Archer also throws an explosive fastball that has averaged 96 mph, according to Brooks Baseball. But while that gives him a potentially lethal two-pitch mix, he said that the usage of his third pitch is what takes his game to the next level.

"Right out of the gate I was mixing my pitches a little bit better," Archer told Bill Chastain of MLB.com. "I had my changeup going. And that was a difference-maker."

The changeup is kind of an X-factor for Archer. When he is strictly relying on his two best pitches - he throws his fastball or slider nearly 95 percent of the time, per FanGraphs - he is an excellent pitcher. But when he can mix in his changeup, even if it is only a few offerings per game, he is seemingly supernatural.

Moreover, he also duplicates his delivery for each of his pitches, as outlined in a recent column by Owen Watson of FanGraphs. That makes sure that the batter does not have any kind of advantage until the pitch is on its way.

As if Archer needed any help...

What makes it even scarier is that Archer is finally seeing his elite stuff translate into elite statistics.

He is fourth in baseball in fielding independent pitcher (FIP), ninth in WHIP, third in strikeouts per nine innings and fifth in innings pitched. He also sports a sparkling 2.77 ERA and is on pace to amass 274 strikeouts, per ESPN.com.

Still wondering how filthy Archer really is? Well, one major indicator is how many swings-and-misses one induces. Search which pitchers have the highest whiff percentages in Major League Baseball, and this is what you get, via Baseball Savant:

1. Chris Sale: 15.0%

2. Max Scherzer: 13.8%

3. Clayton Kershaw: 13.3%

4. Chris Archer: 12.5%

That is a terrific group, and Archer certainly deserves to be mentioned in it. He possesses a brilliant arm and a dynamic arsenal of pitches, strikes out a ton of batters and doesn't allow many baserunners.

That is the definition of filthy, and Archer definitely fits the bill. In this writer's opinion, he fits the bill more than any other pitcher in baseball.