IBC

Contributors: Royals - commentary, Reds - rankings

Gentlemen and Bren - welcome to the first pitcher's version of the Hot Shit - I mean Sheet. Many thanks to Shawn Dubs and Nate Dogg for their help.

The saying goes "Pitching wins in October," but if pitching doesn't win in April-September too, then you're not in October - still with me? Here are the guys who are currently helping their squads win now:

Hot Sheet: Pitcher Edition

1. Johan Santana - SP - BlueJays
1.57 ERA, 3W-OL, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 23.3 INN, 13 H, 4R, 4ER, 1 BB, 30 K

After struggling out of the shoot, Johan has blown away the competition over the May dates of the hot sheet. I'm not sure what's the most impressive - 30 k's in 23 ip's, 13 hits in 23 ip's, 1 bb in 23 ip's - anyway you slice it it's insane. Makes you remember the time-honored saying: "It's better to have Johan Santana on your team then have to play against him."

2. Daisuke Matsuzaka - SP - Padres
0.82 ERA, 1W-0L, 22.0 INN, 17 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 18 K, 3 GDP

Only 1 win for Dice-K, but it's certainly not for a lack of dominating. A whip under 1.00 will usually keep you in games - but an ERA under 1.00 will ALWAYS keep you in games. As Martin battles to overtake an apparently asleep-at-the-wheel Nils for the NL West, we should see Dice-K, Hamels, and Sabathia re-emerge this list with some consistency.

3. Andy Sonnanstine - SP - BlueJays
1.57 ERA, 3W-0L, 2 CG, 2 SHO, 34.1 INN, 24 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 29 K, 7 GDP

Like Bishop needs any help, out of left field comes ANDY SONNANSTINE to the rescue with 3 wins and an ERA that would make Bob Gibson blush. Seriously, I realize that this Sonnanstine cat has some potential, but Pat's gonna put a serious stranglehold on this division if he gets performances like this from ANDY F'N SONNANSTINE for prolonged periods of time.

4. Mark DiFelice - MR - Athletics
0.93 ERA, 3W-0L, 29.0 INN, 16 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 22 K, 1 GDP

Just when Hiram Bocachica takes his SIM magic to Japan, Jake stumbles into Mark DiFelice. After a decade long minor league career, DiFelice has taken his "magic" to the MLB with little success so far. Fortunately for "The Rev" DiFelice has been more "Peavy" then "DiFelice" in the IBC. And now Jake mocks us with his "useless in the MLB" posts - thanks for the reminder Ass Face!

5. Cole Hamels - SP - Padres
2.38 ERA, 2W-1L, 22.2 INN, 16 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 26 K

A real live pitcher! Hamels is an awesome, awesome talent who may just be a fixture on this list - especially in that ballpark. Sabathia, Dice-K, and Hamels are not going to want to be faced come playoff time.

6. Bob Cramer - SP - Royals
2.79 ERA, 3W-0L, 29.0 INN, 25 H, 12 R, 9 ER, 6 BB, 26 K, 1 GDP

Sorry Jake, looks like I spoke too soon. Cramer is a SIM anomaly with a 66% (!!!!!!!!!!) GB rate. So long as you can keep the ball in Kaufmann, with my offense, and you've got a chance - and Cramer's sure proved that here.

7. Jake Peavy - SP - Giants
1.88 ERA, 1W-1L, 1 CG, 24.0 INN, 13 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 22 K,

Peavy? Never heard of him. Perennial Cy Young Winner you say? Dominating baa and k rates? Hmmm...

Seriously, I'd give my left arm for one of Peavy, Webb, or Hamels...

I'd imagine somehow they'll make it to JB's squad soon.

Tough timing here for Nils, as Peavy's injury comes on the heels of the Myers trade.

8. Johnny Cueto - SP - DBacks
2.18 ERA, 2W-1L, 1CG, 1 SHO, 20.2 INN, 16 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 7 BB, 18 K

Love this guy in real life - and the SIM loves him in fake life. Seriously, the Reds are putting together what's going to be a dangerous baseball team. And, coincidentally, so is Jagger...

9. Jack Egbert - SP - Mets
2.66 ERA, 0W-1L, 20.1 INN, 13 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 6 BB, 22 K, 2 GDP

It's really tough to not win any games with a WHIP under 1.00 and a k rate north of 1 per IP. Congrats Jack Egbert! Wait...who?

10. Jeff Francis - SP - Twins
1.69 ERA, 2W-1L, 1 CG, 21.1 INN, 17 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 16 K, 2 GDP

I'm not going to be in good shape if Andrew's teams actually pitch well. Francis is getting steamrolled in the MLB, but is certainly keeping Andrew within earshot in the IBC. If Billingsley can get it together to team with Weaver and Francis, this is going to be an interesting ALC race.

In The Team Photo:
Nick Adenhart, Wade Davis, Kevin Slowey, Javier Vazquez, Brian Duensing, Matt Maloney, Paul Maholm, Matt Cain, Chris Sampson, Lenny DiNardo, James McDonald, Chuck James, Tim Redding, Joba Chamberlain, Dan Haren, Ryan Dempster, Jarrod Washburn, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Randy Wolf, Brett Myers, AJ Burnett, John Garland, Jeremy Bonderman

Washburn not even in the photo? Snubbed

Actually, he is.. I must have skimmed over his name when inputting the photo members.. actually it loooks like quite a few got cut off for some reason.. maybe an issue with the template. thanks for the heads up, otherwise i might not have noticed.

so perhaps there was an issue with the hitters edition too because I know i had more in that team photo, however I didn't save the work, so we'll just have to deal.. and going foward we'll work out the bugs later.

Wow...

2nd place in the AL East, and by my count only one player in the team photo on either hot sheet, and no one on the sheet itself.

Image what happens when my players get hot.

That said, I probably just jinxed myself and will roll of ten losses in a row.

Oh well.

Your guys have been playing well.. just not quite good enough to make the List.

I mean, Vazquez has been good, but here's his line:

Vazquez 3.05 2 0 0 3 3 0 0 20.2 21 8 7 6 22 3 3

His ERA is a tad more than most on the list, he's been hittable, and gave up 3 gophers. Thats why he didn't quite make the list, but I did want to put him in the Photo as the performance still merits mention.

Eventually when these lits are expanded to include helium watches, hot streaks, cold streaks, or whatever.. in other words, once we get more of the bells and whistles incorporated, you might see a guy like Volquez get more of a mention than the photo.

Again though, for now - Shawn is just getting this integrated into the web site to even be able to use - its less than a week old. There are more features I would like added, and we'd like to get it linked up to the new accordian style front page. Some bugs to work out still I'm sure. He's got some work ahead of him.

BTW - keep firing away with questions/comments/feedback.

If you disagree with something, say so and why.

If you want to gloat, please!~ GLOAT AWAY!

I was hoping to bring back a bit of the ol' bite the ol' IBC used to have - gloating, shit talkin, pimpin, etc. As long as it doesn't get personal, tout your team.

If a player got slighted(as JP thought Washburn did) say so! and rant about it! All in good fun and good taste of course.

Calm down on DiFelice, he had one bad outing, and it was one inning, that's a pretty small sample size to judge. I think he could be a decent 5th starter for them if they let him, though I'd definitely prefer they send him back to the PCL and let him rip through hitters down there so I can do the same thing next year.

I have no idea how Egbert and Cueto are hotter than Francis.

Twins wrote:I have no idea how Egbert and Cueto are hotter than Francis.

For me, it was that Cueto had 1 CG SHO, a bit less hittable, and 1 more K..

For Egbert, far less hittable than Francis, far more K's.

Reds wrote:

Twins wrote:I have no idea how Egbert and Cueto are hotter than Francis.

For me, it was that Cueto had 1 CG SHO, a bit less hittable, and 1 more K..

For Egbert, far less hittable than Francis, far more K's.

I can grant Cueto, but Egbert with his walks, has a WHIP higher than Francis'

Not that I'm pissed, but I'm just sayin'...

I had a nice response, but I guess it got junked. Fucking wireless. Ugh.

In any case, the last spots are certainly more interchangable than the top - there are guys in the team photo who came close, so the order is debatable.

I wasn't able to grap a WHIP stat outta the SIM - where I pull the stats from - and my math sucks. I'm not in the mood to calculate WHIP when doin these. Tryin to keep it simple - so take the stats at face value - even if they are counting stats for the most part. I dont know, to me the K is more impressive than BB's, so while Francis did only give up 1 walk, his 16/1 ratio isn't as good as 22/6 to me. 8 more K's and a diffreence of 5 walks. Spread out, the BB's are not a big deal.

Also, to me the lack of K's in IP for Francis, gives me the impression that he relies more on his defense. Nothing wrong with that at all - but I like to think of the K as a more independent control variable for a pitcher. The fact that Egbert K'd more tells me, he's doing more of what HE can control - making it weigh a bit more in my mind.

Just how I see it.

WHIP is in the analytical section of the sim reports for future reference

Orioles wrote: That said, I probably just jinxed myself and will roll of ten losses in a row.

Yep...one down, nine to go.

Pirates wrote:WHIP is in the analytical section of the sim reports for future reference

Cool, noted for future reference

I'll might reference you on how to do this when the next hot sheet comes, so heads up.

Also dude how are you comparing Cramer to DiFelice? Cramer shouldn't even have been ahead of Peavy. Cramer vs. DiFelice is like comparing a McDonald's Big Mac to a fine five course meal, totally different categories of SIM freak.

I didn't make that comparison, so I'll have to let Zalaski answer that one. Z did the commentary. I just ranked em. As for why he's ranked above peavy, given the small sample size, 5 more innings is a huge difference so he's been "Hot" for a longer period than Peavy for me. Still less hits than IP, more K's than peavy, and (I know I know, its a shit stat to guage a pitcher on, but it influenced me) 3 wins for him.

Looking back you might be right.. maybe I was too hasty on Cramer above Peavy. But I never said this would be perfect

Cramer vs. DiFelice is like comparing a McDonald's Big Mac to a fine five course meal, totally different categories of SIM freak.

This has to be the overstatement of the decade if you are talking about them as real live players. At no point in his life, as a pitcher, will Mark DiFelice be compared to a "fine five course meal" vs. another pitcher unless that other pitcher lost his throwing arm in Vietnam.

Calm down on DiFelice, he had one bad outing, and it was one inning, that's a pretty small sample size to judge.

Just humor man - I had no idea you were so emotional about Mark DiFelice. I apologize...

I've grown very attached to his projection, I think it comes from the projection envy of giving up Cody Ross.