Thursday, June 11, 2009

Pitchers that are Hot

Since a third of the season has passed us by, I thought it was about time I looked around the leagues to see which pitchers have been off to a strong start. While stats only can tell you so much, I found some to be quite amazing.

Pitchers (in order according to their performance so far):
  1. Roy Halladay- Not surprising to see him on this list. He is 10-1 on the season and is leading the majors in wins and innings pitched. He has 3CG's so far which puts him in second, behind Zack Greinke.
  2. Zack Greinke- This guy has been one of the very few good things that Royals fans have to look foward to. He has been amazing so far this season going 8-2 with an ERA of 1.55. He is leading the majors with 5 CG's, 2 of which were shutouts. There is no doubt that he will surpass the number of wins he had last year (13) and with him averaging over 7 strikeouts a game, he should be also to reach an all-time high of strikeouts in a season.
  3. Johan Santana- This guy has been stellar for the Mets and is the strength of their starting staff. His record of 8-3 is deceiving as the Mets bullpen has let him down on several occasions. I placed him after these two pitchers as he is starting in the NL and also is pitching in the ever-so-pitchers friendly ballpark of Citi-Field.
  4. Matt Cain-He pitches on a team that is far away from New York, but he has put together some good stats for the first third of the season. His record of 8-1 with an ERA of 2.55 is impressive and he is one of the several reasons as to why the Giants are in second place in their division.
  5. Chad Billingsley-With the impressive start that the Dodgers have had so far, the list could not be complete without mentioning the stats of Billingsley. He has a record of 8-3 with an ERA of 2.73 and has been a consistent pitcher for their rotation.
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Other notables:
  • Justin Verlander is rebounding from his dreadful 2008 season and has a record of 7-2 with an ERA of 3.02. He is leading the league in strikeouts with 106 and has 2CG's so far in the season.
  • Jonathan Broxton has 6 wins so far, as a closer. Crazy right? On top of the 6 wins, he also has 14 saves. I guess the Dodgers are playing in a lot of tied games or those in which they are coming back from from behind.
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Any other suggestions for guys that aren't on the list that you think should be?

3 comments:

The Commish! said...

Pretty good list Christina. Doc is by far the front runner for the AL Cy Young award.

Greinke reminds me of Cliff Lee from last year. Impressive he's doing it on the Royals.

Johan shouldn't have shown up Jerry Manuel the other night when he took him out of the game the other night. He always has to be on since the Mets rarely give him run support. WIthout Johan, the Mets wouldn't even be contenders in the East.

I saw Verlander pitch at Old Dominion. Good to see him back on track.

Mad Dog must love Cain. Again, impressive what he's doing in San Fran without a good offense.

Kyle said...

Great post! I'll also add a few other pitchers.

Jered Weaver is 6-2 with a 2.33 era

Edwin Jackson is 6-3 with a 2.24 era

Oh and Ted Lilly is 7-4 with a 3.00 era. He's got a 1.05 WHIP and a .218 batting average against. The same Lilly that the Yankees decided that they'd rather have Igawa.

Lincecum is 5-1 with a 2.96 era. What a 1-2 him and Cain are.

Al Leiter's Bullpen Catcher said...

thanks guys. Thanks for the additions kyle, Lincecum and Cain sure are quite pair. Too bad the Giants have very little offense. I will admit though that Pablo Sandoval is doing quite well.