How is giving up less hits luck? If a pitcher has good command and good stuff he will give up less hits than a pitcher with bad command and mediocre stuff.”

Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. Well, what you said is true, but only because the guy with better command strikes out more batters. The amount of hits a guy gives on balls in play is fairly contant, and not due to a pitcher’s skill.

Thus, quoting hits allowed by a pitcher at all is nearly meaningless - you get all you need to know by listing his walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed.

And thus, allowing a low number of hits is a bad thing when forecasting a pitcher’s future performance - because if he’s allowed less than normal, he’s likely to regress and allow more in the future. Thus he’ll allow more runs as well.

Not a strikeout pitcher, but he pitches to contact and almost always gives you six or seven strong innings and gives his team a chance to win.

So far, Sheffield has done nothing in Detroit.

Sanchez? We won’t know until we see how he pitches coming off the surgery.

He is in extending ST and throwing off the mound. Early reports are enouraging. If he can come back and be what he was prior to the surgery (he was throwing 96 in the Futures Game with a shredded elbow), he could be something special.

At worse, he could be an 8th inning shutdown guy with his stuff. At best, he’s a starter.

I have a feeling he’s going to be in the bullpen when he is 100%.