Homer Bailey went seven strong innings against the Brewers, giving up 4H, 2BB and a couple ER. Bailey settled down well after giving up both earned runs in the first. He relied heavily on his fastball (71%) but his change-up looked better than it had in a couple starts.
Jay Bruce stole a base and collected a couple hits off lefty, Manny Parra. Bruce has slowly been improving his platoon splits but it’s still quite sensible to sit him against top-tier lefties. Jay Bruce is now hitting .280 on the year after a .223 ’08 campaign. Bruce may be striking out more in 2010 but his swing-rate and swinging strikes are both down. More importantly, Bruce has upped his walk-rate by swinging less outside of the zone. You get the feeling that a break-out month is on the horizon for Jay Bruce.
Casey McGehee continued to absolutely punish the baseball with 3 hits on Tuesday. After a 2009 season where McGehee owned the fastball, he’s been doing most of his damage this year on off-speed stuff. McGehee’s BABIP isn’t spectacularly high — it’s actually the same .330 it was last year – but with only 10% of his hits as line-drives, there’s some concern.
The Toronto Blue Jays continued to light up mistake prone pitches against the Twins and Carl Pavano. Aaron Hill, Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and Edwin Encarnacion all went yard. Blue Jays not named Aaron Hill or Adam Lind will eventually regress but I’m not going to be the one to predict it. With Hill’s homer and Adam Lind’s 2-hit game, their batting averages now sit at .175 and .231, respectively. Adam Lind will have trouble duplicating his 2009 break-out season without cutting his Ks down to 2009 levels: currently, he’s at 29% versus 19% in 2009.
Shaun Marcum continues to dominate with control after missing all of 2009 but the ERA is a bit lucky. Expecting something closer to 2008′s 3.40ERA rather than 2010′s current 2.61 ERA seems to make sense. Marcum’s ability to move the fastball and place the change-up wherever he damn-well pleases is extraordinary.
Rick Porcello’s sinker just isn’t sinking which is a problem when your value’s tied up in ERA and WHIP. At this point, I’m having major issues seeing Porcello’s upside, especially if he continues to walk almost as many batters as he’s striking out. Rick Porcello walked another 3 batters last night in a very mediocre performance (7IP, 4ER, 8H, 3BB, 2K) against the White Sox.
With 2 Hits and a steal, Brennan Boesch is now hitting .387 on the strength of a .426 BABIP. The rook’s slugging percentage sits at a darling .680 but this can only last so long with a BB-Rate of 3% and a 51% O-Swing.
Andruw Jones went 1-for-2 in stolen base attempts last night; Can you believe Jones has 7 SB on the year?
Thankfully for White Sox fans, Bobby Jenks pitched a pretty clean 9th inning: 1H, 0BB and 2 Ks. Sergio Santos walked a couple in one inning’s work to raise his WHIP to 1.08. Hitters are only hitting .165 against Santos and his very live fastball (AVG Speed: 95.6mph).
Florida spanked Arizona eight to nil on Tuesday. Justin Upton was the only Diamondback position player to record a hit — which he bundled with another 2 SO, lovely.
Cameron Maybin hit in the 2-hole and recorded a homer, a walk and a strike-out. The kid’s still hitting just .242 (on a .341 BABIP) and striking out 32.6% of the time.
David Price pitched another solid game for his sixth win of the year. I’d really like to see Price return to the BB numbers of 2008 (2.57) before I fully endorse him as elite, though. While Price is getting a bit lucky on balls in play, he’s still pitching incredibly well with a 3.06 FIP and a True ERA (tERA) of 2.91.
Ben Zobrist is still without a homer, but i’d hardly call him a major disappointment after his 7th steal of the year. His .340 BABIP is almost negated by a 5% increase in line-drives over last year. The major concerns that I have with Zobrist is his huge jump in O-Swing (’09: 19%, 10: 27%) and decline in BB-Rate (’09: 15%, ’10: 10%).
The Royals and Orioles game was a thriller, just ask the reported 9,715 fans that showed up at Camden to take in the baseball super-event. Kevin Millwood, a man that I’ll never roster, continued his hot streak going 8 strong innings, striking out seven without a walk. Millwood’s ERA is now 3.65 on the year and he’s striking out more than 7 batters per 9.
Jose Guillen had two more hits and is now batting .261 with 8HR. Guillen has quietly gone about matching his 2009 power numbers in about half the games. He’s already accumulated one more double, one fewer homer, seven fewer runs, and 15 fewer RBI in 41 fewer games.
Zack Greinke got yet another no-decision, despite 7IP, 2ER, 6K and 1BB. That’s one whole win on the entire year, folks. If there’s anyway that you can acquire Greinke, I’d do it. He’ll still end up with at least 10-12 wins on the year.
I’m a bit sensitive about Josh Beckett as the former Texas Highschooler was one of my first ever keeper picks. In 4.2IP, Beckett gave up another 3ER — That’s good for a season ERA on the wrong side of 7.
C.C. Sabathia allowed a single run in seven solid innings but I’m somewhat concerned about the strike-out and walk totals. C.C. has a habit of starting out poorly but he’s barely striking out six batters per nine and walking almost 3-per-9. He should eventually round back into form before that .239 BABIP catches up to him.
Roy Halladay’s complete game, two ER, six K, performance was out-dueled by Zack Duke et. al. Evan Meek pitched another solid inning in relief, striking out one and walking another. On the season, Meek has a ERA of 0.69 and has managed to strike-out a batter per inning while only walking 2.42-per-9. Evan Meek’s added a couple of MPH across the board and his average fastball hitting 95mph is starting to look closer-worthy. All the plate discipline indicators show that hitters are having trouble with his stuff; it’s just a matter of sustaining the BB-Rate, which he’s lopped in half since 2009.
Ike Davis hit a dinger, his first in a couple weeks. While the strike-outs are worrisome, he’s walking almost 16% of the time. There will inconsistency but Davis has looked pretty good thus far: .275 AVG /.393 OBP/ .466 SLG.
Kris Medlen continued to prove his case with 6.1 innings of 4 Hit ball. Medlen allowed a couple homers while striking out six and walking a couple.
I have absolutely no fucking clue how Carlos Silva continues to pitch this well.
Five walks in just over five innings got Jhoulys Chacin into trouble. He still managed to strike-out six batters and his season ERA is now at 3.12. If Chacin can keep his K:BB on the right side of two, he’ll have success going forward. Expect the normal bumps and bruises, though.
Carlos Zambrano pitched a perfect ninth: two strike-outs and no walks! The Cubs want him and his gigantic salary back in the rotation, which at least gives Big-Z owners hope.
Tyler Colvin took advantage of the playing time, knocking in a run and scoring a couple on three hits. I’m not sure how the Cubbies can make this work but this kid needs to see some consistent at-bats.
Carlos Gonzalez had two hits for the Rockies but there is something dirty about his 2.7% BB-Rate hitting lead-off.
Ian Kinsler hit his first dinger of the year to help Texas beat the Angels. On the season, Vladdy Guerrero now has eight homers after another one last night. The question is not if Guerrero will come up with a bum hamstring but when.
Neftali Feliz is rounding back into form, pitching a scoreless ninth with two K’s.
At what point do the Angels just give up on Brandon Wood? Another hitless game for Wood.
Felipe Lopez lead off for the Cardinals last night. You know the deal with Lopez, he’ll score runs and steal bases but it won’t be pretty. I’ve got a feeling that Lopez might return to his 20 SB days after stealing just 14 over the course of the previous two years.
Six hits over two games was all it took Ian Desmond to raise his batting average from .246 to .279 — Wonky, eh? This is a guy that flashed 30SB potential throughout the minors but it’s yet to translate. In 2009, across two levels and a cup of coffee (AA-AAA-MLB,) Desmond stole 22 Bases.
Felix Hernandez got hit pretty hard (11H, 2BB) without it translating into ER (3). Ben Sheets came back down to earth as he walked 4 more batters en route to 4ER.
Kurt Suzuki had 3 hits to raise his batting average from .239 to .264. He’s still a viable option at catcher.
The story of the extra-innings game between the Padres and the Giants was Mat Latos. Neither Latos nor the Padres got the win thanks in part to Mike Adams’ blown save in the eighth. Mat Latos’ WHIP now sits just below 1.00 in part because he’s given up just 1 walk in his previous three starts. Definitely someone worth locking your sights on.
Bud Norris exploded yet again against the Dodgers. With a couple of hits and a homer, Carlos Lee may finally be starting to heat up.
