Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 11, 2006
Games of the Day

The Angels visit the Yankees as rookie Joe Saunders takes on new acquisition Cory Lidle. The Angels started the season with a bit of a youth movement, but their original young players are gone, supplanted by the likes of Quinlan, Napoli, Kendrick, Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders. Joe's proved tough to hit so far as the league is batting just .164 with a .233 slugging percentage against him. Lidle is undefeated since the All-Star break, but has allowed six home runs in 27 2/3 innings in that time, accounting for 8 of his 11 runs allowed.

The Phillies are just three games behind the Reds in the Wild Card race as the two teams meet in Philadelphia tonight. It's a good matchup of sluggers in a hitter's park as Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn go head-to-head. The big difference between the two is hits vs. walks. Dunn's reached base more (191 times vs. 179 for Howard), but Howard's knocked out more hits, raising his slugging percentage 67 points higher than Dunn. He moves runners farther than Adam in a given at bat, which shows up in their RBI percentage.

If Toronto is going to stay in the Wild Card race, they need to keep defeating the opponents ahead of them. They go for two in a row this evening as they send A.J. Burnett vs. Matt Garza, making his major league debut for the Twins. I wonder if shoddy defense is hurting Burnett. Since the all-star break he's posting a 5.40 ERA, but look at his K/BB/HR numbers. I'll take my chances with those.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 01:20 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Jays: You gotta believe.

Let's hope our motto holds true!

Posted by: Andrew at August 11, 2006 02:13 PM

what about contreras-verlander?

Posted by: ryan at August 11, 2006 03:29 PM

Ryan: Words out of my mouth, bro. Kinda odd to ignore the AL Central showdown, huh?

Posted by: Mark at August 11, 2006 04:31 PM

yea no kidding lol

Posted by: ryan at August 11, 2006 07:57 PM

hey go easy - this is the first time the phil's have been a 'game of the day' all year i think.

Posted by: Tim at August 11, 2006 10:22 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?