Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 19, 2008
Games of the Day

There are a number of good young pitchers taking the mound today. Johnny Cueto faces the Milwaukee Brewers and Jeff Suppan. The Reds Rookie already faced the Brewers once and struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings, although he did not get the decision. Suppan is off to a rough start, as his strikeouts have fallen off to the point that he's now walked more batters than he's K'd.

Tim Lincecum

13 April 2008: #55 Tim Lincecum pitches during the San Francisco Giants 7-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at the AT&T Park in San Francisco, CA.
Photo: Icon SMI

Tim Lincecum is emerging as the ace of the Giants rotation. No other San Francisco starter owns an ERA under 4.00, and Tim stands at 2.25. He also has the best batting average on the team at the moment, as he's 2 for 4 on the season.

Lincecum stepped up his strikeout rate this season, sending down 12.4 batters per nine via the K. He's yet to allow a ball to leave the park. He'll face Joel Pineiro who had a very rough outing versus San Francisco six days ago. We'll see if he's better in his second start since returning to the Cardinals.

Even though he's been around since 2004, Zack Greinke is still rather young at 24 years old. He continues to impress on the mound, boasting an 0.75 ERA so far this season. Unlike Cueto and Lincecum, however, Zack does not rely on the strikeout for his success. He tries to keep the ball on the ground, with 47% of ball in play going that route. His fly balls stay in the park as well, as he's only allowed one home run this season.

Greg Smith, one of the many off-season Oakland trade acquisitions is off to a good start himself. So far his control hasn't been great, but it appears he's effectively wild as batters are hitting just .186 against him. This matchup of youngsters might be the best of the day.

The Mariners and Angels split their first four games in rather high scoring fashion as the teams are averaging 12 runs per game in their meetings. Jarrod Washburn and Ervin Santana will try to quell the opposing offenses tonight. About the only time Washburn's been hit this year is with a man on first only. With runners on he's allowed a .333 BA, but with men in scoring position that drops to .154. So far this season Santana cut his home run rate by 1/3 as compared to 2007. The result is an over two run drop in ERA.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 11:36 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
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