Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 13, 2008
Games of the Day

Two pitchers doing better than expected take the mound in Cincinnati as Mark Hendrickson faces Edinson Volquez. I scoffed when Hendrickson got the opening day nod for the Marlins, but he's now 5-1 with a 3.56 ERA. He's not doing things that differently in terms of strikeouts and walks, which suggests he may have a better defense behind him or the balls put in play against him are easier to field. Since his line drive percentage is down to 16.5% from 23% last year, it looks like the latter. Volquez upped his strikeouts, and despite playing half his games at GAB allowed only one home run so far this season.

The may be some fireworks in Texas tonight as Felix Hernandez and Kason Gabbard square off in Texas. Five days ago, Felix hit two Texas batters. When Gabbard threw one high over the plate to Richie Sexson, the big first baseman charged the mound and threw his helmet into Gabbard's back. Richie will continue serving his suspension tonight. With luck, they'll stick to pitching well. Hernandez is coming off two poor starts in which he allowed 10 runs in 10 2/3 innings. Gabbard continues to test the limits of how few strikeouts a pitcher can accumulate and still have a sub-2.00 ERA. He's walked 13 and struck out nine in 24 1/3 innings, but with only four extra base hits against him, those free passes haven't led to many runs.

Two years ago, Justin Verlander was the up and coming star and Zack Greinke was trying to get his head on straight. Now, Verlander is struggling to keep runs off the scoreboard and Greinke is fulfilling his potential. Zack's main weakness is the long ball, but four of his five home runs allowed came with the bases empty. Verlander has seen his K per 9 drop by over one this season from his career average. Opponents are putting more balls in play, and more are finding the fences at inopportune times as four of his seven homers allowed came with men on base.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 03:17 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
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