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

The Red Sox travel to Baltimore where Daisuke Matsuzaka goes for his 15th win. The Boston righty appears to have adopted the philosophy of denying batters anything good to hit. He's surviving a high walk total most likely due to batters chasing close pitches often enough that they strike out or put the ball in play weakly. Consider that of the 338 balls in play against him, only 91 have gone for hits, a .269 average. He's wild without finding the need to give in to hitters, and it's working for him. Compare that to Daniel Cabrera, his opponent tonight. Dice-K walks over a batter more per nine than Cabrera, but Daniel is among the worst twenty in the majors in BB/9. He's just much more hittable when he's in the strike zone.

The Rays try to take over the best record in the AL and the majors as Ervin Santana faces James Shields. With a win tonight Santana doubles his output from last season. He's already pitched 12 2/3 more innings while allowing 29 fewer hits. Against the Angels this season, Shields struck out 17 batters in 17 innings without allowing a walk.

Johnny Cueto takes on Rich Harden in Chicago as the Reds face the Cubs. Cueto is an example of a pitcher who despite low walks and high strikeouts just isn't successful. He allows too many home runs as his FIP is actually very close to his ERA. Harden's allowed five home runs in his 35 innings with the Cubs, but otherwise opponents don't score much. The homers account for six of the eight runs he's allowed since the trade.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 12:58 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Red Sox travel to Baltimore?

Didn't they play there last night?

Posted by: JRVJ at August 19, 2008 05:55 PM
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