Detroit and Kansas City match up today, and the only reason this game is of interest is that Kansas City calls up Lenny DiNardo for his first appearance in 2009. His history is of a pitcher who strikes out too few, walks too many, and gives up more than his share of home runs. He did, however, have a very good season in AAA, but he’s a 29 year old pitching in AAA. His minor league numbers in K, BB and HR have always been better than his major league numbers. I think it’s just another example of the Royals investing in the wrong kind of player.

The best pitching matchup of the day takes place in Anaheim where Ryan Rowland-Smith faces John Lackey. Smith, a left-handed pitcher, does a very good job of keeping right-handed batters off base, holding them to a .267 OBA. They account for about 3/4 of the batters he faces. Lackey might be a good case to study on how much pitchers might control the hits against him. As of today, his innings pitched pre break and post break differ by 2/3 of an inning, and his strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed are close. The hits against him, however, dropped from 85 to 58. Given the same defense, was it just luck, or was he making more mistakes as he recovered from his injury?

Enjoy!