DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Charlie Blackmon has six hits in 12 at-bats versus Matt Cain. He has a homer and two steals as well. Troy Tulowitzki, or should I say the greatest hitter in the history of the known universe, has hit .333 with five homers, five doubles and 10 RBIs in 63 at-bats versus the Giants' righty.
Paul Konerko is only batting .265 against Jeremy Guthrie but he also has a .571 SLG thank to three doubles and four homers in 49 at-bats.
Adam Lind has hit .326 with a .883 OPS in 45 plate appearances against Clay Buchholz. He's also gone deep twice with three doubles. Jose Bautista has hit .310 in the matchup but he has only one homer in 35 at-bats.
Victor Martinez is on pace to hit like 77 homers. OK, it only seems like that, but you get the point. In 11 at-bats versus Zach McAllister he's hit .545 with five RBIs. Austin Jackson has been slumping like a mutha of late but he too sees the ball very well against Zach with a .538 average in 13 at-bats.
Mike Moustakas stinks. I don't need to belabor the point. However, he's always hit Jose Quintana, but I'm still having a very hard time suggesting Moose given that, well, he stinks. Still, here's the data: .421 with two homers in 19 at-bats.
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Buster Posey is playing in Coors Field. He's also facing Jhoulys Chacin who he's thumping to the tune of a .474 average and one homer in 19 at-bats.
Nick Punto is picking up playing time as Jed Lowrie struggles with his health. In 14 at-bats against Erik Bedard the super utility man has produced six hits leading to a .429 average.
Jimmy Rollins has hit .353 with an OPS over a grand in 21 plate appearances against Nathan Eovaldi. He's apparently not impressed by the heat. Carlos Ruiz is batting .357 with three doubles in 14 at-bats while Chase Utley has seven RBIs in 18 at-bats.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Adrian Beltre has just three hits, but five strikeouts, in 17 at-bats against wily veteran Chris Young.
Billy Butler is finally starting to hit, and he does have a .375 OBP in 24 plate appearances against Jose Quintana. He's also batting just .167 and has nine Ks in 18 at-bats in the matchup. That's not good, right? The also unlikely to do much crowd swells by two more Royals: Alex Gordon (3-for-20) and Eric Hosmer (.095 with 7 Ks in 21 ABs).
Coco Crisp will be hard pressed to get a hit off the suddenly hot Erik Bedard. Crisp has only managed one hit in 18 previous at-bats.
Carlos Gonzalez can't hit Matt Cain. He cannot. In 44 at-bats he's struck out 17 times and he's produced four hits leading to a .091 batting average. Wilin Rosario is batting .200 in 15 at-bats, the same exact numbers as Nolan Arenado.
Brett Lawrie has three hits in 22 at-bats against Clay Buchholz. Admittedly that is just flat out atrocious. Perhaps I should have saved that term for Edwin Encarnacion. Check this out. His batting average is about a third of Lawrie's .136 at .048 in 21 at-bats. What word is three times worse than atrocious? How about the term... laughably hideous? Putrid?
Lyle Overbay take a seat. He has eight Ks an is batting .185 over 27 at-bats against Ervin Santana. Carlos Gomez also does nothing. He's got five strikeouts in 11 at-bats and is working on a .455 OPS.
Hunter Pence has struck out six times in 19 at-bats versus Jhoulys Chacin. He's also hitting only .211. Angel Pagan is at .200 in his 15 at-bats.
Ugly. I'll just state the fact and you can let it sink in. Jhonny Peralta has one hit in 21 at-bats against Brandon McCarthy.
Alexei Ramirez is just one of many who have an odd inability to do any significant damage against the utterly boring Jeremy Guthrie. Ramirez is batting .175 over 40 at-bats. Dayan Viciedo has four hits in 19 at-bats (.211 with 7 Ks). Gordon Beckham is batting .212 in 33 at-bats. Adam Dunn has one homer in 30 at-bats as is hitting .233 with 12 Ks.
Carlos Santana can't be started in about 70 percent of leagues right now. He shouldn't be starting for anyone Wednesday as he's gone just 3-for-27 off of Max Scherzer. Michael Bourn (.190 in 21 ABs), Lonnie Chisenhall (.176 in 17 ABs) and Asdrubal Cabrera (.263 with 13 Ks in 38 ABs) also should be glued to your bench.
Giancarlo Stanton has been Mr. Money this season, but the slacker that is Kyle Kendrick somehow has the big fellas number. Over 21 at-bats Stanton has hit just .143 with eight Ks, though he does have one big fly. Others who struggle with Kendrick include Adeiny Hechavarria (1-for-10) and Marcell Ozuna (4 Ks, .200 average in 10 ABs).
Justin Upton (2-for-20 with 6 Ks) and Chris Johnson (2-for-16) simply have not figured out how to hit against Kyle Lohse. Andrelton Simmons and Evan Gattis have also combined to go a mere 2-for-12.
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MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Phil Hughes is 4-1 with a 3.61 ERA. He's only walked six batters all year and he's not issued a free pass in four starts. Hes also allowed only two homers on the year. He pitches in Petco Wednesday and that should allow him ample chance to extend his quality start streak to 6-straight.
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Tyson Ross pitches at home against the Twins. In five starts at home this season he's been filthy with 36 Ks in 34 innings, a 1.59 ERA and 1.03 WHIP as he's held batters to a .210 average.
Ervin Santana faces a Brewers team that is middle of the pack in OPS against righties and one that has the 10th most Ks in baseball against righties. Santana has also walked just two men in his last two outings, and in four of his seven trips to the hill he's allowed one or zero earned runs. There's also the added bonus that he has a 4.60 K/BB ratio and more Ks than innings pitched (46 in 45.2 innings).
Michael Wacha pitches at home where he's 3-0 with a 3.16 ERA and 1.21 WHIP over four starts this season. On the year Wacha has a 2.82 ERA and has yet to allow more than three runs in a game. He's also walked only one batter in his last two games. He faces a D'backs club that he hasn't see this season.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Risky but... Erik Bedard has allowed a total of two earned runs (four total) over his last four outings. He's yet to complete more than six innings in any of the starts but you have to be impressed with how he's limited the damage this season. He faces an Athletics club that is 17th in OPS against lefties while hitting only 11 homers in 442 at-bats against port siders.
Matt Cain faces the Rockies for the third time this season. Though he has impressive career numbers against them (17-8, 3.35 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) he was hit hard the last time he faced them allowing seven runs over six innings. With the Rockies team OPS over .980 in home games it's just impossible to start any visiting pitcher right now.
Nathan Eovaldi has a better than 4:1 K/BB ratio and has 50 Ks in 54.2 innings on the year. He's also posted a 2.73 ERA an a 0.97 WHIP in five home starts this season. However, he's walked seven men in his last three outings after walking five in his first seven outings, has completed only 9.1 innings his last two starts, and has been taken deep four times in his last three games after giving up one homer all season previously. He also surrendered four runs to the Phillies in 6.1 innings back on April 12th.
Jeremy Guthrie has held the White Sox current roster to a .230/.299/.377 slash line in nearly 250 at-bats. He also won his lone start against the Sox this year though he allowed four runs and walked four over 5.2 innings. He's a rough start though given his 5.40 ERA in May with only 10 Ks in 26.2 innings, even if history suggests success is possible.
Brandon McCarthy faces the Cardinals in St. Louis. The Cards are hitting .268 at home this year, the 7th bets mark in baseball, and they are 10th in home OPS at .743. They are struggling a bit against righties, their OPS is in the bottom half of the league, but look at what McCarthy has done his last three starts: zero ER, seven ERs, one ER. Can you trust him? I don't, not with a 5.91 ERA in four road starts.
Chris Young is 3-1 with a 3.22 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He's also got a sickly set of numbers that include a 3.63 K/9 mark and 1.06 K/BB ratio. Pretty sure the old ERA is going up as well since he's allowed six homers in his last six outings and just isn't missing any bats. He also has a 4.56 ERA and 1.35 WHIP in five road outings. He takes on the Rangers in Texas.
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