Baseball Chatter May 27

Pitchers

In a surprising turn of events, Masahiro Tanaka took a shutout into the eighth inning. He didn’t walk any batters and struck out 13, including the seven he caught swinging in the first three innings, and eight of the first 11 he faced.

Tanaka was ‘drifting from side to side in his delivery‘ prior to last night

As long as he leaves the rubber in the right way, everything takes care of itself. It’s very difficult to pitch when you’re trying to break it down piece by piece. Before this start I asked him to look at the video (from the past), and not break it down but visualize what he was seeing in his delivery and take that to the mound.Larry Rothschild on Tanaka

Let’s not sugar coat things here though, Tanaka is always going to be one pitch away from Tommy John surgery.

It is likely not a coincidence that Tanaka pitches so much better when Romine is catching

Zack Wheeler in May:

  • 3 GS
  • 2-0
  • 2.12 ERA

Eduardo Rodriguez has pitched at least six innings in all seven starts so far this season.

Zack Godley allowed five hits and struck out six through six shutout innings. His ERA is 1.99

Zack Greinke in May:

  • 30 IP – 16 Hits Allowed
  • 2.37 ERA
  • .66 WHIP
  • 12 ⅔ IP – No ER

Matt Cain:

  • At Home: 3-1, 1.21 ERA, 5 GS
  • On the Road: 0-2, 8.28 ERA, 5 GS

Kevin Gausman has three quality starts in his past four outings, he also allowed two more home runs last night.

Jake Arrieta reached 95 mph for the second game this season. Hard contact on pitches inside the zone is the problem here, as it has led to Arrieta allowing 10 home runs so far this season. He allowed ten home runs over the entire 2015 season when he won Cy Young award

Antonio Senzatela is tied with Dallas Keuchel for the most wins, seven. His ERA is 3.19 after he retired 10 batters in a row and only allowed one Cardinal to reach second. He induced 15 ground ball outs and 74 of his 98 pitches were fastballs that went anywhere from 89.7mph to 97.1 mph.

Alex Wood has the longest scoreless streak in the majors this season, 25 ⅓ innings. He has a 1.05 ERA and 0.96 WHIP with 46 strikeouts in 34-1/3 innings.

Jacob deGrom went 8 ⅓ and has 37 strikeouts over 27.1 innings ending the streak of No Mets starter pitching more than 7.0 innings in a start since last June.

Batters

Mike Moustakas has made it to 12 home runs faster than any Royals batter since 2000

Yoan Moncada was the White Sox minor league player of the month for April.

  • April: 4 HR, 7 RBI, 16 R, .314 AVG
  • Season: 6 HR, 15 RBI, 27 R, 4 SB, .331 AVG

Kyle Schwarber is hitting .181 with the most strikeouts of any Cubbie, 55. He is 5 for 34 with 15 strikeouts when facing a lefty. Do not be surprised to see him benched against left-handed pitching.

Neil Walker has hit four homers in the past two weeks, including two last night in his old home, PNC Park. The fans were very nice to him, cheering for him when he came up to bat. There are probably a lot of pissed off Pirates fans this morning wondering why in the hell they let that guy go.

Rio Ruiz is batting .320 with a .393 OBP and one home run in 25 at bats over the past week. He is not stellar defensively, but they say there is a good chance he continues to start at third base even when Adonis Garcia returns from the DL

Giancarlo Stanton has hit 25 home runs at least 460 feet, that is 11 more than the entire Rockies team since 2010. Edwin Encarnacion, Justin Upton and Nelson Cruz have each only done it six times.

Odubel Herrera was 0 for 11 before he hit a double last night.

  • May: 19 hits – 97 AB
  • .227 AVG on the season
  • .275 OBP on the season
  • Swinging at 43% of pitches outside the strike zone 34% last season
  • Making contact 61% of the time he swings outside the zone, last year 67%
  • Contact Rate down, Walk Rate down, Strikeout rate up, Isolated Power down, BABIP down.

Scott Schebler over his last six games = 4 HR, 7 RBI

Andrew McCutchen was moved from the third to sixth in the lineup for the first time in his nine year career. Hello, he should be batting ninth batting .163 in May after we thought it couldn’t get any worse after April.

Odubel Herrera was moved back to the top of the order where he belongs, and he went 1 for 4.

Devon Travis has the most extra base hits in May, with 18

Jake Marisnick only hit five home runs all last season, he has six so far this season

Jose Abreu is 16 for 33 over his current seven-game hit streak.

Michael Taylor in May:

Team News

Veteran lefty killer Franklin Gutierrez is healthy again and somehow the Dodgers as a whole have figured out how to hit left-handed pitching. It’s true, believe it.

Cardinals starters are 2-4 over their six even though they have only allowed one run per game on average during that time.

Giants batters have scored a grand total of six runs over their last four games, and score, on average, 3.32 runs per game this season.

The Angels pitchers have allowed the most home runs in baseball, 73. They were also the last team to visit Marlins Park even though it has been open since 2012

The Marlins have scored 29 runs over the past three games.

The A’s don’t score a run through the first five innings 27.7 percent of the time, but they lead the American League for number of games with a home run, 38

Injury Updates

Dallas Keuchel will return to the mound today after missing one start on the 10 day DL. He is 7-0 with a 1.84 ERA

There is still no timetable for Carlos Rodon to return

I can just tell you there’s positive movement forwardRick Renteria on Rodon

James Shields should go on a rehab assignment soon, he has thrown two bullpen sessions in the past three days.

It took Blake Snell 112 pitches to get through 6 ⅔ innings at Triple-A Durham. He walked four and struck out nine.

I mention how much Angels like Bud, and not even a day later he has knee problems..GoFigure. Blake Parker or Jose Alvarez are next up for save opportunities

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