Booze. Red blobs. Buying a town. It's all in here. We're also going to be talking about pitchers and batters of course, how they fair against each other, cause that's what we do in the Daily Trends piece each day. Here are the matchups for August 27th, 2014.
* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Clint Barmes has hit .348 with a homer over 23 at-bats against the struggling Adam Wainwright. Andrew McCutchen also mashed hitting .342 with a .971 OPS over 40 plate appearances. Check out Russell Wilson. He's batting .360 over 25 at-bats. Oh hell, Neil Walker is batting .308-1-7 over 26 at-bats.
Billy Butler has a .296 batting average in 27 at-bats when Phil Hughes is on the bump. Alex Gordon is better at .333 in his 27 at-bats. Raul Ibanez, for what it's worth, has a .556-2-6 line over nine at-bats.
Freddie Freeman has six hits in 11 at-bats against Zack Wheeler. He has a homer and five RBIs. He's also walked six times leading to a 1.576 OPS. Jason Heyward also lights up the righty with a 1.171 OPS over 16 plate appearances (one home).
Bryce Harper has had an up and down season, but he's had success against Kyle Kendrick batting .360 with a homer over 25 at-bats. Wilson Ramos has even more fun with six hits in 11 at-bats. Desmond Jennings is batting .385-2-8 over 39 at-bats.
Austin Jackson has 10 hits in 24 at-bats against Colby Lewis (.417 average). He's also got a homer an a steal. Kyle Seager is only batting .412 with a homer and six RBIs in his 17 at-bats.
Brian McCann is batting .417 with three homers in 12 at-bats against David Price. Meanwhile Derek Jeter has hit .302 over 63 at-bats.
Ben Revere is batting .364 over 22 at-bats when Doug Fister toes the rubber. Surprisingly he doesn't have a steal attempt.
Scott Van Slyke has a 1.041 OPS against lefties this season which includes seven homers in just 81 at-bats. He's also hit .438 with four homers against Wade Miley in a mere 16 at-bats.
Will Venable has a .389-1-4 line with a steal in 22 plate appearances when Yovani Gallardo is chucking the pill.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Alejandro De Aza has six strikeouts an a .176 batting average over 17 at-bats against Corey Kluber. Alexei Ramirez is at two-hundo flat over 20 at-bats.
Jason Kipnis has 10 hitless at-bats against Hector Noesi. Michael Brantley has one hit in his nine at-bats.
Adam LaRoche, oddly, doesn't like facing Kyle Kendrick. He has a .158 batting average over 38 at-bats. Danny Espinosa has no runs batted in to accompany a .190 batting average. Denard Span has no steals and has hit .217 over 23 at-bats.
Brandon Moss is struggling. He's also not enjoying his time against Brad Peacock. I deduce that from his .182 batting average and seven strikeouts in 11 at-bats.
Not only does Daniel Murphy have only two hits in 10 at-bats against Julio Teheran but he has an uncharacteristic four strikeouts as well. Ruben Tejada has a single in 12 at-bats.
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Salvador Perez no likes Phil Hughes. Neither does Lorenzo Cain. The duo is batting .136 over 22 at-bats.
Anthony Rizzo has two base knocks against Mat Latos in 15 at-bats. That's not good. Chris Coghlan (9 ABs) and Justin Ruggiano (7 ABs) have one hit each.
Seth Smith has five strikeouts an a .393 OPS against Yovani Gallardo over 16 plate appearances.
Mark Teixeira has hit three homers off David Price but his slash line is dreadful at .204/.283/.407 over 59 plate appearances. Brett Gardner is batting .200 with one RBI over 20 at-bats. Stephen Drew is hitless in 10 at-bats with five strikeouts.
Justin Upton has come to the dish 15 times against Zack Wheeler. He has six strikeouts, and worse, not a single hit. Not one. Yikes. Chris Johnson has no RBIs an a .118 batting average over 17 at-bats.
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MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Doug Fister had a rough outing – for him – the last time out (4 R, 6 IP). That was the first time in eight starts in which he allowed more than two earned runs. He faces the Phillies on the road, and when the two matched up on August 1st Fister allowed two runs over seven innings.
Yovani Gallardo at Petco sounds like a nice matchup for the hurler especially when you consider that Gallardo has a 2.57 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 12 starts on the road this season. He allowed six runs in hiss last outing, only three were earned, but he has drooped his ERA from 3.79 to 3.38 over his last six outings as he's allowed a total of one homer.
Clayton Kershaw versus the D'backs. Nothing else needs to be said.
Corey Kluber versus the White Sox in Chicago. He's had a 2.48 ERA and 1.17 WHIP over 14 road starts. Nothing else needs to be said.
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Mat Latos has a 2.66 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over 10 starts against the Cubs. He also allowed a mere run over seven innings in the last matchup with the Cubs. Overall he's allowed three or fewer runs in each of his last six outings including three with one run allowed. The Cubs aren't very good either, are they?
Drew Smyly is coming off a complete game shutout against the Blue Jays. He's also walked only six batters over his last five outings during which time his ERA has gone from 3.93 to 3.42. He's on the road against the Orioles, the club with the 6th best OPS against lefties this season. Not the easiest matchup.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Henderson Alvarez has won his last four starts and is sporting a 2.57 ERA on the year. So why the frownie face? In his last 10 starts he has more than five strikeouts one time (six on August 16th). He doesn't do anything there. His ERA on the road this season is 3.82 and his WHIP is 1.46. He faces the Angels.
Odrisamer Despaigne – you've moved on right? He's allowed at least four runs in five of his last six starts and he's now sitting with a 3.44 ERA after 11 starts. Four homers in five games, and five of six outings that have failed to make it to six innings pitched. He faces the Brewers at home.
Tim Hudson is listing. He's failed to last more than 5.1 innings in three of his last four starts. He's allowed at least three runs in four of five starts. The last time he struck out more than two batters was six starts ago. He's allowed five homers in his last five starts. Solid sure, but nothing really to see here. He takes on the visiting Rockies.
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Wade Miley has a 6.20 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 12 home starts this season. He's also 2-6. He's pitched well his last three outings allowing five runs, but he permitted six walks in his last outings and faces the potentially dominating Dodgers offense.
Drew Pomeranz faces the Astros who are 4th in baseball in OPS against lefties this season. The last time he started in the bigs was July 16th and he was bombed for eight runs in 3.2 innings. He also allowed six runs in 5.2 innings in his last minor league start.
Marcus Stroman has been battered to the tune of 10 runs over his last 5.2 innings. He's also allowed five runs in three of his last four starts. Just cannot trust him right now. He pitches at home against the Red Sox.
Julio Teheran has a 3.99 ERA on the road this season with a 7-7 record. He's also allowed five runs in two of his last four starts. The last time he face the Mets, back on July 8th, he was a disaster as well: 11 hits, five runs in 3.1 innings.
Adam Wainwright has no Yadier Molina to throw too, and it also seems like his arm might be tiring. Impossible to just blindly put him in cause he's Waino, and with his recent struggles you might consider passing on him no matter what your setup is. We're talking about a five game stretch with a 2-3 record, 5.29 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. He takes on the Pirates in Pittsburgh who he does not have great history against (4.18 ERA, 1.35 WHIP over 140 innings).
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