Corey Kluber is a superstar. J.D. Martinez and Steve Pearce have turned around their careers, and then some. Brandon Moss has been awful of late, but decent overall. Yasiel Puig has just been terrible given the expectations. Meanwhile, Buster Posey is crushing it, and then some. Ditto Jorge Soler of the Cubs. Soler's teammate, Anthony Rizzo is back – see what I did there? – but don't get too excited. Why? Read on to find out.
Things I learned Tuesday night...
Corey Kluber struck out 14 batters in seven innings. He became the second Indian to strike out 14 batters in an outing of seven of fewer innings. The last time it was done was 9-18-1966 when Sudden Sam McDowell pulled off the feat. Kluber also became the 5th pitcher in Indians' history to strike out 240 batters in a season (Bob Feller, Sam McDowell, Herb Score and Luis Tiant). He's good.
J.D. Martinez has 23 homers in 2014. He hit 24 homers from 2011-13. His HR/F ratio is 21 percent. Add up his HR/F ratio the past two years and you get 21.1 percent.
Brandon Moss hit his 25th homer. He's the first Athletic player to hit 25 homers in back-to-back seasons since Cust pulled off the trick in 2007-09. Twenty five homers and 80 RBIs is great, and it's a strong follow up to his 30 homer, 87 RBI season last year. Moss has still stunk in the second half though. Too bad he's hit only four homers with a .181 average over his last 47 games. Yikes.
Steve Pearce is a Quad-A player, a guy who was always good in the minors but never good enough to excel in the big leagues. Well, he's turned it on now. Pearce hit his 18th homer of the year. He had, get this, 17 homers in his previous seven big league seasons (290 games). Don't expect a repeat in 2015, but give the guy a pat on the back for his efforts this year.
Buster Posey is en fuego. Over his last 97 at-bats he's hit eight homer with 28 RBIs. That's in 24 games folks. He's also hit, get this, .454. Could he win the MVP award with his furious finish?
Yasiel Puig hit a homer run, his first since July 31st. That's a span of 146 at-bats between homers. He's hit three homers in 335 at-bats. Time to admit that I was right when I wrote Puig's 2014 Player Profile in February.
Anthony Rizzo (back) is only going to play every other day according to his coach. If that's true, he's pretty useless the final week an a half.
Jorge Soler is the first Cubs' player in the live ball era to have a hit in 13 of his first 14 big league games. He's also the first to have an extra base hit in eight of his first 14 games. One more? He and Javier Baez are the 3rd and 4th Cub player to hit five or more homers in their first 14 career games (joining Carmelo Martinez and Kevin Roberson).
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Batter Versus Pitcher
Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.
* 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
Billy Butler stinks. There it is. History though suggests success against Chris Sale is coming. Butler has a .359-3-10 line over 39 at-bats. Alcides Escobar has a .381 mark and three steals over 42 at-bats.
Josh Donaldson has a .429 average and two homers in 14 at-bats against Derek Holland.
Russell Martin has four bombs and seven RBIs in just 12 at-bats against Clay Buchholz.
Kendrys Morales has hit .435 over 23 at-bats when lefty C.J. Wilson is on the bump.
Jordan Pacheco has a .346-1-6 line over 26 at-bats against Madison Bumgarner.
Aramis Ramirez versus Adam Wainwright. Advantage Aramis. By a ton. He has a .411 average and three homers over 56 at-bats.
Hanley Ramirez has a .393-2-5 line, with five doubles, over 28 at-bats against Jorge De La Rosa. Matt Kemp is .417-3-12 in his mashing 36 at-bats. Adrian Gonzalez has a .341-3-11 line over 41 at-bats.
Anthony Rendon murders Alex Wood – a .615 average with a homer in 13 at-bats.
Jose Reyes has nine hits leading to a .360 batting average in 25 at-bats against Bud Norris.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Jose Bautista has a mere single in 11 at-bats against Bud Norris.
Ryan Braun has a .213 average and 17 Ks in 61 at-bats against Adan Wainwright.
Andre Either has three hits in 22 at-bats against Jorge De La Rosa. Oddly, Scott Van Slyke who usually hits lefties, has no hits in 12 at-bats against JDLR.
Adam LaRoche has one hit in 15 at-bats, 10 strikeouts too, against Alex Wood.
Joe Mauer has three hits in 18 at-bats, a mere .167 batting average against David Price.
Kyle Seager has just three hits, and 13 strikeouts, in 28 at-bats against C.J. Wilson.
Josh Willingham has a .200 average and 12 Ks in 25 at-bats against Chris Sale.
MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Mike Fiers is a must start. Let's just hope he's over the Giancarlo Stanton beaning. Fiers has allowed three runs just once in seven starts. He faces the Cardinals, a team he beat on September 5th with a 6.2 innings, two run affair. The game is in St. Louis.
Francisco Liriano has thrown 14 scoreless innings his last two outings. He's tossed a scoreless outing in three of his last four outings actually. Over his last 10 outings, if we remove the August 19th outing, he's allowed two or fewer earned runs in nine of nine outings. He faces the Red Sox at home.
Alex Wood faces the Nationals at home. In 69.1 innings in Atlanta this season he has a 2.47 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 80 strikeouts. He's also allowed a total of three runs in his last three starts and he's tossed a quality starts in each of his last nine outings. He's also posted a 1.48 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over five outings against the Nationals.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Kyle Gibson at Minnesota against the Tigers. In three games against the club he's posted a 7.24 ERA and 1.98 WHIP. He's also allowed 11 runs with one strikeout over 10 innings in his last two starts.
C.J. Wilson has a 4.12 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 14 home starts this season. He also has a 5.43 ERA and 1.58 WHIP in 19 home starts. He faces the Mariners at home, at night.
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