HITTERS:
The situations in baseball are what make the game great. The mental
aspect of the sport plays such a crucial role that it’s one of the few sports
where you can truly help win with the proper managerial decisions. The
“matchups within the matchup” is the way I think about. It’s ironic that one
pitcher can be so good against lefty hitters and struggle so much against
righties, but that’s the way the game works, and that’s why it’s great. For
instance in the Arizona/San Francisco game, I recommend starting Justin Upton. Upton should be able to
pounce on the soft tossing southpaw, Barry
Zito; on the flip side, Eric Byrnes
would have made a great “bench” candidate as he’s 3-for-21 against his former
Oakland pal… but as you probably already know, he’s on the 15-day DL, so he can’t
play… In the Dodgers/Mets games I suggest sitting James Loney as he continues to struggle at the plate. In the last
seven days, Loney is 3-for-19 with eight punch-outs. That being said, don’t
hesitate to put Juan Pierre in your
lineup. Pierre is playing well as of late and is a lifetime .529 hitter against
scheduled starter, Claudio Vargas.
PITCHERS:
Thursday brings a lot of interesting matchups consisting of both inexperience
and comparable talent. Two upstart pitchers take the mound in Oakland as Dana Eveland and Jesse Litsch square off. I think I’d be foolish to take a side in
that one. I recommend starting them both if you own them — the way they’ve been
pitching and the way their teams have struggled offensively tells you to do no
other… I would sit Kyle Lohse
against Houston, as the ‘Stros have found their stroke and have handle Lohse in
the past quite well. Plus with their ace, Roy
Oswalt, on the hill I look for Houston to put this one in the win column…
Similar to Houston, the Chicago Cubs continue to swing their way to victories.
The Cubbies will send out another innings eater in Jason Marquis, but Marquis should pitch well enough to earn himself
a win against the struggling Colorado Rockies… Out west you have to feel good
for Barry Zito. Having lost eight in
a row to start the season, the former Cy Young winner finally got a win.
Applause and congratulate him on the nice effort, but don’t think about throwing
him back in your lineup. Zito is still 1-8 on a bad Giants team and the D’Backs
are second in the majors in OPS against lefties. See Jeff Francis’ 2008 stat line at AZ if you need more convincing.
Thursday’s
Positive Trends:
Jim Thome [career against Edwin Jackson]: 3/5, 1 HR, 3
RBI, 1 BB, .600/.667/1.200
Mark
Teixeira [career against Seth McClung]:
4/9, 3 RBI, 5 BB, .444/.643/.444
Juan Pierre [career against Claudio Vargas]: 9/17, 4 2B,
1 3B, 2 RBI, 2 SB, .529/.529/.882
David
Wright [career against Brad Penny]: 9/17, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 4 BB, .529/.591/.882
Derrek Lee [career against Jeff Francis]: 6/6, 3 BB,
1.000/1.000/1.000
Carlos Lee [career against Kyle Lohse]: 17/46, 6 2B, 3
HR, 4 RBI, 3 BB, .370/.420/.696
Albert
Pujols [career against Roy Oswalt]:
20/67, 5 2B, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 6 BB, .299/.356/.507
Rich
Aurilla [career against Randy Johnson]:
16/49, 1 2B, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .327/.377/.531
Thursday’s
Negative Trends:
Jack Cust [career against Jesse Litsch]: 1/6, 2 RBI, 4
K, .167/.167/.167
Orlando
Cabrera [career against Edwin Jackson]:
2/10, 2 RBI, 1 K, .200/.200/.200
Akinora
Iwamura [career against John Danks]:
0/5, 1 BB, 3 K, .000/.167/.000
Jim Edmonds [career against Jeff Francis]: 1/12, 1 RBI, 5
K, .083/.083/.083
Yadier
Molina [career against Roy Oswalt]:
1/10, 2 K, .100/.100/.100
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