Game 131, White Sox at Mariners
Pineda vs. Danks, 7:10pm.
OK, it’s time for everyone’s favorite internet time-waster, player A and player B!
Pitcher A, a lefty, has a FB in the 90-93 range, along with a cutter, a change and a curve.
In high A ball, he had a walk rate of 6.8% and a K rate of 22.6%.
In AA, he had a walk rate of 7.6% and a K rate of 22.6%.
In a half-season of AAA, he had a walk rate of 10.9% and a K rate of 23.2%, and in his first taste of the major leagues, he had a walk rate of 8.7% and a K rate of 17.5% on his way to a FIP of 5.5, which was 20% worse than the league average at the time.
Pitcher B is also a lefty, and has a FB in the 90-93 range, with a slider, a curve and the occasional change-up.
In high A ball, he had a walk rate of 5.5% and a K rate of 25.3%
In AAA (he only had a cup of coffee in AA), he had a walk rate of 7.5% and a K rate of 23.1%, and in HIS first action in the AL, he’s got a walk rate of 9.6% and a K rate of 16.3% with a FIP of 5.1, or 30% worse than league average.
On the whole, pitcher A had a better entry into the majors, but had a worse MiLB performance record. Pitcher A is older, lost time due to injury, and has suffered through a homer problem in his first go-round in the majors.
Pitcher A is tonight’s starter for the White Sox, John Danks, who came up in the Rangers system before moving to the White Sox (in exchange for current A’s pitcher and twitter genius Brandon McCarthy). Pitcher B is last night’s M’s starter Charlie Furbush. Yes, you can object on several dozen legitimate grounds here- Furbush was much older (as a college guy) as opposed to Danks. Danks certainly had better mechanics, and avoided injury while Furbush had Tommy John surgery, sat out a while, then re-entered in high-A. Is this perfect? No, it’s not.
But I think it’s funny that Danks is now Mr. Consistency, with an ERA between 3-4 every year since 2008, whereas Furbush is one of the more inconsistent pitchers in the league over the past few months. Sure, some of that is Furbush’s delivery and his fly-ball nature – walks and HRs are going to make a guy look inconsistent. But I still think Danks gives a glimpse to what the M’s hope Furbush COULD be someday. Danks isn’t an ace by any stretch, but he’s a solid, durable, above-average starter. If Furbush becomes a poor man’s Danks, I think we’d all take that in a heartbeat.
Michael Pineda’s far, far better than either guy, but he’s slowing down a bit as the year goes on – his HR rate’s up and his K rate’s down slightly. Still, one of the big worries about Pineda was his platoon splits – given that he’s a FB/Slider guy almost exclusively, many worried that he’d be death on a stick to righties but get hit hard by lefties. His first start against Texas seemed to confirm that. But as we near September, his FIPs against lefties/righties, are virtually identical: 3.53 and 3.50. He’s struck out fewer lefties, but he’s walked fewer too. The HR rate is slightly better against lefties, but not significantly. I’d still like to see him work on the change, but it’s nice to see that his repertoire hasn’t led to terrible performance against lefties. Stamina’s still a work in progress, but you can’t ask for too much more than what Pineda’s given us this year.
The line-up:
1: Ichiro
2: Gutierrez
3: Ackley
4: Carp
5: Olivo
6: Wells
7: Pena
8: Seager
9: Ryan
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13 Responses to “Game 131, White Sox at Mariners”
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Larry Bernandez interviewed in the pregame show – awesome.
Maybe someone ought to call Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson and tell them they need to develop a change-up or they’ll never get other-handed hitters out.
I was against it at the beginning but I was dumb.
The fans should think of an intimidating nickname for Pineda.
It would add to the glamour in the heads of opponents.
Pineda has been awesome and I worry that some fans might be taking him for granted now.
I think Pineda’s been more impressive than Felix was when he was first called up.
I mean the raw rookie’s been a pillar in the rotation from day one.
And Pineda was winning some very tight games with very little run support. He’s probably had very few pressure-less (riding a big cushion of run support) innings pitched.
Felix was straight domination when he first came up…
How many innings did he pitch?
So it’s official– Cleveland’s pitching is awful.
We knocked them around for 4 straight games like they were the “easy” mode on Xbox, and then manage to rack up just 2 runs but 25 K’s in the first two games against the White Sox, at home.
Some of the young guys tonight looked like they had their eyes closed until the ball was halfway to the plate.
Love the young guys, but that was a tough night for ’em.
Yeah, I know the general trend of mediocre (and even bad) pitchers making the M’s look terrible, but Danks has simply had our number lately. For a guy with only 6 wins on the season, he looks lights out against the M’s.
The good news for tonight: over 30,000 fans in attendance. Perfect weather + bobblehead giveaway still works to draw a crowd.
I hope Pineda pitching had more to do with the attendance than the umpteen thousandth bobblehead giveaway.
I didn’t need an offensive explosion or anything – I went to the Sounders game for that. But really M’s? THAT flat and lifeless?
Wily Mo Pena played his way into the 2012 picture (for someone, not necessarily the M’s) with his MiLB performance this year. His 2011 Major League performance is playing right back out of the 2012 picture.
Lol, I seriously doubt it. “Larry Bernandez” threw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight. Brilliant marketing move to bring Felix fans to the park on a night he’s not starting, not to mention a lot of fun, needed during another terrible year. That maybe explains why, according to my twitter feed, a group of yahoos tried to start the wave in the 3rd Inning. It doesn’t sound like the above-average attendees were hardcore seam heads.
Terrible offensive games like this are probably a result of “let the kids play!!!”.
But on the other hand, we don’t really have any veterans who were sitting today, who can hit worth a damn either. Although I could be forgetting somebody.