Always Split Aces

The prevailing logic is that you always split aces, but even though Mike Peters (as portrayed by Jon Favreau) splits them, Cito Gaston and Mike Scioscia will not tonight. This is just a quick heads-up for all the Leatherheads out there with nothing to do on a Saturday night that two of my favorite pitchers (and, indeed, two of the best the American League has to offer) square off tonight at 9:05 EDT in Los Angeles of Anaheim (or wherever the hell the Angels play) when the big Coloradan, Roy Halladay, faces the big Texan, John Lackey, a great pitcher with a ridiculous name.

Halladay (9-6; 2.90 ERA; 1.04 WHIP) has already authored six complete games this year (including his last start, where he shut out the Mariners) and has been even better than his 9-6 record and 2.90 ERA suggest in striking out 106 and walking just 19 on the season in 130 1/3 IP (leading the league in IP, K/BB and BB/IP ratio). According to my calculations, the Doc's average PQS this season has been 3.88 and he's had a Dominance/Disaster Rate of 41% - 0% (this is amazing compared to anyone but John Lackey) over his 17 starts. He has not faced the Angels this year.

Lackey (6-1; 1.44 ERA; 0.89 WHIP) has been completely absurd since returning from the disabled list. I posted about him a few weeks ago (like I said, he is one of my personal favorites) and he hasn't missed a step since then. Over 68 2/3 IP, Lackey has struck out 54 and walked 13 for a 4.15 K/BB ratio, which would be good for 5th in the AL if he qualified for IP. He'd also be leading the league in both ERA and WHIP. He averages a completely ridiculous PQS of 4.667 per start, with a Dominance/Disaster Rate of 88.9% - 0%. The dude has literally PQSed a 5 in 7 of his 9 starts, with a 4 and 3 in his other two. Unreal. He is also 2-0 against the Blue Jays this year, yielding 3 Runs (2 ER) over 13 IP and 13/4 K/BB.

If you pitching fans out there are not already salivating, consider this: the Angels are 11th in the American League in Runs/Game and the Jays are 13th.


Photo: http://sportsmed.starwave.com/i/magazine/new/swingers_blackjack.jpg
All statistics courtesy of http://baseball-reference.com/
All errors in statistics are the result of sloppy arithmetic on my part

The Book of Joba

1

AL East Update:

If you've been in a cave for the last two weeks or so, you might not know that Yankees phenom (and True Yankee?) Joba Chamberlain is finally scheduled to start a game tomorrow at Yankee Stadium against Roy Halladay the Toronto Blue Jays.

Chamberlain (1-2; 2.28 ERA; 1.14 WHIP), who I dislike enough to mispronounce his name "Joe Ba" or call simply "#62," has dazzled opponents so far this season over 23 2/3 innings and 20 appearances. His K-rate (11.4/9-IP) is roughly the same as last season (12.75), but his BB rate, (4.2/9-IP), is much higher than last year's (2.25). Even still, at just 22 years old, his 30/11 K/BB ratio suggest that he'll be a top-flight pitcher for years to come.

Halladay (6-5), for his part, is relatively quietly putting together what should be considered a Cy Young Award candidate type of year (2.93 ERA; 0.99 WHIP; 89 IP; 5 CG; 71/11 K/BB).

On a related note, I'll be in attendance at this one.




1-http://www.beatricebaseball.com/Pages/Pictures_2005_files/Chamberlain_cropped.JPG