Sexy Saturday!

WE have two mediocre "worm killers" in Baltimore!

Livan Hernandez floats 30% of his pitches right at the gopher's forehead, and Mister Bergeson of Balto NEVER gets into the upper strike zone, so we have two fellas that don't strike out many batters but, when they get their groundballs in the upper teens, these cats can hurt an OVER. What we need is an umpire that limits or eliminates the low zone, but we drew Bob Davidson! AND this is what Bob calls a strike:

Crawford and Madden were ejected after this pitch.........Bobby Davidson is a pitcher's best friend, and he likes to puke up a strike zone that Glavine and Maddux would love! So I'd say we can't really prey on the lack of up'ness that Livan possesses. I think he might have a buddy in Bobby behind the plate.

It's a day game, and the shadows will be creeping into a bad spot for batters too....

Livan is traditionally bad when facing Baltimore batters, but he's had some pretty terrible years, and I've noticed that he's given up only 1 home run in the last 583 pitches....Yup....Wide Zone, no homers, and a shadow creeping in? Look for Livan to get some luck.

Toss out the .314 Batting Average that Balto owns on poor Livan.

Ignore the fact that he's only struck out 13 batters in the last 4 games.....

Bergeson is the CRAPPER: If I told you that a pitcher was toting an 11.12 ERA around in June; and a 10.80 ERA against the team he was facing on Saturday; and if I told you that Southpaws were batting .358 with a Barry Bonds-like 1.018 OPS; and if I told you that right handed batters were tagging him for a nice .287 average.......AND that available Natty Bats were hitting .321 against him....what would you say?

Well: I think you would say that Washington NEVER does well for us, so why start now!

Ahhhh: I'd suggest a really deep...soul searching...look at this game.Let's see what they offer us!  :)

San Diego at Florida

John Garland is another "worm killer" that's running a terrible ERA in June (6.38). The 4 runs he gave Baltimore shouldn't have been charged to him, but it doesn't hide the fact that he's coming back down to Earth.

This ground ball pitcher had exactly ONE ground ball in 5 innings of work on June 14th. He struck out 7 but gave up 4 walks and six hits with a home run. So that hiccup at Baltimore in his next start wasn't exactly a fluke. But LARRY VANOVER was his Umpire, so the reasoning for that ONE grounder was clear. He had to go up into the zone to meet Vanover's expectations!

The 1.50 ERA that he's earned against Florida came a long while back, boys, but he's seen these guys on more than one occasion and he's held them to a .228 BA. So we have to wonder if we can play the Fatigue card yet.......Can we? Or can Garland help us get an UNDER!!!!!

John Hirshbeck is his umpire: He possesses a fairly large HIGH zone and a large RIGHT side, and that's probably why Roberto Alomar spit on him. Can't remember where that pitch was.....ANYWAY:

The Large right side would suggest that Garland might be able to tag another bad outing on the Florida bats! Garland HIDES on the far side when he faces the right handed batters, ok?

We might think UNDER.....we might not...........is he tired? Is Garland a possible STRONG DOG?

The Phils and the Jays!

Paul Schrieber is calling the Phillies game!!!!!!

This is what the Hardball Times used to say about Paul:

"Paul Schrieber: Favors hitters second-most in the league, but has a normal sized zone on the left side of the plate. Right-handed hitters must love him—he is very stingy on both the high or low strike (under -3 for both) and doesn’t call the outer half of the plate on them. When he’s behind the plate, pitchers are going to have to come inside and keep it closer to the belt."

Arizona at Tampa

The D-backs haven't seen Price. The left handed Arizona bats don't stand a chance with Tim McClelland calling the balls and strikes. The low zone on the southpaws for both teams will be pitcher friendly, but Price shouldn't try to get too fine on the outside low zone. McClelland will give him a ton of strikes on the lower part of the plate, and this should make him a lethal commodity tomorrow. He's got a sore groin, but I think it's not an issue. Arizona will see a steady diet of lower pitches, marked by carefully placed high, outside shots that should screw them up on both sides of the plate. Price has a green light, for NOW.

Ian Kennedy is allowing home runs at an alarming rate, and he's a wicked fly baller. He allowed 16 flyers to hit the sky in his last game. Two of them were Home Runs! He's had 6 home runs in the last 4 games and it'll be a hot one tomorrow!

For what it's worth: McClelland will slow the production of fly balls for Kennedy, but not enough to counter Price, ok?

These are a few games that are sticking out for me, but there's a lot of work to do...if I see more oddities, then I'll slap em down, ok?

Hope all is well for you guys tonight!