Happ had a great bounceback performance in his last outing, the thing is though.. he through 117 pitches.  I never like to see a guy go that deep early in the season.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not big on auto-fading a pitcher simply because they pitched 110 pitches, because to me.. 10-20 pitches in excess is not a big deal.. and statistically, across all pitchers.. you'll find that to be true.  But I do think their are spots where it makes sense to use that angle, just as it makes sense to use the revenge angle at times even though that isn't more than a 50% proposition either.  Anyways, theory aside.  I like fading Happ after a deep performance early in the season.. Especially knowing that it was his first decent one of the season, and he's facing a pesky Padres lineup.

On the other side, Harang is pitching his best ball in years.  I think San Diego is the place for him.  He's got a lock down bullpen behind him, and as a result he's been able to get out of some great starts with really low pitch counts.  He's fresh, and he's keeping hte ball on the ground.  Good time to back him in my opinion.  Going big with a 2 unit play on San Diego.

04/15/2011 6:37 AM