Game 107: Yankees (Cortes) at Cardinals (Hudson)

Scouting report on Hudson from reddit:

I have good news and ive got bad news. First of all, the yanks are starting a 3 Game Weekend set with the cardinals. Today they will face righty Dakota Hudson. Now the good news: 4.1 ERA through 101 IP this Season. Bad News: Yankees dont seem to be able to hit young bad guys.

some nuggets about hudson and why the yanks might actually hit him:

Hudson throws 5 pitches: Sinker (35%), Slider (30%), 4sm (15%), Curve (15%), Change (5%). Against righties, Hudson throws the sinker and slider even more. Against lefties he uses the slider less and throws more of the 4 sm. His Sinker has great vertical movement. Outside of that, his stuff moves way below league average. Especially the Curveball vertical drop is far below league average. His Fastball and slider sit at about the same velocity. But its more that the 4sm and Sinker are not very fast 92 mph average. Hudson certainly wont blow his stuff past you like prime Chapman.

Whats interesting to me, is the fact that his Sinker (the only pitch that moves) is valued as his worst pitch and below league average. I believe he uses that Sinker to set up the Slider and 4sm. His 4sm is his best pitch according to Baseball Savant. The slider is valued at exactly league average. But i think its actually pretty good and gonna get Judge to strike out at least once. Because i said he can throw a slider that has velocity, but he can also take that out and throw it at 82 mph low and away for righties. Thats the one pitch judge seemingly has most his Strikeouts on. So i would look out for that. I obviously hope im wrong though!

He is reverse Splitting. Has an allowed OPS of .785 against righties and .645 against lefties. Which i think with that sinker slider combo is odd, but i guess he can use the Sinker, 4sm and Curveball to fool a lot of lefties. Overall his metrics suggest he has been overperforming so far this year. His Baseball Savant Page looks like a deep blue Ocean. And the only category where he hasnt performed badly, barrel %, has a good chance to be destroyed by some very strong men tonight. Also his expected ERA sits at 5.45 and his WHIP at 1.33, both really bad. His FIP? 4.62, also bad.

His starts this year have been unpredictable. One day he might give you 7 shutout innings, the next time out he will allow 6 ER in 4 Innings. Which is what concerns me for tonight: if the yanks cant find a groove early, they might be looking at a rough day at the plate.

Its going to be tough staying ahead of Houston. While we go through the AL East gauntlet down the stretch, they play cupcakes like Texas, Anaheim, and Oakland in the AL West.