Game 4 - Yanks (Schmidt) vs Houston (France)

Woo Hoo! I get to choose between the Yankee feed and the Astros feed today! YES, it is!…

J. P. France starts for the Astros. 
He results for the Astros in his rookie season last year were quite good: 11-6, 3.83 ERA. However, he allowed more than a hit per inning, and walked more than one every three innings, so his WHIP was quite high: 1.357. His advanced run estimators were all about a run higher than his ERA: XERA 4.86, FIP 4.66, xFIP 4.86, meaning that he got great defense behind him, and had a high strand rate: 76%. (MLB avg strand rate is typically about 70%) As with Hunter Brown last night, he got off to a great start: 9-3 in his first 16 starts with an ERA of 2.74,.Then, he either fatigued or got hit hard or both down the stretch: 2-3 in his last seven starts with an ERA of 7.07, 45 hits, 17 BB and 9 HR in his last 34 1/3 innings. As all baseball fans know, it's bad luck when your ERA is the same number as a famous jumbo jet.

France is a 5 pitch righty. Last year's repertoire: FB 43% of the time, avg 93; Cutter 19% of the time, avg 87; Change 15% of the time, avg 82, Curve 14% of the time, avg 76, and a slider 9% of the time, avg 80.

He made one start against the Yanks in his rookie season, at the Stadium on 8/6. The Yanks didn't hit him hard (Did they hit anybody hard?) but they forced him from the game at 70 pitches in 3 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 1 run (unearned), 3 BB and 4 K.

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Clarke Schmidt is Clarke Schmidt. He throws five pitches; with sub-variations it's as if it's 7 or 8 different pitches. He throws none of them very well, some of them poorly, and his location command goes from good to bad in a heartbeat. I keep saying this about him, if you watch his games closely, in most of them, it looks like he'll miss waist-high, over the middle of the plate or both once or twice every at bat. Only the fact that he throws so many pitches and variations and his command is so erratic that teams can't square him up right away every game. He's a perfectly cromulent #4-#5 starter, but unless he radically improves his command, you don't want to start him in a big game, against a tough lineup. In my opinion, it's a race against time to see if Schmidt will ever develop sufficient command to be a solid middle of the rotation guy before he suffers a major arm injury. 

Last year he was 9-9 with a 4.63 ERA. His hit rate was subpark, his walk rate was average, his K rate was average, his HR rate was average at best. His WHIP was about the same as France's 1.352. In Yankee Stadium, a righty has to be better than that. It's amazing to me his ERA was more than a run lower at home last year, than on the road.

Schmidt's repertoire from last year was Cutter at 91, Slider at 86, both thrown about 27.5% of the time, FB at 93-4, about 25% of the time, Curve at 84 about 19% over the time and a change about 90 that he throws once or twice a start. Too little velocity variation from his slowest to his fastest pitches, 10 mph or less.

He's pitched once against the Astros, a credible 5-inning start at home on 8/3: 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 BB, 5 K and a HBP, 82 pitches. He didn't get the win, but the Yanks won that one, 4-3.

Batter vs Pitcher stats for today's lineups:


Vs. France

Gleyber Torres (R) 2B:         1 for 2 with a RBI
Juan Soto (L) RF:                0 for 2 with a BB and a K
Aaron Judge (R) CF:            Faced him once and walked
Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B:          Has never faced France
Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH:    0 for 2
Alex Verdugo (L) LF:            Has never faced France
Jon Berti (R) 3B:                 Never Faced
Jose Trevino (R) C:               Never Faced
Oswaldo Cabrera (S) SS:       Never Faced

Yanks' team quadruple slash line vs. France: .214/.353/.357/.710 in just 17 PA


Jose Altuve (R) 2B:               1 for 3
Yordan Alvarez (L) DH:          0 for 1 with a BB
Kyle Tucker (L) RF:                0 for 2
Alex Bregman (R) 3B:           0 for 2 with a K
Yainer Diaz (R) C:                 Never Faced
Jon Singleton (L) 1B:            Never Faced
Chas McCormick (R) LF:        0 for 2 with a K
Jeremy Peña (R) SS:             0 for 3 with a SB and a K
Jake Meyers (R) CF:              0 for 2 with a RBI and a K

Astros' team quadruple slash vs. Schmidt as a team: .222/.300/.222/.522 in just 20 PA

I'm hoping Schmidt can stay out of the long counts that so often hurt him. Too often he gets ahead but can't finish off hitters quickly or gets two quick outs but can't finish the inning economically. 

Angels showing a pulse so far: up 3-0 on the O's, top 2. Obviously a long way to go in that one; Reid Detmers vs. Tyler Wells
Jays are in Tampa trying to get out with a split, they're up 2-1 in the 2nd, Kevin Gausman for the Jays. Rays going bullpen game as Shawn Armstrong opened, but only pitched one inning.
Sox in Seattle trying to get a split; they fell to 1-2 after losing 4-3 in 10 innings to the M's last night. Another good pitching matchup, Garret Whitlock vs. Bryse Miller. Sox have lost 2 of 3 despite all three of their starting pitching throwing good games, 17 innings, 11 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, 19 K, just 1 BB and just 1 HR allowed.

Game underway. Torres leads off.

Ridiculous.