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Post by kaybli on May 7, 2024 17:16:18 GMT -5
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Post by inger on May 7, 2024 17:35:20 GMT -5
The picture is a bit clearer now than it was when we swept the Astros to start the season. The Astros pitching is in a shambles. I’d love to at least take this series from them. A sweep would be incredible. They’re down, and after the cheating scandal I wouldn’t mind whatsoever if we grind our heels on their throats with sharpened spurs…
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Post by kaybli on May 7, 2024 17:44:02 GMT -5
The picture is a bit clearer now than it was when we swept the Astros to start the season. The Astros pitching is in a shambles. I’d love to at least take this series from them. A sweep would be incredible. They’re down, and after the cheating scandal I wouldn’t mind whatsoever if we grind our heels on their throats with sharpened spurs… It won't be that easy. We face Verlander, whose been pitching well since his return and Blanco, who has a 2.09 ERA, sandwiched around the struggling Arrighetti. Hope to take 2 of 3. |
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Post by bumper on May 7, 2024 17:51:48 GMT -5
amazing lineup consistency this season. think you'd have to go back quite a number of years to find a season where it was so consistent. guessing it's a good thing. if indeed verlander's starting for the astros then a bit surprised both berti and trevino are in the lineup.
after out pitching burnes last time out, looking forward to gil doing the same to verlander, who's apparently the tom brady of pitchers. but the yankees have had some success against him in the past.
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:55:37 GMT -5
The picture is a bit clearer now than it was when we swept the Astros to start the season. The Astros pitching is in a shambles. I’d love to at least take this series from them. A sweep would be incredible. They’re down, and after the cheating scandal I wouldn’t mind whatsoever if we grind our heels on their throats with sharpened spurs… Not quite as big a shambles as it was then. Verlander has come back since that series, and they've inserted Blanco into their rotation and he's pitched brilliantly, with a very low h/9 ratio and opponents' BAVG to this point. Framber Valdez isn't pitching quite as well as he did the last three seasons, but he is doing OK so far. Yanks will not face J.P. France, back in the minors, or Hunter Brown of the 8.89 ERA so far, or Spencer Arrighetti of the 8.27 ERA so far. They WILL face Verlander, Valdez and Blanco in that order. Their bullpen is still down in many places, but the starting the Yanks will face looks strong to me. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:55:54 GMT -5
Justin Verlander goes for the Tigers this evening. To review his career would that 4 or 5 paragraphs on it's own, so I will summarize. The 2nd pick of the Rule 4 draft in 2004, the Tigers rocketed him through their farm system in 2005, and brought him to the majors after just 20 starts in A and AA, finishing off the 2005 season with 2 poor starts. From 2006 on Verlander has been one of the best starting pitchers in the AL, compiling 3 Cy Young Awards, 9 All-Star selections, the Rookie of the Year Award, and two World Series Champions Rings. He's been the ace of his staff almost every year since, and this is now his 19th MLB season (he missed all of 2021) due to injuries. He's won 258 games, is just one six pitchers in MLB history to have thrown three or more no-hitters (only Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax have thrown more) and stands 12th on the all-time strikeout list for pitchers. Verlander is, in short, a no-doubt first-ballot inner-circle Hall of Famer the moment he becomes eligible five years after his retirement. Whenever that comes.
He's 41 this season, and even for no-doubt Hall of Fame pitchers, with advancing ace comes increasing time lost due to injuries and at least somewhat decreased effectiveness. He missed almost all of the shortened 2020 season, and all of 2021 with Tommy John surgery, and missed 4-6 starts in 2022 and 2023 with nagging injuries. This spring had a bout of shoulder inflammation and had to miss the first 2-3 weeks of the season. But he's back, and in 3 starts he's pitching well so far: 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. In 17 1/3 innings, he's allowed 13 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 2 HR, 7 BB and struck out 13.
All Yankees fans know that he's been tough on the Yankees throughout his career, pitching many good/elite games against them in the regular season, and a bunch of them in the post-season as well..
It comes as somewhat of a surprise, then, that in 27 career regular season starts against the Yanks, Verlander is just 10-9 with and ERA of 3.41. In 171 1/3 innings, he's allowed 160 hits, 73 runs, 65 earned, 27 HR, 50 BB and struck out just 157. His WHIP against the Yanks is a rather average 1.226, significantly higher than his career WHIP of 1.118.
In the post-season, Verlander has made 9 starts against the Yanks, and it is here that he has hurt the Yankees multiple times: He's 5-1, with a 2.98 ERA. Of the 9 starts, one of them, he left early with some sort of injury, giving up 1 run in 1 inning, but in the other 8, he has pitched between 6 and 9 innings and allowed 0 or 1 run in 4 of them, and 2 in another one. The Yanks have never really knocked him around: in the other 3 starts, he gave up 3 in 5 1/3, 4 in 7 and 4 in 8 innings. His composite postseason line: 51 1/3 innings, 36 hits, 17 runs, all earned, 6 HR, 14 BB, and struck out 67. That's a K/9 ratio near 12, and a K/BB ratio near 5 to 1. The Yanks' regular season quadruple slash line against Verlander is .244/.302/.415/.717. He started 4 games against the Yanks in the regular season last year, meaning he pitched against them twice for the Mets, and then twice for the Astros. He was 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA. In 25 innings, he allowed 20 hits, 9 runs, all earned 5 HR, 7 BB and struck 19. His WHIP was 1.080.
Repertoire: Verlander's avg FB velocity has diminished only very slowly over his 19 year career, but even that diminishment is not crucial. He's the one who taught Gerrit Cole the value of sitting 2-3 mph below your top FB velo and then humping up for key strikeout pitches in high leverage, or when emptying the tank in his last inning. He has usually "sat" at 94-5 throughout his games against the Yanks, relying on his slider, curve and change to keep hitters from barreling the fastball, then humped up to 97,08, 99, even 100 on the crucial pitchers. He might top out these days at 97-8, but his average FB this season is 94 so far. The pitch mix hasn't changed much in the last five years. This year, in a very small sample, he's throwing the change and curve a little bit more and the slider somewhat less, so far anyway. The 4 pitch righty's mix: FB averaging 94 about half the time. Curve at 77-8 about 23%, slider at 86-7 about 19% and change at 84-5 about 7%
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:57:05 GMT -5
Playing the "name game" with Verlander...
There have been many players named Justin in MLB history (much more popular the last 20 years or so), but he is the only Verlander in the history of the major leagues. His brother Ben, an outfielder/1st baseman, was also drafted by the Tigers in the 14th round of the 2013 draft, but never made it past high-A ball and retired at the end of the 2017 minor league season.
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:57:45 GMT -5
The Yanks send a hard-throwing righty of their own to oppose Verlander: Luis Gil. His FB is about as good as Verlander's was when he was young, but he doesn't have the command or the curve in his 3-pitch repertoire. Gil is coming off his best start of the season 6 1/3 innings of 2-hit shutout ball in which he walked just 1 batter for the first time this year. In his last two starts, he's walked just 3 in 11 1/3 innings after walking 17 in his first 17 innings. He's still tied for 5th in MLB with 20 BB (with Marcus Stroman, who's about as far from Gil in his stuff and pitch mix as a starter can get), but if he can hold his walks to 3 per 9 innings or less, he's going to be very very good.
Tonight's start is his first career appearance vs. the Astros (he was the only member of the rotation not to start in the season-opening 4-game series in Houston), so there is no team quadruple slash line to report.
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:58:17 GMT -5
Yanks' lineup vs. Verlander
Volpe is 0-9 with a RBI (sac fly)
Soto is 0-5 with a BB
Judge is 4-21 with 2 solo HR, a BB and 4 K
Verdugo is 0-2 with a K
Stanton is 4-20 with 1 double, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 9 K and 1 GIDP
Rizzo is 0-7 with a BB and a K
Torres is 4-20 with 1 BB and 5 K
Wells is 1-3 with a GIDP, and Trevino is 1-4 with a double and a GIDP.
Cabrera has never faced him.
The only players on the bench for the game who's ever faced Olson before are Johe Berti, who's 0-2 with a RBI, and Trent Grisham, who's 1-2 with a double and a RBI.
If you add that up, that's 15 for 95, .158/.221/.347/.558 with 8 BB and 20 K, which is much worse than Verlander's career quadruple slash line vs. the Yankees. This means while there must have been some Yankee batters who hit Verlander well, they're not on the current roster at the moment.
Tigers' lineup vs. Gil
...is the empty set. He's never faced them before, and none of them have ever batted against Gil
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 17:58:57 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Yanks had the day off. The Rays started a series against the woeful White Sox looking for revenge, as the ChiSox actually swept 3 from the Rays the weekend before the one that just passed. They slapped around Mike Cleavinger, who came signed with them in early April as a late free agent and spent a month building up his arm to get ready. The Rays won 8-2. The rest of the East had the night off. So the Rays gained a 1/2 game on all their competitors, and the Yanks remain in 2nd, a game behind the O's, 3 1/2 up on the Sox, 6 up on the Jays and 7 1/2 up on the Rays.
Elsewhere in the AL East today:
The Jays open a 2-game series in Philly at 6:40 pm. Their current ace, Jose Berrios (4-2, 1.44 ERA) with take on underrated lefty Cristopher Sanchez (1-3, 3.68 ERA)
The Orioles begin a 2-game set in Washington at 6:45 pm against their regional rivals, the Nationals, who have been hot themselves lately, going 7-3 in their last 10 games. O's ace Corbin Burnes (3-1, 2.61 ERA) will face junkballing righty Trevor Williams (3-0, 2.27 ERA). Williams hasn't allowed a HR yet this season in 31 2/3 innings, but I doubt that will still be true when the night is over.
The Rays host the White Sox for the middle game of their series at 6:50 pm. Michael Soroka, a shadow of what he once was at 0-3, 6.48 ERA will face the Rays' notional ace, Zach Eflin (1-4, 4.17 ERA)
The Red Sox draw a tough series now; they're down in Atlanta to play the first of two against the Braves at 7:20 pm. In a battle of two pitchers off to great starts, Kutter Crawford (2-1, 1.56 ERA, just 1 HR allowed in 40 innings) is opposed by the Braves converted reliever, Reynaldo Lopez (2-1, 1.50 ERA)
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Post by chiyankee on May 7, 2024 18:00:07 GMT -5
Let's get this one tonight and then work on taking the series.
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 18:01:16 GMT -5
I will be keeping an eye on the Rangers' game when I can as well as all the usual stuff, though I might have to leave the thread from time to time tonight to take care of a couple of things that have come up.
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 18:03:21 GMT -5
The picture is a bit clearer now than it was when we swept the Astros to start the season. The Astros pitching is in a shambles. I’d love to at least take this series from them. A sweep would be incredible. They’re down, and after the cheating scandal I wouldn’t mind whatsoever if we grind our heels on their throats with sharpened spurs… It won't be that easy. We face Verlander, whose been pitching well since his return and Blanco, who has a 2.09 ERA, sandwiched around the struggling Arrighetti. Hope to take 2 of 3. I stand corrected. The original probable pitchers I saw on Sunday had Framber Valdez throwing the middle game, but it appears you are correct. The same two sources I checked then show Arrighetti pitching tomorrow instead. |
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Post by inger on May 7, 2024 18:06:36 GMT -5
Justin Verlander goes for the Tigers this evening. To review his career would that 4 or 5 paragraphs on it's own, so I will summarize. The 2nd pick of the Rule 4 draft in 2004, the Tigers rocketed him through their farm system in 2005, and brought him to the majors after just 20 starts in A and AA, finishing off the 2005 season with 2 poor starts. From 2006 on Verlander has been one of the best starting pitchers in the AL, compiling 3 Cy Young Awards, 9 All-Star selections, the Rookie of the Year Award, and two World Series Champions Rings. He's been the ace of his staff almost every year since, and this is now his 19th MLB season (he missed all of 2021) due to injuries. He's won 258 games, is just one six pitchers in MLB history to have thrown three or more no-hitters (only Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax have thrown more) and stands 12th on the all-time strikeout list for pitchers. Verlander is, in short, a no-doubt first-ballot inner-circle Hall of Famer the moment he becomes eligible five years after his retirement. Whenever that comes.
He's 41 this season, and even for no-doubt Hall of Fame pitchers, with advancing ace comes increasing time lost due to injuries and at least somewhat decreased effectiveness. He missed almost all of the shortened 2020 season, and all of 2021 with Tommy John surgery, and missed 4-6 starts in 2022 and 2023 with nagging injuries. This spring had a bout of shoulder inflammation and had to miss the first 2-3 weeks of the season. But he's back, and in 3 starts he's pitching well so far: 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. In 17 1/3 innings, he's allowed 13 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 2 HR, 7 BB and struck out 13.
All Yankees fans know that he's been tough on the Yankees throughout his career, pitching many good/elite games against them in the regular season, and a bunch of them in the post-season as well..
It comes as somewhat of a surprise, then, that in 27 career regular season starts against the Yanks, Verlander is just 10-9 with and ERA of 3.41. In 171 1/3 innings, he's allowed 160 hits, 73 runs, 65 earned, 27 HR, 50 BB and struck out just 157. His WHIP against the Yanks is a rather average 1.226, significantly higher than his career WHIP of 1.118. I
n the post-season, Verlander has made 9 starts against the Yanks, and it is here that he has hurt the Yankees multiple times: He's 5-1, with a 2.98 ERA. Of the 9 starts, one of them, he left early with some sort of injury, giving up 1 run in 1 inning, but in the other 8, he has pitched between 6 and 9 innings and allowed 0 or 1 run in 4 of them, and 2 in another one. The Yanks have never really knocked him around: in the other 3 starts, he gave up 3 in 5 1/3, 4 in 7 and 4 in 8 innings. His composite postseason line: 51 1/3 innings, 36 hits, 17 runs, all earned, 6 HR, 14 BB, and struck out 67. That's a K/9 ratio near 12, and a K/BB ratio near 5 to 1. The Yanks' regular season quadruple slash line against Verlander is .244/.302/.415/.717. He started 4 games against the Yanks in the regular season last year, meaning he pitched against them twice for the Mets, and then twice for the Astros. He was 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA. In 25 innings, he allowed 20 hits, 9 runs, all earned 5 HR, 7 BB and struck 19. His WHIP was 1.080.
Repertoire: Verlander's avg FB velocity has diminished only very slowly over his 19 year career, but even that diminishment is not crucial. He's the one who taught Gerrit Cole the value of sitting 2-3 mph below your top FB velo and then humping up for key strikeout pitches in high leverage, or when emptying the tank in his last inning. He has usually "sat" at 94-5 throughout his games against the Yanks, relying on his slider, curve and change to keep hitters from barreling the fastball, then humped up to 97,08, 99, even 100 on the crucial pitchers. He might top out these days at 97-8, but his average FB this season is 94 so far. The pitch mix hasn't changed much in the last five years. This year, in a very small sample, he's throwing the change and curve a little bit more and the slider somewhat less, so far anyway. The 4 pitch righty's mix: FB averaging 94 about half the time. Curve at 77-8 about 23%, slider at 86-7 about 19% and change at 84-5 about 7% Haha! You said Verlander is going for the Tigers tonight. I hope so, we’re playing the Astros… 😂 |
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Post by qwik3457bb on May 7, 2024 18:08:20 GMT -5
Altuve steps in; Gil has completed his warmups.
Game underway.
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