Two sinker ball pitchers on the mound today with Hudson and Maholm. Maholm has pitched great this season especially in his last 3 games: 3-0 1.47era.

Hudson has struggled coming back from an injury. He has pitched 11innings, 12hits and given up 9 runs.

According to brooksbaseball.net, Randy Wolf, another sinker baller, is a very similar pitcher to Maholm. Earlier this season the Braves lit Wolf up and scored 10 runs in the game.

All we need is one of these pitchers to be off, which is very likely today and we’ll hit over 7 runs.

Even though Lynn is 5-0 I’m not convinced he’s that good. He’s faced the Pirates and Cubs twice this season. He throws his four seam fastball 49% of the time and this Zona team can hit fastballs. Lynn might have been ale to overpower a weak Cubs and Pirates lineup but The Dbacks will give him trouble.

Texas has lost 4 of 5 and is sending Harrison to the mound who has given up 22 hits and 15 runs in his last 8 innings pitched.

Matusz is coming a 6 inning/6hit/1run performance against the Yankees.

The Orioles are currently on a 5 game win streak and couldn’t have caught the Rangers at a better time.

The Angels swept the Twins a week ago in L.A. which included Weaver’s no hitter. The Twins scored a total of 3 runs in the series (3 games) all coming in game 1. 

Weaver is currently on a 15 scoreless inning streak and is 4-0 this year. 

On April 11th Weaver faced this same Twins club in Minnesota and went 6 innings giving up 7 hits and 5 runs. 

The Angels are 3-9 away this season. Minnesota is 3-8 at home. 

The Twins are coming off a 6 game road trip going 1-5 and scoring a total of 8 runs.

However, look at the home/away splits for Minnesota: 

@Home: 49 runs in 11 games (4.45 per game)

            .298 BA

            .367 OBP

Away: 43 runs in 16 games (2.69 per game)

          .192 BA

          .259 OBP

I like Minnesota to feel a lil more comfortable at home tonight and end Weaver’s dominance. Add to the fact Latroy Hawkins and Scott Downs are banged up in the bullpen for the Halos. 

Nolasco’s last 12 innings pitched has not thrown over 16 pitches in a single inning. He has been performing at a high level undoubtedly due to his new array of pitches.

Career Pitch Selection:

Fourseam: 41%

Slider: 27%

This season:

Fourseam: 26%

Sinker: 22%

Slider:  24%

Curveball: 13%

Splitter: 13%

Change: 2%

Nolasco has been incredably efficient but has struggled in the past vs SD.

SD hitters are a combined 17-22 hitting against Nolasco with Kotsay batting 2nd today who is 8-10 against Ricky.

The Marlins look for their 2nd consecutive sweep of a series today on the road, but I expect SD to be up to the task of breaking their streak and getting to Nolasco today.

Yu Darvish had a rough first outing vs Seattle (5.2 innings/ 8 hits/ 5 runs) but since then he has been lights out pitching 27 innings and only giving up 3 runs. The team is 5-0 in his 5 starts.

If  you look at Darvish’s heat map from his last start (http://yfrog.com/ob1kfcilj) he was absolutely perfect painting the black all night and ending up with 9 K’s vs. Toronto. He had a similar performance vs. New York with 10 Ks in his previous outing.

Today will be different. It is extremely hard to be that precise for consecutive starts. From a team perspective, Texas has hit a little skid giving up 27 runs in the last 4games. In Darvish’s last 4 starts Texas has given up a total of 6 runs.

Arizona and the Mets are polar opposites. The Dbacks are opportunistic, gritty, and coached very well. The Mets are exactly the opposite.

Santana looks like his old self in his last 2 starts: 12innings/5hits/1run

However, Arizona is scoring 7.53 runs per game vs. lefties in the last 5 games and 5.26 runs per game vs. lefties in their last 10 games.

Add to the mix that the Mets bullpen is disgusting with a .271 BAA, 5 blown saves and a 4.95 era.

Corbin has had one career start vs. Miami and went for 5.2 innings/8 hits/ 3 runs

Corbin had a 2 hitter through 4 innings vs the Marlins then hit some trouble in the 5th. So the Zona bullpen will most likely play a big role today.

Zona Pen: last 3 games: 16 innings/ 11 hits/ 8 runs

Mets Pen: last 3 games: 21 innings/ 29 hits/ 21 runs  Woahhhh!

Hammel is having an unbelievable start to the season for the O’s and it can be attributed to him becoming a sinker ball pitcher.

In his career, Hammel has thrown the fourseam fastball 59% of the time with his next best pitch being a slider that he threw 17% of the time.

This year however he has become a sinker ball pitcher, throwing it at a rate of 35% and having great success with it. This is why he has an era of 1.97 to date. In his games, there have been 3 unders and 1 over.

Opposing him today will be another sinker ball pitcher in Aaron Cook. Cook will be making his first start of the season. Last year Cook’s numbers were pretty bad with Colorado with an era over 6 in 17 starts.

At Pawtucket Cook went 3-0 with a 1.89 era in 5 starts before being called up to start today.

Looking to keep the ball in the ballpark today with 2 sinker ballers on the mound. The O’s bullpen has been the best in the league all season which helps our cause. The Sox pen however will be an adventure. Sticking with the Under today! 

A Tom Thibodeau team doesn’t lose a game and not come back harder. You will see the best effort from this Bulls team tonight which means I expect them to win. No further analysis needed. 

Texas has won 4 straight vs Cleveland and 9 of the last 10. Tonight Texas will face Jeanmar Gomez who they have never faced before. I had to look this guy up myself cuz I was very unfamiliar and what I found was pretty impressive. 

Gomez is a sinker ball pitcher which he throws 56% of the time with his 2nd pitch being a slider. This guy does not give up homeruns, which is a huge part of Texas’ arsenal. 

The Indians have 4 homeruns in the last 2 games putting up 13 runs. 

Colby Lewis career at Cleveland: 6innings/6hits/5runs/4walks

Looking for Gomez to keep the ball on the ground and limit Texas’ power.