Bedard vs Hughes, Jurrjens Debuts

You are wondering which games to watch on Wednesday. Not a problem, I’ve got your back:

American League

• Orioles at Yankees, 10:05 a.m. PT — Intriguing pitching matchup here between Erik Bedard and Philip Hughes. Over at Mr. Irrelevant, Jamie Mottram ponders Bedard’s chances of reaching 300 strikeouts this season. Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I am a contributor to THT) analyzes Hughes’ delivery and compares it to that of fellow pinstripe prospect Joba Chamberlain.
• Tigers at Indians, 4:05 p.m. PT — The Tigers prevailed in round one of the AL Central showdown. Wednesday sees Fausto Carmona and his improving strikeout trends (tip o’ the Knuckle Curve cap to Vegas Watch’s Jacob for that nugget). On the other side, 21-year-old Jair Jurrjens makes his big-league debut. Baseball America identified Jurrjens as Detroit’s #4 prospect coming into the season. Jeremy Bonderman. Justin Verlander. Andrew Miller. The recently signed Rick Porcello. Jurrjens. That is an alarming amount of young pitching talent. Where does it end for the Tigers?
• Royals at Rangers, 5:35 p.m. PT — And in the cautionary tale department, we have Gil Meche and Vicente Padilla pitching for teams headed nowhere. Meche started the season strong and appeared to be justifying the crazy money Kansas City threw at him this past winter. Since the middle of May, though, he’s gone back to his old tricks (4-9, 5.25 ERA in 16 starts). Padilla, meanwhile, is solidifying his status as Nicaragua’s answer to Chan Ho Park.

National League

• Rockies at Padres, 7:05 p.m. PT — This is the only game in the NL on Wednesday that features two teams with winning records. Young flamethrowing right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez (Rockies #6 prospect entering the season according to BA) hooks up against Chris Young, who despite getting touched up a bit his last time out continues to lead the world in ERA.

Need to choose just one? Tough call. Orioles and Yankees probably features the best pitching matchup, but I’m going to go with the Tigers and Indians due to the playoff implications. Happy watching…