Moving to the league that isn’t afraid to let its pitchers hit…

National League

• Rockies at Phillies, 4:05 p.m. PT — Both teams are fighting for a wild card berth, although Colorado remains a long shot. Franklin Morales and his 6.23 ERA go up against Adam Eaton, MLB’s worst pitcher this year, so if too many runs aren’t enough for you, this is the game to watch.
• Padres at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m. PT — If the Dodgers have any shot at reaching the post-season, they need to sweep this series. Jake Peavy makes his first start since getting shelled at Arizona last week on short rest. Several Dodgers hitters — notably Rafael Furcal (32 PA, .281/.281/.688), Luis Gonzalez (58 PA, .353/.431/.686), and Shea Hillenbrand (24 PA, .368/.500/.737) — have enjoyed success against Peavy over the years. Los Angeles counters with Esteban Loaiza, who makes his second start since coming over from the A’s.

One game? If you like offense, watch the Morales/Eaton Fireworks Display™; otherwise, go with the Padres and Dodgers. Happy watching…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT — I’m contractually obligated to pimp the Yankees game, because no-one else will. Philip Hughes gets the start for New York. He’s coughed up five runs in each of his past three starts, but whatever. Outfielder Wladimir Balentien is up for Seattle. In addition to the great name, Balentien has some of the sickest power I’ve seen in the minors. Dude hit some serious shots when he was in the California League. Big kid.
• Orioles at Devil Rays, 4:10 p.m. PT — Dude, don’t actually watch this one. I just couldn’t resist including Radhames Liz and Andy Sonnanstine in this post. And now that I think of it, B.J. Upton is worth watching, as is the inexplicably resurgent Carlos Pena.

National League

• Dodgers at Cubs, 5:05 p.m. PT — Eric Stults takes the mound for LA. I loved him in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (some jokes never get old, they’re just lame to begin with). On the other side, Ted Lilly gets the call against his former employer. Lilly never made it to the big club, but he was drafted by the Dodgers back in ‘96. Lilly also was part of a July 2002 trade that included the aforementioned Pena. The Tigers ended up with Pena and Jeremy Bonderman, the A’s got Lilly, and the Yankees drew the short straw, er, I mean Jeff Weaver.
• Pirates at Cardinals, 5:10 p.m. PT — Mark Mulder makes his 2007 debut for St. Louis, bringing new meaning to the term “fashionably late.” As was the case in ‘06, the Cardinals find themselves in the thick of a pennant race despite being a .500 ballclub. Yippee for them. Rick Ankiel continues to defy logic by being a productive everyday outfielder. He’s even destroying lefties. It’s a small sample, but how could would that be if Ankiel ends up having a decent big-league career after all? Russell Branyan also somehow has found his way to St. Louis. Elvis is everywhere? No, Russell is everywhere.
• Padres at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m. PT — Jake Peavy, Livan Hernandez, battle for supremacy in the NL West, etc.

One game? As usual, I’m partial to San Diego/Arizona. Happy watching!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Twins, 5:10 p.m. PT — How in the world can Horacio Ramirez have a 7-4 record despite a 7.38 ERA? If his performance doesn’t convince you that won-loss record is a terrible way to evaluate starting pitchers, then nothing will. Opponents are batting .341/.407/.518 against the southpaw; that’s roughly what Joe Mauer did last year. Right-hander Matt Garza (2-3, 2.05 ERA) starts for Minnesota.
• Yankees at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — New York has won 21 of its last 30 and is now just four games back of Boston in the AL East. The Angels are up by two games in the AL West. Two young pitchers, Philip Hughes and Dustin Moseley, face each other in this one. Both have been brilliant at times but, as you might expect, very inconsistent. Both lineups are stacked, too, and the pitchers will have their hands full.

National League

• Brewers at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m. PT — After leading the NL Central for much of the season, Milwaukee has slipped behind the Cubs into second place. Rookie Yovani Gallardo gets the call for the Brewers. He’s allowed 18 runs over 8 1/3 innings covering his previous two starts. Milwaukee features MVP candidate Prince Fielder and ROY favorite Ryan Braun on offense. Veteran lefty Doug Davis gets the start for Arizona against his old team. Davis is 10-10 this year, after going 11-11 each of the past two seasons, and 12-12 the year before that. Weird.

One game: Yankees at Anaheim. It’s the most compelling pitching matchup and has the most playoff implications. Happy watching…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

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…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Red Sox at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — Not that the Red Sox need my help in the hype department, but a battle between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Erik Bedard could be a lot of fun to watch. Bedard has emerged in a big way this season. He’s fourth in the American League in ERA, first in H/9, first in K/9 (11.20!), and first in strikeouts. With all due respect to perennial favorite Johan Santana, Bedard and Oakland’s Dan Haren have to be the front-runners for this year’s Cy Young Award. Of course, we’ve still got plenty of baseball yet to play…
• Yankees at Indians, 4:05 p.m. PT — Two playoff contenders, two up-and-coming young pitchers; what’s not to like? Philip Hughes got knocked around by the Royals last week in his return from an extended stint on the DL. Fausto Carmona, meanwhile, has been one of the bigger surprises in the AL. His low strikeout rate suggests perhaps another Jake Westbrook, so who knows how long this level of success will last. Still, might as well enjoy it. Cleveland has some terrific hitters; the Indians are getting nothing out of second base or right field, but guys like Victor Martinez, Ryan Garko, Grady Sizemore, and Travis Hafner create serious problems for the opposition.
• Twins at Angels, 7:05 pm. PT — I forgot Kelvim Escobar. He could make a run for the Cy Young Award, too. There are a lot of worthy candidates this year. The Twins need to move over to the NL Central. What are they going to do without Torii Hunter next season?

National League

• Braves at Phillies, 4:35 p.m. PT — Speaking of Cy Young, he’s not there yet, but Cole Hamels will be a serious candidate possibly as early as next year. Chuck James is no slouch himself, although he’s up against a ridiculously deep lineup. Do folks in Philadelphia really think Pat Burrell stinks?
• Cubs at Rockies, 6:05 p.m. PT — Meaningful games at Coors Field in August — what’s up with that? The Cubs and Rockies have identical records (59-55) headed into this one, although the Rox play in a much tougher division. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Cubs had an Opening Day payroll of just under $100 million, while the Rockies check in at about $54 million. Brad Hawpe and Matt Holliday are young studs, and Todd Helton has done a nice job reinventing himself as a productive hitter despite the power outage; the pitching staff, meanwhile, owns a 4.46 ERA (including 4.58 at home) as of this writing. Someone deserves a medal for that.

Got time for just one? Toss-up between Orioles/Red Sox and Braves/Phillies. The former offers a slightly better pitching matchup, while the latter has more far-reaching playoff implications.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

You with me? Good.

Quoth Yankees GM Brian Cashman: “It got to the point where the perception is there’s a problem here.”

Well, yeah, I guess I can see that. The thing is, Hughes isn’t the only guy on the team to hurt his hammy this year. He’s just the latest in a long line that includes Hideki Matsui, Chien-Ming Wang, and Mike Mussina.

Well, Mussina is real old, so we’ll cut some slack there. But what about the others? Is there a pattern here, or is this just coincidence? I’ll bet Cashman has an opinion:

They’re all different. It’s tough to see if there’s a common denominator. Is it based on our strength and conditioning program? I would not say that’s the case.

So we’re back to perception. What could that mean? Ah, here’s a clue at the very end of the article:

Miller, 34, was unpopular with some players, and several opted out of his program. Miller had not worked in baseball for 10 years before Cashman hired him last winter. His previous job was director of fitness at the Ballen Isles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

That last bit about the country club isn’t terribly relevant, but I am easily amused at the type of detail that often shows up in these items. Really, and what color were his socks?

Anyway, the only bit of advice I have for the Yankees — not that they should care — is that they might want to rethink the title of the person who replaces Miller. Because when it comes to perception, I’m not sure you can do much worse than “director of performance enhancement.”

I’m just sayin’…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

In a nutshell, Carlos looks at video of Hughes as a minor leaguer last year and compares it side-by-side with video from his Yankees debut. Carlos mixes in some still shots so we can see where Hughes is during various points of his windup.

Among many other things, Carlos has determined that Hughes’ arm slot is a little higher this season than it was in ‘06. This translates into a sharper downward breaking curve ball and a straighter fastball.

Which is better? That is largely a matter of opinion, and Carlos offers his:

In terms of how his body moves, I would certainly like him to be more like he was in ‘06. Better momentum, better center of gravity, better rhythm, later hand break. I would hate to see him slow down in order to get “balanced” or to focus too much on “staying back.” I don’t think he will keep his velocity throughout his career if he keeps doing what he’s doing now. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that his four-seam fastball’s average velocity is declining slightly already due to those changes.

Folks, this is great stuff. The amount and type of detail Carlos, a former pro ballplayer, is able to detect and analyze is astounding. He offers insights that, frankly, often fly over my head.

Well, at least on first reading…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

But that’s in the past now. What do we have going on today? If you’re a fan of offense, I’ve got some good news…

American League

• Royals at Twins, 10:10 a.m. PT – Zack Greinke and Boof Bonser sqaure off this morning at the Metrodome. These are two promising young pitchers; we don’t know what they’ll do from start to start, but their names are Zack and Boof, so they’ve got that going for them.
• Red Sox at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT – Two days in a row I’ve identified this as a game to watch. Why? Josh Beckett and Adam Loewen: two young pitchers with great stuff and inconsistent results. If both guys are “on,” this could be a fun one.
• Blue Jays at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT – A.J. Burnett goes up against rookie Philip Hughes at Yankee Stadium. Hughes is making his big-league debut. If you haven’t heard of him, then you’re probably not reading this. He’s only the most hyped prospect out of the Bronx since, I dunno, Derek Jeter maybe? He’s also, by all accounts, real good.

National League

• Astros at Pirates, 9:35 a.m. PT – As you know, I like good pitching. Wandy Rodriguez and Tony Armas hook up in this one, so that probably won’t be happening here. However, if you like a lot of runs, this might be for you.
• Nationals at Phillies, 12:05 p.m. PT – The Phillies appear to have woken up at long last. Cole Hamels gets the start, and that’s always reason enough for me to watch.

And those are your games for today…

Post from: Knuckle Curve