The Tigers and White Sox try once again to play opening day with Justin Verlander facing Jose Quintana. My thoughts on the game were in yesterday’s post.
Hisashi Iwakuma leads the Mariners against the Astros and Lance McCullers. Despite not reaching the US major leagues until he was in his 30s, Iwakuma owns an impressive career. His 63-37 record represents a .630 winning percentage for a team that’s a little under .500 during his tenure. His strength is limiting walks. Those rose last season, however, as did his ERA. McCullers posted identical 3.22 ERAs in each of his first two seasons. Last season he upped his strikeout rate while decreasing home runs, but the trade-off was more walks. He only made 14 starts due to injury. Keeping him healthy will be one key to the Astros season.
A battle of veteran aces takes place in St. Louis where Jake Arrieta takes on Adam Wainwright as the Cubs try to get in the win column against the Cardinals. Arrieta walked 76 batters in 197 1/3 innings in 2016 after walking 89 batters in 385 2/3 innings the previous two seasons. It did not seem to hurt him as the Cubs defense helped Jake allow just 138 hits, good for a .194 BA allowed. Wainwright returned from an injury filled 2015 to make 33 starts in 2016, but his 4.62 ERA was the highest of any full season he pitched. That was mainly due to his single season high of 22 home runs allowed.
Finally, Matt Shoemaker returns from a horrific head injury to battle the Athletics and Sean Manaea. Shoemaker had an interesting spring. He struck out 21 batters and walked five in 17 innings, which is great. He did allowed a ton of hits and home runs, but Arizona will do that to a pitcher. Manaea tries to improve on a rookie year in which he posted excellent walk numbers, but allowed a few too many home runs.
Enjoy!
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2nAuoRj
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