There aren’t many pitchers left with a chance at 20 wins. Adam Wainwright, with 17, may be the only one who reaches the milestone. He takes on the Brewers and Jeff Suppan this afternoon as the Cardinals finish their series in Milwaukee. Despite an ERA under 2.00 at home and almost two runs lower than on the road, Adam is a 7-6 pitcher in St. Louis, but 10-1 away. His 3.77 road ERA is good, and the Cardinals scored 91 runs in his 13 road starts, 7.0 runs per game. Suppan sports a 6.19 ERA in Milwaukee, so this may turn out to be an easy 18th win for Wainwright.
Jeff Niemann and Joba Chamberlain battle today, at least for three innings, as the Yankees go for a sweep of the Rays. My friend and Yankees fan Bill Ryczek suggested a new Joba rule:
By the way, speaking of pampering young pitchers, I thought of another Joba rule (Joba 5.0). He could throw every other pitch left handed. Since half of his pitches are balls and aren’t hit, he could throw the balls left handed and the strikes right handed. That way, they could get him up to 300 innings a year.
Bill Ryczek is a prolific author
Jeff Niemann does a good job limiting the power of left-handed batters as only five of the 15 home runs he allowed came off left-handers. That should help him in the new Yankee Stadium.
Cliff Lee seems to be going the way of Brad Lidge as he went from unbeatable in his first five Phillies starts to giving up six runs in each of his last two starts. He’ll face the Nationals and Garrett Mock. (I love that name, for some reason. I think it has to do with a combination of Alice in Wonderland and Saturday Night Live.) With a .382 OBP allowed, it seems like batters are doing most of the mocking this season.
The Braves continue to try to stay relevant in the NL playoff race as they send Tommy Hanson against Wandy Rodriguez. Hanson pitched shorter outings in his last two starts, and the Braves failed to win both. Rodgriuez sports a 1.60 ERA at home this season, allowing a much lower WHIP in Houston, 1.0 at home vs. 2.1 on the road.
Enjoy!
Posted by David Pinto at 11:49 am | Games | Permalink | 2 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
September 9th, 2009 @ 11:54 am
I think they’d better save Ryczek’s Rule for Pat Venditte.
September 9th, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Theoretically the cardinals could still have 2 20-game winners this year…
AW got his 18th today, with 7 shutout innings. He’s got 3-4 starts left this year, so he’s got a “good” shot.
Carpenter has 16 wins and either 4 or 5 starts left, as well, depending on how they use the off days. I wouldn’t call his odds “good”, but he’s got a shot.