Livan Hernandez hopes batted balls keep finding gloves. Photo: Icon SMI
Kenshin Kawakami takes on Livan Hernandez as the Braves meet the Nationals in Washington. Hernandez is tied with Ubaldo Jimenez for the NL lead in ERA at 0.87. Livan is taking advantage of an improved Washington defense, as he’s pitching to contact. The following table shows the percent of batters facing a pitcher who are putting the ball in play (BFP – (K+BB+HBP)), minimum 100 batters faced this year.
| Pitcher | BFP | InPlay | PctInPlay | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Stammen | 108 | 93 | 86.1 | 6.75 |
| Livan Hernandez | 117 | 99 | 84.6 | 0.87 |
| Nick Blackburn | 107 | 90 | 84.1 | 6.85 |
| Mark Buehrle | 160 | 134 | 83.8 | 5.3 |
| Douglas Fister | 130 | 108 | 83.1 | 1.29 |
| Joel Pineiro | 133 | 111 | 83.5 | 5.76 |
| Jeremy Guthrie | 159 | 130 | 81.8 | 4.78 |
| Jamie Moyer | 131 | 108 | 82.4 | 5.7 |
| David Huff | 138 | 113 | 81.9 | 4.6 |
| Dallas Braden | 149 | 120 | 80.5 | 4.14 |
| Rodrigo Lopez | 134 | 109 | 81.3 | 4.5 |
| Joe Saunders | 144 | 116 | 80.6 | 7.04 |
| Brad Penny | 136 | 110 | 80.9 | 1.56 |
| Mitch Talbot | 136 | 109 | 80.1 | 2.88 |
| Carl Pavano | 127 | 101 | 79.5 | 3.73 |
| Ryan Rowland-Smith | 127 | 102 | 80.3 | 5.28 |
| Anibal Sanchez | 112 | 90 | 80.4 | 4.32 |
| Edwin Jackson | 148 | 119 | 80.4 | 8.07 |
| Chris Volstad | 133 | 106 | 79.7 | 4.45 |
| Kyle Lohse | 123 | 99 | 80.5 | 5.28 |
| Tim Hudson | 127 | 102 | 80.3 | 2.87 |
| John Lannan | 159 | 127 | 79.9 | 6.34 |
| Brian Bannister | 130 | 103 | 79.2 | 3.48 |
| Tim Wakefield | 126 | 100 | 79.4 | 6.59 |
| Kyle Kendrick | 108 | 85 | 78.7 | 7.61 |
| Rick Porcello | 116 | 92 | 79.3 | 8.03 |
| Fausto Carmona | 138 | 108 | 78.3 | 4.05 |
| Zach Duke | 159 | 124 | 78 | 6.09 |
| Mat Latos | 116 | 90 | 77.6 | 5.47 |
| Dana Eveland | 125 | 98 | 78.4 | 4.76 |
| David Bush | 125 | 97 | 77.6 | 4.6 |
| Brett Myers | 143 | 112 | 78.3 | 3.82 |
| Wandy Rodriguez | 129 | 100 | 77.5 | 3.64 |
| Scott Feldman | 116 | 91 | 78.4 | 4.5 |
| Matt Harrison | 132 | 102 | 77.3 | 4.97 |
| Scott Baker | 154 | 118 | 76.6 | 5.35 |
| Carlos Silva | 125 | 96 | 76.8 | 2.9 |
| Ben Sheets | 142 | 110 | 77.5 | 7.12 |
| Hiroki Kuroda | 142 | 110 | 77.5 | 2.08 |
| John Lackey | 129 | 99 | 76.7 | 4.5 |
| A.J. Burnett | 135 | 103 | 76.3 | 2.43 |
| Aaron Cook | 133 | 101 | 75.9 | 5.52 |
| Matt Cain | 127 | 96 | 75.6 | 2.84 |
| Paul Maholm | 136 | 103 | 75.7 | 4.83 |
| Roy Halladay | 185 | 141 | 76.2 | 1.47 |
| Randy Wolf | 169 | 126 | 74.6 | 3.86 |
| Luke Hochevar | 129 | 97 | 75.2 | 6.11 |
| Jair Jurrjens | 106 | 79 | 74.5 | 6.38 |
| Randy Wells | 133 | 100 | 75.2 | 3.45 |
| Max Scherzer | 139 | 104 | 74.8 | 6.47 |
| Aaron Harang | 150 | 113 | 75.3 | 6.68 |
| Matt Palmer | 106 | 79 | 74.5 | 6.75 |
| Johnny Cueto | 120 | 90 | 75 | 5.33 |
| Barry Zito | 133 | 98 | 73.7 | 1.53 |
| Jeremy Bonderman | 116 | 86 | 74.1 | 5.74 |
| Kevin Millwood | 167 | 123 | 73.7 | 3.15 |
| Derek Lowe | 144 | 106 | 73.6 | 5.18 |
| Jeff Niemann | 117 | 87 | 74.4 | 2.76 |
| Josh Beckett | 159 | 118 | 74.2 | 6.31 |
| Jason Vargas | 101 | 75 | 74.3 | 3.6 |
| Gil Meche | 121 | 89 | 73.6 | 9.89 |
| CC Sabathia | 165 | 120 | 72.7 | 2.74 |
| John Danks | 133 | 97 | 72.9 | 1.85 |
| Kevin Slowey | 128 | 94 | 73.4 | 3.77 |
| Dontrelle Willis | 105 | 77 | 73.3 | 3.75 |
| Justin Duchscherer | 116 | 85 | 73.3 | 2.89 |
| Clayton Richard | 129 | 94 | 72.9 | 3 |
| Ricky Nolasco | 135 | 98 | 72.6 | 4.01 |
| Mike Leake | 141 | 103 | 73 | 2.94 |
| David J Hernandez | 124 | 90 | 72.6 | 4.55 |
| Zack Greinke | 160 | 116 | 72.5 | 2.27 |
| David Price | 137 | 100 | 73 | 2.34 |
| Clay Buchholz | 133 | 97 | 72.9 | 2.97 |
| Andy Pettitte | 136 | 99 | 72.8 | 2.12 |
| Jake Westbrook | 123 | 89 | 72.4 | 5.53 |
| Roy Oswalt | 134 | 97 | 72.4 | 2.73 |
| Johan Santana | 145 | 105 | 72.4 | 4.5 |
| Mike Pelfrey | 124 | 89 | 71.8 | 2.4 |
| Bronson Arroyo | 131 | 94 | 71.8 | 6.37 |
| Adam Wainwright | 144 | 103 | 71.5 | 2.13 |
| Shaun Marcum | 160 | 114 | 71.3 | 3.12 |
| Ervin Santana | 142 | 101 | 71.1 | 4.59 |
| Jonathon Niese | 133 | 94 | 70.7 | 3.1 |
| Jon Garland | 147 | 104 | 70.7 | 2.06 |
| Nate Robertson | 114 | 81 | 71.1 | 5.18 |
| Charlie Morton | 104 | 74 | 71.2 | 12.57 |
| Gavin Floyd | 122 | 87 | 71.3 | 6.49 |
| Justin Verlander | 149 | 104 | 69.8 | 4.5 |
| Dan Haren | 170 | 119 | 70 | 4.5 |
| James Shields | 141 | 98 | 69.5 | 3.38 |
| Ian Kennedy | 125 | 88 | 70.4 | 4.45 |
| Chad Billingsley | 117 | 82 | 70.1 | 4.85 |
| Jaime Garcia | 125 | 88 | 70.4 | 1.13 |
| Kevin Correia | 142 | 99 | 69.7 | 3.97 |
| Homer Bailey | 136 | 94 | 69.1 | 6.04 |
| Oliver Perez | 121 | 83 | 68.6 | 4.05 |
| C.J. Wilson | 136 | 94 | 69.1 | 1.65 |
| Brian Matusz | 130 | 90 | 69.2 | 4.4 |
| Doug Davis | 114 | 79 | 69.3 | 8.87 |
| Todd Wellemeyer | 110 | 76 | 69.1 | 5.55 |
| Kyle Davies | 124 | 86 | 69.4 | 3.52 |
| Felix Hernandez | 172 | 119 | 69.2 | 3.1 |
| Javier Vazquez | 112 | 76 | 67.9 | 9.78 |
| Vicente Padilla | 100 | 68 | 68 | 7.06 |
| Ricky Romero | 141 | 96 | 68.1 | 2.25 |
| Jered Weaver | 148 | 101 | 68.2 | 3.19 |
| Tom Gorzelanny | 117 | 80 | 68.4 | 2.48 |
| Greg Smith | 108 | 73 | 67.6 | 7.33 |
| Ryan Dempster | 140 | 95 | 67.9 | 2.78 |
| Wade Davis | 119 | 81 | 68.1 | 2.79 |
| Jake Peavy | 165 | 110 | 66.7 | 6.31 |
| Cole Hamels | 139 | 92 | 66.2 | 5.28 |
| John Maine | 112 | 74 | 66.1 | 7.15 |
| Gio Gonzalez | 121 | 80 | 66.1 | 3.45 |
| Felipe Paulino | 128 | 85 | 66.4 | 5.53 |
| Matt Garza | 140 | 91 | 65 | 2.06 |
| Francisco Liriano | 139 | 90 | 64.7 | 1.5 |
| Justin Masterson | 127 | 82 | 64.6 | 5.4 |
| Chris Carpenter | 155 | 101 | 65.2 | 2.84 |
| Yovani Gallardo | 155 | 99 | 63.9 | 3 |
| Carlos Zambrano | 113 | 72 | 63.7 | 6.56 |
| Thomas Hanson | 119 | 74 | 62.2 | 2.17 |
| Tim Lincecum | 133 | 83 | 62.4 | 1.27 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | 160 | 99 | 61.9 | 0.87 |
| Jon Lester | 128 | 78 | 60.9 | 4.71 |
| Josh Johnson | 152 | 93 | 61.2 | 3.16 |
| Colby Lewis | 133 | 80 | 60.2 | 2.76 |
| Bud Norris | 111 | 66 | 59.5 | 7.25 |
| Jorge de la Rosa | 100 | 59 | 59 | 3.91 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 132 | 76 | 57.6 | 3.07 |
| Brandon Morrow | 120 | 69 | 57.5 | 5.46 |
| Rich Harden | 138 | 79 | 57.2 | 3.52 |
| Jonathan Sanchez | 122 | 65 | 53.3 | 2.48 |
Note that this concept doesn’t work all that well for Craig Stammen, even on the same team. He’s allowing line drives at twice the rate as Livan, so even though batters are putting wood on the ball off Hernandez, they’re not getting good wood on the pitches. In general, note that pitchers with high in-play rates do have high ERAs. Of the top ten, five have ERAs over 5.00. Seven of the lowest ten have ERAs under 4.00.
Kawakami is getting hit for power, as 11 of the 24 hits against him went for extra bases. He’s keeping things a bit under control by allowing a .231 BA with runners in scoring position.
Tim Lincecum and the Giants visit the Marlins as they take on Anibal Sanchez. The Freak needs two strike outs to reclaim the league lead from Ubaldo Jimenez. Lincecum hit double digits in strikeouts twice in his first five starts. We’ll see if Bruce Bochy pulls him if the game is late and close, as the Giants lost Tim’s last start when that happened. Sanchez is pitching well in terms of walks and home runs, but his high number of balls in play is hurting his ERA. He needs to get his strikeouts up.
The Rockies and Padres continue their series with Greg Smith taking on Wade “The Blank” LeBlanc. Wade posted zero runs allowed in 16 of the 17 full innings he’s pitched this season. Batters are getting hits, but that’s about it. He’s only walked four, and base runners are 1 for 5 against him and the Padres catchers. Smith is at risk for whiplash, as he’s allowed six home runs in only 23 1/3 innings of work. PETCO Park should help him with those.
Finally, the Rays travel to Seattle as James Shields faces Jason Vargas. Shields owns a 3.38 ERA despite allowing seven home runs so far. Six of those were solo shots, and he totally shuts down hitters when men are on base. Vargas appears to have solved the home run problem that plagued him in 2009, giving up just two long balls in his first 25 innings of work.
Enjoy!