Archive for the 'Game Post' Category

1 ) Bonifacio

2 ) Helms

3 ) Hanley

4 ) Cantu

5 ) Uggla, 2B

6 ) Ross, CF

7 ) Paulino, C

8 ) Carroll, RF

9 ) Johnson, P

This is just absurd. Why even bring Gaby up if you aren’t going to start him the one time you face a lefty and want to get both Hermida and Carroll out of the lineup. The guy has .333/.426/.537 career MiLB line against LHP, if he’s ever going to get a start, tonight would be the night to do it.

So basically, they are turning him into Andy Gonzalez minus the position versatility and one at bat per week. Unbelievable.

Rick Vandenhurk representing the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic.

Vs

Tim Stauffer

Tonight’s lineup

Coghlan lf

Bonifacio 3b

Ramirez ss

Cantu 1b

Hermida rf

Ross cf

Uggla 2b

Baker c

VandenHurk rhp

I’m not going to go all in depth on this. Just win. The 2nd half run has to begin against a weak team like the Padres.

vs

Today we see the battle of two of last year’s best pitchers, both of whom are having sub-par seasons. Ricky Nolasco comes into this game 6-7 with a 5.76 ERA. Cole Hamels counters that with a 5-5 record and a 4.87 ERA. As of late though, the story has been changing for one of them.

Nolasco was sent down to AAA on May 23rd of this year, when his ERA had ballooned to a horrific 9.07.  After two starts in New Orleans, he came back with a vengeance, putting up a 1.54 ERA, allowing only 30 hit and 7 walks with 45 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched, but his last start was not a good one. Against the Diamondbacks, Nolasco threw 7 earned runs in 6 innings of work, including a 5-run 4th inning where he faced 9 batters.

On the other side, Cole Hamels still doesn’t seem to be recapturing the magic he’s had early in his career. In his last 8 starts, he’s been a bit better, but has been terribly inconsistent. Since June, he’s 4-4 with an 4.53. Only 4 of his starts have been Quality Starts and his last one was a 5 ER, 6 IP game vs the anemic Pirates offense.

Tonight’s Lineup

Coghlan - LF
Bonifacio - 2B
Ramirez - SS
Cantu - 1B
Ross - CF
Paulino - C
Carroll - RF
Gonzalez - 3B
Nolasco - P

Uggla is getting the night off versus Hamels, who he has been terrible against with a 130/.192/.174 line in 26 Plate Appearances.

(Had to include a picture of Volstad from his high school days since my high school, Flanagan in Pembroke Pines, beat him in his last start as a senior on our way to a state championship. Sorry, Chris.)

Chris Volstad

Volstad is 6-foot-7 22 year old with a low-to-mid 90’s fastball and a nice spike curve ball that makes his living when he’s going well on forcing hitters to pound the ball in the dirt and feeding his middle infielders grounders. When he has been on this season, he’s been great; 8 of his 18 starts have feature less than two earned runs crossing the plate, including the first complete game shutout of his career when he allowed just 5 hits while striking out 6 and walking none in his last start before the All Star Break against the Giants.

However, Volstad has been prone to giving up home runs, and that’s really been the biggest problem (and the biggest outlier) of his season. When looking at batted ball data, he is among the league’s leaders in home runs per fly ball, an astounding 16.2%. He doesn’t allow many fly balls, but he’s getting killed by those that do make it to the air.

The last time he faced the Phillies, he gave up 3 runs on 6 hits, including two home runs in a 6.2 IP W.

Lineup behind Volstad:

Emilio Bonifacio 3B
Jeremy Hermida LF
Hanley Ramirez SS
Jorge Cantu 1B
Dan Uggla 2B
Ronnie Paulino C
Cody Ross CF
Brett Carroll RF
Chris Volstad P

VS

Jamie Moyer

The term “ageless” had been used to describe Jamie Moyer for the better part of the last 7 seasons or so, but as it inevitably does, age seems to be catching up to the 46 year old lefty, who is in the midst of arguably his worst season ever.

Moyer’s trademark control has been there, but besides that, nothing has gone right for him. He is allowing 2 home runs per nine innings, and although that is with a high 15.2% HR/FB, he has been throwing more fastballs than ever this season (65% of his pitches, compared to about 40 each of the past 3 seasons, according to FanGraphs) and hasn’t been using his great change up or cutter nearly as often. If you top out at 84 MPH and you are throwing that pitch 65% of the time, you’re going to get pounded.

Still, Moyer has his reputation as a Marlin killer to uphold after his most recent start in Florida, a 4 run, 6 IP loss. Despite that, he still owns a 12-2 record with a 3.06 ERA in 14 starts against the Fish, so he had historically had their number. He is 7-0 with a 1.58 in 7 starts at Former-Dolphins-Joe-Robbie-Pro-Player-Currently-Landshark-Stadium in his career.

Prediction:

No Pedro to save the Phillies tonight, and Paulino, Cody, and Hanley are going to tee off on Moyer’s beer league fastball while Volstad keeps the ball down, though it’s hard to not give up home runs to this team, so that might still be a problem tonight. Marlins win on an early surge.