Saturday's Matchup

[Joseph New]

Once again the Tiger offense was in high gear and they combined that with excellent starting pitching. That combination could become habit forming. The Tigers are hoping that the habit continues on Saturday afternoon at 4:10 PM when they play game three of the weekend series against the Twins. Brad Penny will get the starting assignment for Detroit on Saturday. Scott Baker will come off of the DL to start the game for Minnesota.

29 year old right hander Scott Baker made his major league debut for Minnesota in 2005. He was a pleasant surprise for the Twins pitching down the stretch of a disappointing season and going 3-3 with a 3.35 ERA in 9 starts. Baker threw strikes and held opponents to a .241 average as a rookie. He began the 2006 season in the Twins rotation but struggled and lost his job at the end of May after going 2-5 with a 6.06 ERA in 9 starts. After some time at AAA Rochester Baker returned to Minnesota in July and was 3-3 with a 6.82 ERA in 7 starts. Overall for 2006 he was 5-8 with a 6.37 ERA. Baker began 2007 at AAA but with the struggles in the Twins rotation he was called up in mid-May. In 23 starts he finished the season at 9-9 with a 4.26 ERA. Baker had a good year in 2008 despite a lot of no decisions. He finished the year at 11-4 with a 3.45 ERA. Baker put together a very good season in 2009 going 15-9 with a 4.37 ERA. Baker struggled through the first half of 2010 but he came on strong at the end to finish the season 12-9 with a 4.49 ERA. Baker had to win his job in the starting rotation in the spring of 2011 and he struggled early going 2-4 with a 3.86 ERA in his first 11 starts. Over his last 6 starts he is 5-1 with a 1.67 ERA and he comes into Saturday’s game with a record of 7-5 and a 3.01 ERA. Baker is just coming off of the DL due to an elbow injury and is making his first start since July 5.

Baker throws a 4 seam fastball and a 2 seam sinking fastball in the 88-93 mph range along with a hard slider at 80-85 mph and an 80-83 mph changeup.. The fastball is his most effective pitch and he will use it 80 % of the time. He will use his slider mainly with 2 strikes on hitters as a strike out pitch and he mixes in the changeup in place of the fastball every once in a while to keep hitters off balance. Baker is a power pitcher who will throw strikes. So far in 2011 he has 104 strikeouts and just 30 walks in 110 2/3 innings giving him an average of 8.4 strikeouts and 2.4 walks per 9 innings. It also gives him a very good 3.5 to 1 K/BB ratio. Baker is an extreme fly ball pitcher and he will give up some homeruns. He allowed 23 homeruns in 2010 and has given up 12 homeruns in 17 starts so far in 2011. Of the 12 homeruns he has given up 8 have come with the bases empty. And that is the key to success for Baker. He keeps traffic off of the bases. In 110 2/3 innings he has allowed just 100 hits and opponents are hitting .240 against him. Right handers are hitting just .192 against Baker however left handers are hitting .268 with 9 of the 12 homers he has allowed. A low hit rate and a low walk rate that add up to a 1.17 WHIP which means not many base runners against him. When he is on his game he allows very few scoring chances. The key to success with Baker is command. He gets ahead of hitters and doesn’t beat himself with walks. When he has struggled in the past it has been when his control betrayed him and he starting falling behind in counts and walking hitters.

Baker is 6-5 with a 4.90 ERA in 22 career starts against Detroit. He is 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA in two previous starts against the Tigers in 2011. Jhonny Peralta is 14 for 50 (.280) with 4 doubles and 2 homeruns against Baker. Magglio Ordonez is 23 for 49 (.469) with 4 doubles, a triple and 2 homeruns, Victor Martinez is 12 for 37 (.324) with a double and a homerun, Miguel Cabrera is 11 for 33 (.333) with 3 doubles and 3 homeruns, Carlos Guillen is 11 for 30 (.367) with 2 doubles, a triple and a homerun and Ramon Santiago is 9 for 25 (.360) with a double. Austin Jackson is 5 for 11 (.455) with 2 doubles and a triple, Brennan Boesch is 3 for 11 (.273) with 2 doubles, Ryan Raburn is 2 for 10 (.200), Wilson Betemit is 1 for 8 (.125) with a homerun, Alex Avila is 1 for 7 (.143), Don Kelly is 2 for 4 (.500) with a homerun and Andy Dirks is 0 for 2 (.000). At home this season Baker is 4-1 with a 1.97 ERA in 7 starts.    

33 year old right hander Brad Penny made his major league debut in 2000 with the Florida Marlins. In 22 starts he was 8-7 with a 4.81 ERA. In 2001 he was 10-10 with a 3.69 ERA and in 2002 he was 8-7 with a 4.66 ERA while making just 24 starts due to a right bicep injury. In 2003 Penny was 14-10 with a 4.13 ERA and was a post season star as the Marlins won the World Series. Penny won the NLCS clinching game and then 2 games in the series. After going 8-8 with a 3.15 ERA for Florida in 2004 he was traded to the LA Dodgers where he made 3 starts and was 1-2 with a 3.09 ERA. In 2005 he slipped to 7-9 with a 3.90 ERA. Penny had a break out season in 2006 going 16-9 with a 4.33 ERA. He became the Dodgers ace and the NL starting pitcher in the all-star game. Penny was even better in 2007. He finished the season at 16-4 and a career best 3.03 ERA and was 3^rd in the NL Cy Young award voting. A shoulder injury turned 2008 into a disaster for Penny who made just 17 starts and was 6-9 with a 6.28 ERA. The Dodgers declined his option for 2009 and the free agent Penny signed with Boston. In 24 starts for the Red Sox Penny struggled to a record of 7-8 with a 5.61 ERA. He was released in August and signed with San Francisco. Penny shined with the Giants going 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA in 6 starts to finish out the 2009 season. Last year he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and got off to a good start going 3-4 with a 3.23 ERA in 9 starts when again back and shoulder problems arose and ended his season. In 2011 he signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers. Penny has had an up and down season so far. He is 2-1 with a 3.31 ERA over his last 5 starts with 4 quality starts. He comes into Saturday’s game with a record of 7-6 and a 4.47 ERA.

Penny carries a full bag of pitches. He has a 4 seam fastball and a 2 seam sinking fastball. He has a good 12-6 overhand curve ball, a splitter and a changeup. In his early days Penny was a power pitcher relying primarily on the four seam fastball and his off speed pitches. He would average 6 or 7 strikeouts per 9 innings. And he had a tendency to be a fly ball pitcher. But age and injuries have had their impact on Penny. He doesn’t average 95-97 mph on his fastball any longer. Instead it is more in the 91-93 mph range. In 2009 when he pitched in Boston he discovered that pitches up in the zone that used to be popped up or missed were being hit hard and deep. Penny allowed a career high 27 homeruns in 2009. Penny has been up and down this season. He got off to a rocky start and in April he was 1-3 with a 6.11 ERA. But in May he turned things around going 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA. In his first 3 starts in June he was 1-1 with a 5.87 ERA. But since then he is 2-1 with a 3.31 ERA over his last 5 starts. He averages just 3.8 strikeouts per 9 innings. So pitch location is the key to his success. When he is able to keep the ball down and out of the middle of the strike zone he is an effective pitcher. But when he doesn’t he struggles. And Penny has struggled against right handed hitters so far this season. They are hitting .325 against him with an .844 OPS. By contrast left handers are hitting .241 with a .701 OPS against Penny.

Penny is 2-0 with a 5.79 ERA in 4 career starts against Minnesota. So far in 2011 he is 0-0 with a 7.50 ERA in one start against the Twins. Jim Thome is 4 for 15 (.267) against Penny with a double and a homerun. Michael Cuddyer is 3 for 11 (.273) with a homerun, Jason Kubel is 4 for 9 (.444) with 2 doubles, Delmon Young is 1 for 7 (.143) with a double, Alexi Casilla is 1 for 4 (.250), Joe Mauer is 2 for 3 (.667) and Danny Valencia is 1 for 3 (.333) with a double. On the road this season Penny is 3-4 with a 6.55 ERA in 8 starts.

 

 

[Roger King]

That's weird. I thought I just read in my fantasy league update that Baker was just put on the DL.

Roger King
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From: Joseph New <karl...@yahoo.com>

Sender: detroit...@googlegroups.com

Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:53:35 -0700 (PDT)

To: detroit...@googlegroups.com<detroit...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: Joseph New <karl...@yahoo.com>

Subject: Saturday's Matchup

[Joseph New]

Baker's elbow had been bothering him ever since his last start but the Twins didn't initially put him on the DL because they weren't sure he would need to be out of action for 15 days. So they skipped a start for him and he still wasn't quite ready to go. Finally they put him on the DL last Sunday but it was retroactive to his last start which was July 5. After Friday's game Ron Gardenhire announced that Baker would be activated to start on Saturday and the Luke Hughes was sent to AAA Rochester to make room for Baker.

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From: Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
To: Tigers List <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: Saturday's Matchup