The Orioles haven't been playing all that
poorly, and they finally got back into the win column yesterday in Oakland. Their West Coast stretch continues with a trip up to Seattle to face a run prevention team that should do wonders for a still sputtering O's offense. Brad Bergesen will try to get on track after a rough start to the '10 season, and will be opposed by 26 year old righty Doug Fister.
M's line-up:
|
Bat |
Pos |
Batting |
| Suzuki, Ichiro |
L |
RF |
.308/.368/.385 |
| Figgins, Chone |
S |
2B |
.238/.364/.310 |
| Gutierrez, Franklin |
R |
CF |
.404/.436/.519 |
| Lopez, Jose |
R |
3B |
.269/.291/.288 |
| Griffey Jr., Ken |
L |
DH |
.226/.273/.258 |
| Bradley, Milton |
S |
LF |
.135/.273/.324 |
| Kotchman, Casey |
L |
1B |
.263/.356/.500 |
| Johnson, Rob |
R |
C |
.176/.391/.412 |
| Wilson, Jack |
R |
SS |
.200/.233/.225 |
Not exactly a murders row. If Guti can add some plus-plus offense to his ridiculous defense*, then he might be in the running for an MVP award.
* Alternate nick-name: Death to Flying Things.
Fister:
| K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
GB rate |
FIP^ |
xFIP^ |
|
| 4.5 |
2.3 |
0.0 |
43.6% |
2.78 |
4.71 |
|
His stuff
^:
He's not going to wow you with his repertoire, throwing a fastball in the upper 80s that doesn't huge much sink but does tail in on right-handed batters pretty well. It does look like he'll mix in a two-seamer occasionally as well, though so far in 2010 he's gone with the four-seamer a whole lot. Fister's change-up appears to be a solid offering - watch him getting Eric Chavez to swing and miss at an especially good one
here - with good action on it. He threw the pitch a lot more often last year than he has thus far this year, but if he brings it out against the O's they might have some trouble with it. The slow curve is closer to the 12-6 variety but not a huge bender, and the harder slider doesn't look like it has a ton of bite. Fister reminds me a little of a poor man's Shaun Marcum, who mostly shut down the Birds a couple of weeks ago when the Blue Jays were in Baltimore.
O's line-up:
|
Bat |
Pos |
Batting |
| Jones, Adam |
R |
CF |
.246/.271/.404 |
| Wigginton, Ty |
R |
3B |
.290/.324/.710 |
| Markakis, Nick |
L |
RF |
.239/.379/.391 |
| Reimold, Nolan |
R |
DH |
.176/.263/.324 |
| Wieters, Matt |
S |
C |
.267/.340/.333 |
| Scott, Luke |
L |
1B |
.200/.300/.429 |
| Montanez, Lou |
R |
LH |
.200/.200/.200 |
| Lugo, Julio |
R |
2B |
.143/.182/.143 |
| Izturis, Cesar |
S |
SS |
.265/.306/.324 |
Nice to see Luke getting some time at first-base. Other than Wiggy, nobody's hitting particularly well.
Bergy:
| K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
GB rate |
FIP |
xFIP |
|
| 5.9 |
3.5 |
3.5 |
27.3% |
8.37 |
6.67 |
|
He really needs to keep the ball down and throw strikes, because even a relatively anemic M's offense can tee off if he's throwing straight 86 mph fastballs at the heart of the plate.
