Nice to see things back to normal. And by normal, I mean bad. Brad Bergesen was sent to the minors after getting knocked around for the third straight start. Three major players - Felix Pie, Brian Roberts, and Mike Gonzalez - look like they'll miss between a fair bit and quite a bit of playing time due to injury (with Miguel Tejada also less than 100% already). Things have gotten to the point where the O's have actually signed Corey Patterson. David Hernandez has the stuff to turn things around (for a day, at least) against the Mariners, but he'll have to be on his game considering the Orioles' offense is up against a soft-tossing lefty (Jason Vargas).
M's line-up:
|
Bat |
Pos |
Batting |
| Suzuki, Ichiro |
L |
RF |
.308/.368/.385 |
| Figgins, Chone |
S |
2B |
.217/.350/.283 |
| Gutierrez, Franklin |
R |
CF |
.426/.475/.537 |
| Lopez, Jose |
R |
3B |
.263/.283/.281 |
| Griffey Jr., Ken |
L |
DH |
.229/.270/.257 |
| Bradley, Milton |
S |
LF |
.146/.271/.341 |
| Kotchman, Casey |
L |
1B |
.286/.367/.595 |
| Moore, Adam |
R |
C |
.091/.130/.091 |
| Wilson, Jack |
R |
SS |
.250/.277/.318 |
Vargas:
| K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
GB rate |
FIP^ |
xFIP^ |
|
| 8.7 |
0.8 |
1.6 |
29.4% |
3.64 |
3.40 |
|
His stuff
^:
He's not a hard-thrower by any means, with the fastball coming in around 86-87 mph. It's not a pitch with a lot of movement either, but Vargas seems to have taken to throwing a two-seamer quite a bit this year to get some more tailing action. Batters seems to be having a relatively hard time making contact with it. The change-up has a lot of latter movement on it, and it's giving hitters some trouble so far. Neither the curve nor the slider seem like knock-out pitches though. Vargas is off to a good start in 2010, but still doesn't profile as much more than a back of the rotation starter in my opinion.
O's line-up:
|
Bat |
Pos |
Batting |
| Jones, Adam |
R |
CF |
.230/.254/.377 |
| Wigginton, Ty |
R |
3B |
.294/.342/.765 |
| Markakis, Nick |
L |
RF |
.240/.371/.380 |
| Reimold, Nolan |
R |
DH |
.162/.262/.297 |
| Scott, Luke |
L |
LF |
.205/.295/.436 |
| Wieters, Matt |
S |
C |
.286/.352/.347 |
| Atkins, Garrett |
R |
1B |
.239/.271/.326 |
| Lugo, Julio |
R |
2B |
.125/.160/.125 |
| Izturis, Cesar |
S |
SS |
.243/.282/.297 |
Exactly one healthy hitter - Wiggy - has been even average this year.
Hernandez:
| K/9 |
BB/9 |
HR/9 |
GB rate |
FIP |
xFIP |
|
| 9.0 |
4.1 |
0.0 |
17.6% |
2.94 |
5.42 |
|
Looks like David might be starting to translate those awesome minor league strike-out totals, though his control is still not very good. The zero home runs is a fluke - especially when you take into account just how many flyballs he's allowing (a ton) - and that explains the difference between his FIP and his xFIP. He seems to have introduced a two-seamer into his repertoire, but it's not quite doing the job yet (or might just be some miscategorized four-seam fastballs).
