Game 9: Orioles vs. Rangers
The O's got knocked around in game two yesterday, which did a number on their pythag (down to 5-3). Need more offense.
Rangers:
| Batting | Fielding | fWAR | |
| Ian Kinsler | .214/.371/.607 | 0 | 0.4 |
| Michael Young | .265/.265/.353 | 0 | -0.1 |
| Josh Hamilton | .323/.400/.419 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Adrian Beltre | .182/.206/.394 | 0 | -0.1 |
| Nelson Cruz | .360/.452/1.000 | 0 | 0.7 |
| Mitch Moreland | .313/.421/.563 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Yorvit Torrealba | .273/.273/.500 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Andres Blanco | .333/.333/.667 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Julio Borbon | .286/.375/.571 | 0 | 0.2 |
As good as second-baseman Brian Roberts has been in the lead-off spot for the O's, Ian Kinsler has been better for Texas. Same thing with Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz.
Derek Holland:
| ERA | FIP | xFIP | K/9 | BB/9 | GB% | fWAR |
| 4.50 | 1.87 | 3.08 | 7.5 | 1.5 | 47.4% | 0.3 |
The Dutch Oven is a solid young left-handed pitcher already, who should help the Rangers make up for the loss of Cliff Lee (if only a little) now that he's a full-time starter.
Holland throws pretty hard, and his slider and change-up are both effective offerings which should allow him to handle both right-handed and left-handed batters fairly well (though righties have taken him deep at a much higher rate in his career).
Orioles:
| Batting | Fielding | fWAR | |
| Brian Roberts | .219/.242/.500 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Nick Markakis | .259/.364/.407 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Derrek Lee | .172/.273/.276 | 0 | -0.1 |
| Vladimir Guerrero | .242/.242/.333 | 0 | -0.2 |
| Mark Reynolds | .259/.310/.481 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Adam Jones | .233/.226/.433 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Jake Fox | .000/.000/.000 | 0 | -0.1 |
| Matt Wieters | .217/.280/.261 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Robert Andino | .000/.000/.000 | 0 | -0.1 |
Jake Fox in left-field? Should be interesting. It's those other positions that drag down Fox's value, given that he's not a good fielder. If he just stuck to catching, I think he'd end up above replacement level.
Jeremy Guthrie:
| ERA | FIP | xFIP | K/9 | BB/9 | GB% | fWAR |
| 0.00 | 1.91 | 3.42 | 6.8 | 1.1 | 40.0% | 0.4 |
Good to see Guthrie healthy enough to take the mound (or, at least I hope that's why he's out there).
The horizontal movements from the PitchFX seemed off (miscalibration?), so I shifted the pitches to the left a little to more where they're "supposed" to be. It also said he threw a bunch of cutters, which I folded into fastballs for now. You can see how Guthrie had his off-speed stuff working in the first start.
Stats: UZR, WAR, ERA, FIP, xFIP, K/9 & BB/9, GB%, PitchFX
