Post by Makers on Jun 4, 2016 5:45:07 GMT -5
A’ For Effort
The hottest team in baseball right now is … the Oakland A’s? Though they are winners of five in a row, we should be careful about reading too much into this as all they did was sweep Minnesota in the last series and their run differential remains a poor -42 for the season (second worst in the American League, ahead of only the Twins). This weekend might present an ideal time to “sell high” on Billy Beane’s club as they pay a visit to Houston. Sure, the Astros have been a huge disappointment thus far, but they themselves were on a five-game win streak prior to Thursday’s loss. The A’s have lost 13 of their last 18 road games and I’ll be talking a lot more about them in this column.
Just As We Expected
Coming into the season, there were a consensus seven teams expected to be playoff contenders in the National League. Through 50+ games, those same teams (Nats, Mets, Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals, Giants and Dodgers) are the seven that have produced positive run differentials so far in the Senior Circuit. The only matchup this weekend among that grouping takes place in St. Louis where the Giants come calling. They’ll conclude the three game set on Sunday Night Baseball. That finale probably represents the Cards best chance at a win in this series as they’ll face Jake Peavy, who has the highest ERA and WHIP on the Giants staff. The fact that both teams will be sending a trio of righties to the hill in this series does seem to favor the home team, however. While St. Louis bats just .245 vs. lefties, they are at .273 vs. righties. For San Francisco, it’s just the opposite. They hit .276 vs. lefties, but only .248 vs. righties.
Rocky Road
You have to feel for San Diego, who blew a 10-run lead (at home!) to Seattle Thursday night. Scoring 27 runs in two days and coming away with only a split is tough. But you should probably look for the strong offensive output to continue this weekend. That’s because the Padres welcome in the division rival Rockies, whose pitching staff, as always, is very, very bad. While the ERA of the Colorado staff does jump from 29th overall to 12th on the road, the team has lost 14 of its last 18 games at Petco Park and also just dropped three of four – at home – to the lowly Reds.
Hitting Notes
* The A’s Khris Davis hit 11 home runs in May, tied for the most in all of baseball with the Reds’ Adam Duvall. However, he’s already started to slow down (just 1 HR in last 21 at-bats) and he strikes out at an alarming rate (53 times in 51 games). In other words, look for Davis to regress here in June.
* Yet another Oakland slugger, Danny Valencia, has been swinging the stick quite well of late. Over the last seven days, Valencia is 12 for 22 at the plate. But, yet again, regression is probably forthcoming. After not hitting a single home run in his first 61 at-bats this year, Valencia proceeded to hit five in a three-day span earlier this month. The two multi-homer games equaled the number of times he’d done that in the first 543 games of his career.
Pitching Notes
* Oakland also has a pitcher worth talking about as Rich Hill went 5-1 in May with 2.13 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched. He is expected to start Saturday against the one team that beat him last month, that being Houston. Interestingly, Hill has a perfect 6-0 team start record on the road where he’s made 6.6 units.
The hottest team in baseball right now is … the Oakland A’s? Though they are winners of five in a row, we should be careful about reading too much into this as all they did was sweep Minnesota in the last series and their run differential remains a poor -42 for the season (second worst in the American League, ahead of only the Twins). This weekend might present an ideal time to “sell high” on Billy Beane’s club as they pay a visit to Houston. Sure, the Astros have been a huge disappointment thus far, but they themselves were on a five-game win streak prior to Thursday’s loss. The A’s have lost 13 of their last 18 road games and I’ll be talking a lot more about them in this column.
Just As We Expected
Coming into the season, there were a consensus seven teams expected to be playoff contenders in the National League. Through 50+ games, those same teams (Nats, Mets, Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals, Giants and Dodgers) are the seven that have produced positive run differentials so far in the Senior Circuit. The only matchup this weekend among that grouping takes place in St. Louis where the Giants come calling. They’ll conclude the three game set on Sunday Night Baseball. That finale probably represents the Cards best chance at a win in this series as they’ll face Jake Peavy, who has the highest ERA and WHIP on the Giants staff. The fact that both teams will be sending a trio of righties to the hill in this series does seem to favor the home team, however. While St. Louis bats just .245 vs. lefties, they are at .273 vs. righties. For San Francisco, it’s just the opposite. They hit .276 vs. lefties, but only .248 vs. righties.
Rocky Road
You have to feel for San Diego, who blew a 10-run lead (at home!) to Seattle Thursday night. Scoring 27 runs in two days and coming away with only a split is tough. But you should probably look for the strong offensive output to continue this weekend. That’s because the Padres welcome in the division rival Rockies, whose pitching staff, as always, is very, very bad. While the ERA of the Colorado staff does jump from 29th overall to 12th on the road, the team has lost 14 of its last 18 games at Petco Park and also just dropped three of four – at home – to the lowly Reds.
Hitting Notes
* The A’s Khris Davis hit 11 home runs in May, tied for the most in all of baseball with the Reds’ Adam Duvall. However, he’s already started to slow down (just 1 HR in last 21 at-bats) and he strikes out at an alarming rate (53 times in 51 games). In other words, look for Davis to regress here in June.
* Yet another Oakland slugger, Danny Valencia, has been swinging the stick quite well of late. Over the last seven days, Valencia is 12 for 22 at the plate. But, yet again, regression is probably forthcoming. After not hitting a single home run in his first 61 at-bats this year, Valencia proceeded to hit five in a three-day span earlier this month. The two multi-homer games equaled the number of times he’d done that in the first 543 games of his career.
Pitching Notes
* Oakland also has a pitcher worth talking about as Rich Hill went 5-1 in May with 2.13 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched. He is expected to start Saturday against the one team that beat him last month, that being Houston. Interestingly, Hill has a perfect 6-0 team start record on the road where he’s made 6.6 units.