The Angels had lost nine of their last ten times they played Boston in the playoffs going into last night, but it didn’t matter as John Lackey and Torii Hunter took care of business and lef the Halos to a 1-0 series lead. Jered Weaver (16-8, 3.75) takes on Josh Beckett (17-6, 3.86) in Game Two tonight, with first pitch scheduled for 9:37pm ET. Chat about the game here if you want.
ALDS Game Two Spillover Thread IV
New thread for good luck.
ALDS Game Two Spillover Thread III
So who’s getting the pie?
ALDS Game Two Spillover Thread II
A-Rod always pads his stats when his team is already losing.
ALDS Game Two Spillover Thread
I can has offense?
ALDS Game Two: Twins @ Yankees
So here we are, the day everyone’s been talking about. The day Jorge Posada will sit in favor of Jose Molina. This move has been debated more than enough in the last week, so instead of rehashing it, I’m just going to focus on tonight’s starting pitchers.
You see, AJ Burnett and Nick Blackburn as essentially polar opposites. Among pitchers that threw at least 200 innings this year, Burnett posted the seventh highest K/9 at 8.48. Blackburn? The second lowest at 4.29. What about walks? Burnett’s 4.22 BB/9 was second worst in that group, Blackburn the fifth best at 1.79. The one thing the two guys have in common is nearly identical FIP’s (Burnett checks in at 4.33, Blackburn 4.37) and tRA’s (4.74 for Burnett, 4.68 for Blackburn). Despite residing on completely opposite ends of the spectrum in how they get it done, Burnett and Blackburn have pretty much been each other’s equal in terms of production. Of course one guy is making $16M, the other close to the league minimum.
The weather isn’t looking great, but there seems to be enough of a window to get the game in. Here’s each club’s starting nine:
Minnesota
Denard Span, RF
Orlando Cabrera, SS
Joe Mauer, C
Jason Kubel, DH
Michael Cuddyer, 1B
Delmon Young, LF
Carlos Gomez, CF
Matt Tolbert, 3B
Nick Punto, 2B
Nick Blackburn, SP (11-11. 4.03)
Yankees
Derek Jeter, SS
Johnny Damon, LF
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Alex Rodriguez, 3B
Hideki Matsui, DH
Nick Swisher, RF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Melky Cabrera, CF
Jose Molina, C
AJ Burnett, SP (13-9, 4.04)
TBS and Chip Caray have the broadcast, with first pitch set for 6:07pm ET. Enjoy the game.
Update: We disabled the “show unread comments” feature, so you won’t get that little interlocking NY telling you which comments are new. Sorry, but they slow down the site too much with all the extra traffic during the game. It’ll be back once the game’s over.
Montero, McAllister among EL’s best
After ranking as the second best prospect in the High-A Florida State League, Jesus Montero followed that up by placing fifth in the Double-A Eastern League, according to Baseball America. Zach McAllister came in at #19, while old pal Jose Tabata checked in at #15. In the subscriber only report, one AL scout said of Montero: “When he shows up to play, it’s pretty good. I don’t think he’ll get away with showing up every other night in the big leagues, especially behind the plate, but it could just be youthful mistakes.” This is the first I’ve heard of him “taking days off,” but if he hit .317-.370-.539 as a 19-yr old in the EL playing every other day, imagine what he could do if he actually applied himself.
As for McAllister, one EL manager said he “competed and threw four pitches for strikes, and both the breaking balls were tough to handle.” It also notes that he’s mostly upper-80’s with the fastball, knocking his ceiling down to a back-end starter. Such is life.