Matchup/Game Thread Game # 49 at Pirates

Taylor Buchholz	Ian Snell
3 - 3, 4.35	3 - 3, 5.74

Tonight's game is a rematch of one played April 22nd as Buchholz and Snell square off once more. You probably recall Buchholz came within one one batter of throwing a complete game shutout, but had to leave after giving up a single to Jack Wilson in the ninth following the error by Bruntlett.

You may not recall that it was Lidge who relieved Taylor with two men on, nor that it was Jason Bay who Lidge then struck out.

Think about that for a second.

OK, now that you've done that. These are two young righthanded pitchers l who are each 3 - 3, but Taylor makes a difference for himself with better secondaries, as they say. Even with the two terrible outings, Buchholz' WHIP remains excellent: if he qualified, his 1.09 would be tied with Jake Peavy for fifth in the league. Snell, on the other hand, has a 1.72.

Snell appears to be more of a strikeout pitcher, with 37 in 47 innings to only 24 in 49-2/3 for Buchholz, but Taylor walks half as many, and therefore has the better K/BB.

Both have a slight tendency to the groundball:

Snell GroundBall/FlyBall Game by Game Date Opp Team Result GB FB Ratio Dec. Apr. 6 @CIN L 6-5 5 5 1.00 - Apr. 11 LAD W 7-6 11 11 1.00 - Apr. 16 CHC L 7-3 8 6 1.33 Loss Apr. 22 @HOU L 3-0 9 8 1.13 Loss Apr. 28 PHI W 3-1 8 5 1.6 Win May. 3 @NYM L 4-3 8 4 2.00 - May. 9 ARI W 3-0 9 7 1.29 Win May. 14 FLA L 8-2 3 4 0.75 Loss May. 20 @CLE W 9-6 8 5 1.6 Win Totals 69 55 1.25

Buchholz GroundBall/FlyBall Game by Game Date Opp Team Result GB FB Ratio Dec. Apr. 7 WAS W 6-1 4 3 1.33 --- Apr. 13 @SF L 5-3 2 7 0.29 Loss Apr. 17 MIL W 8-7 8 8 1.00 --- Apr. 22 PIT W 3-0 8 12 0.67 Win  Apr. 30 @CIN W 3-2 8 9 0.89 Win  May. 5 @COL L 5-4 16 8 2.00 --- May. 10 @LAD L 9-6 11 6 1.83 Loss May. 15 SF L 10-1 5 6 0.83 Loss May. 21 TEX W 5-0 13 8 1.63 Win  Totals 75 67 1.12

with Taylor I guess being a little less subject to categorization. He can be good when getting fly balls, or crappy when getting grounders.

Since Houston and Pittsburgh are 13th and 14th respectively in the league in May in runs scored, I figured it might be an interesting battle if we took a look at simple runs scored, or R + RBI - HR.

And it is interesting. Look at Preston. Even with yesterday, would you have guessed that he was the fourth most productive player this month? I know he keeps getting handed that sweet spot in the lineup but still. . . . Preston has had more than a couple sac flies that drove in runs, and you tend to dismiss those, 'cause he didn't double, but it's better than popping out to second, if you get the reference. . . .

And look at Everett. He's only hitting 70 points lower than Jack Wilson, with an OBP 40 points inferior, and in a less favorable spot in the lineup. Yet he dogs Jack Wilson in production.

Interesting that littlevisigoth noted that Ausmus is on pace for career lows in RBI and runs scored. Everyone--and I will include myself here--is so enamored of OPS, and so many people dismiss RBI, that it actually gets missed when production drops off if the currently more glamorous numbers go up.

Simple RC in May

	Simple RC in May		Astro	Pos	Pirate		Simple RC in May
	10		Brad Ausmus	C1	Ronny Paulino		14	x
x	6		Eric Munson	C2	Humberto Cota		0
x	20		Lance Berkman	1B	Craig Wilson		7
x	16		Craig Biggio	2B	Jose Castillo		14
x	17		Adam Everett	SS	Jack Wilson		9
	22		Morgan Ensberg	3B	Freddy Sanchez		29	x
	20		Willy Taveras	OF1	Jason Bay		31	x
	19		Preston Wilson	OF2	Nate McLouth		19
	9		Jason Lane	OF3	Jeromy Burnitz		15	x
	3		Orlando Palmeiro	OF4	Jose Bautista		13	x
	2		Chris Burke	Util/PH	Jose Hernandez		2