Current Series
3 game series vs Braves @ Turner Field
Houston Astros Friday, Apr 30, 2010, 6:35 PM CDT Brett Myers vs Tommy Hanson Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 80. Complete Coverage > | ||
| Sat 05/01 | 2:10 PM CDT | |
| Sun 05/02 | 12:35 PM CDT | |
It's been a long time since Atlanta was the Q to the Astros' Jean-Luc Picard. Both teams are currently at the bottom of their respective divisions and the Braves are actually a half-game behind Houston at 8-14. Super-prospect Jason Heyward has had his moments, but is having to adjust to each new wrinkle thrown at him by opposing pitchers. These two teams have been linked since 1997, so it's eerie to see how related they remain this season.
For starters, former Astros Billy Wagner and Brooks Conrad will greet the team in Atlanta. Conrad has only gotten nine plate appearances as the left-handed bat off the bench, but has played in four more as a defensive replacement. Wagner has saved one game and pitched in six more. He's still striking people out at a good clip with 13 strikeouts in 7 innings.
The first bit of divergence in the Astros and Braves is in the starting pitching. Atlanta went into 2010 with a surplus of starters. They were so confident in the players on their roster that they traded Javier Vasquez to New York for Melky Cabrera and prospects. That assured Tim Hudson and Kenshin Kawakami rotation spots. Of course, shortly after the trade, starter Jair Jurrjens suffered a bit of an injury in spring training. He made it back for the regular season, but has been one of three Brave starters who have struggled out of the gate.
The Astros will face Tommy Hanson, one of the few Atlanta starters who isn't struggling, on Friday. Brett Myers will pitch for Houston. Hanson is striking out 11 per 9 innings and has an xFIP of 3.63. His BABiP of .339 is even a bit high for a guy with a 2.12 ERA. If there's one knock on Hanson's repetoire, it is that he's a fly ball pitcher. Luckily for him, the Astros haven't been hitting too many fly balls lately. The Astros have yet to announce their Saturday starter, but indications are that it will be Wandy Rodriguez. He will face Tim Hudson, who's the other Brave starter to excel this season. Hudson is getting by on luck early this season, though. His ERA of 3.28 is much lower than his xFIP of 4.60, in part due to his meager K rate of 4.01. Hudson has been very lucky with a BABiP of .245 and looks like a good candidate to get hit around by the Astros. On Sunday, Bud Norris will face Derek Lowe and his extreme ground ball rate. Lowe has had trouble this season with walks. His BB rate of 5.14 is twice as high as his career rate of 2.50. His ERA is higher than his xFIP of 4.41, partly because he's given up a slightly higher home run rate than his career average.
Offensively, the Braves superstars like Brian McCann and Chipper Jones are both struggling, while starters Cabrera, Yunel Escobar, Troy Glaus and Nate McLouth are all start off the season slowly. Second baseman Martin Prado leads the team in wOBA at .396 while Heyward is in second at .378. That's the thing about the Braves; while they may be struggling in batting average, they are hitting the ball for power when they do make contact and taking walks when they can. Thus, their wOBA is higher than you'd expect.
The bullpen is anchored by Wagner, but has been one of the few solid points to the Braves April schedule. Kris Medlen, Peter Moylan, Takashi Saito and Eric O'Flaherty all have ERAs at 3.00 or below. Only O'Faherty, the Braves' LOOGY, has a strikeout rate under 8 and his is at 7.3. In fact, it's unfair to label O'Flaherty as a LOOGY, since he only has one appearance this season where he faced just one batter. Saito is the somewhat surprising figure here, with a K rate of 11 in 9 innings of work. The 40-year old was probably not factored into many people's scouting reports on the Braves and he's yet to be used in many medium or high leverage situations. His average leverage index is at .73, which is higher than just three guys in the bullpen (O'Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Jesse Chavez).
