Kuroda Has Had Success Against Giants
by Eric Stephen on Apr 3, 2011 7:00 AM PDT
in Dodgers Game Previews
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PrintThe Dodgers look to win their opening series tonight against the Giants, and will attempt to do so by sending Hiroki Kuroda to the hill against Barry Zito.
Kuroda made his first start against the Giants on July 28, 2008, and he gave up seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings. Since then, however, Kuroda has been very good, allowing 10 runs in 39 2/3 innings over six starts, for a 2.27 ERA with seven walks and 27 strikeouts. There are a lot of small sample sizes in play here, but Kuroda has fared well against nearly all of the current Giants:
| Current Giants vs. Hiroki Kuroda | |
| Player | Career vs. Kuroda |
| Andres Torres | 0-4, 2 strikeouts |
| Freddy Sanchez | 2-12, 2 strikeouts |
| Aubrey Huff | 1-4, double, strikeout |
| Buster Posey | 1-4, walk, strikeout |
| Pat Burrell | 1-11, walk, 3 strikeouts |
| Pablo Sandoval | 3-8, double |
| Miguel Tejada | 2-14, strikeout |
| Aaron Rowand | 1-11, walk, 3 strikeouts |
| Mike Fontenot | 1-11, strikeout |
| Mark DeRosa | 0-8, 3 strikeouts |
| Nate Schierholtz | 0-7, strikeout |
| Totals: 97 PA, .138/.165/.160, 3 BB, 18 K |
|
Zito was in a car accident in West Hollywood on Wednesday night, but he has been recovering. Zito still has neck soreness, but Zito said he was "95 percent certain" he would make his start tonight, according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.
Zito allowed just 11 runs (10 earned) in six starts last year against the Dodgers, but didn't have a win to show for it despite a 2.41 ERA. The Giants scored just seven runs in those six starts, and never more than two runs in any game. The one win the Giants had in those six games came on July 31, a 2-1 win in San Francisco, and those two runs came in the eighth inning after Zito had left the game on a Pat Burrell home run off Jonathan Broxton.
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Game Time: 5 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
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OT: But this is more fun than anything on the real Wikipedia
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/All_work_and_no_play_makes_Jack_a_dull_boy
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
I'm really so glad that it is not Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips doing ESPN tonight
or I would listen to it on the radio instead. Orel is great, Shulman is solid, and heck even kooky Bobby V sounds halfway decent compared to Morgan and Phillips.
But whatever… hope they win, most importantly.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
I don't
share the widespread dislike for Joe Morgan as a broadcaster, and I don’t quite understand it.
I just hate him as a Giant.
Granted, I don’t think he’d be good for play by play, but for commentary alongside
Jon Miller, he seemed fine to me.
A site called Fire Joe Morgan would disagree with you as would I.
I thought he was often way off base and even asinine as a commentator.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Scroll to “Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Joe Absolutely Nails It”
by Taylor Maricle on Apr 3, 2011 12:59 PM PDT up reply actions
He says incredibly stupid things.
Here’s an old forum post rant from ’07:
I am immensely tired of this guy. Not only his traditional, “I hate stats” mantra, but the fact that everything he talks about has to be about race. He is the Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson of sportscasting.
Tonight on ESPNews, the question was asked, “Who should the AL starter be in the All-Star Game?” I personally am saying, “Dan Haren, hands down.” They proceed to go to a phone conversation with Joe Morgan, and this is the jist of his answer… “I think that hands down it should be C.C. Sabathia. First, he leads everyone with 12 wins. Second, everyone is always talking about how not enough African Americans are joining the game today, and with all the focus on Jackie Robinson this year which was a great thing, I think this would be a great way to show African American young boys watching this game that the game is for them….”
2 things wrong with this:
1) Again, Morgan throws all reason to the wind, and says Sabathia should be the starter because of “Wins.” Nevermind ERA, K/9, K/BB ratio… he bases it on wins. Outstanding Joe. Chalk another one up to your incompetence, and refusal to understand any advanced metric.
2) We are now going to name the starter of the All-Star game based on…. RACE? Seriously Joe? I understand your black. But you are willing to pass over others because this guy is black as opposed to a white pitcher?
I’ll come right out and say it, Joe Morgan is a racist, and it gets old having to put up with this crap. I wish I had the money to start my own sports news channel, because the decision to put up with this crap is awful.
by Taylor Maricle on Apr 3, 2011 12:39 PM PDT up reply actions
IDJ
I know Cain and Sanchez are the best pitchers he’s ever faced, but I’m still disappointed he hasn’t been able to catch up to a good fastball. Waiting for your pitch is a solid approach, tho. He just isn’t ready for elite pitching yet.
The joke would be why does he live in west Hollywood.
by Tripon on Apr 3, 2011 10:36 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
I
know lots of straight couples, men and women who live there, what’s the big deal, it is a convenient place to live. Also, I believe Zito lives in the Hollywood Hills not West Hollywood.
Zito’s father was an entertainment attorney and he’s spent his life in that environment, so I don’t think that living in the Hollywood area is that unusual.
He's better known around town as
Betty Zito. The last few years he’s had a female friend accompanying him that looks oddly like Tim Lincecum, only less feminine.
My God, what a painful game that was last night
Hopefully things will be better tonight. Zito is one of those pitchers that isnt really all that good nowadays and yet will manage to own the Dodgers. Hope Thames takes him deep a few times.
"Champions last year," he said. "Not this year." - Rubby De La Rosa after shaming the Giants in ST
Back from Oregon.
Home sweet home. We cheered when we crossed the ore/ca border. It’s funny, the clouds stopped there too. Our first bit of sunshine in one week. The wife and kids wanted to get a room last night but I pushed the final 3 hrs to sleep in my own bed and wake at home. Ha! So today, I’ll fire up the grill and have our annual flag ceremony and put up the Dodger flag in the front of the house. Let’s close out the series with a big win.
by Skunkburner on Apr 3, 2011 10:30 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
How can I find certain hitters vs. certain certain pitchers?
I’m trying to figure out matchups for my fantasy team. I am trying to decide if I should start Andre today, against Zito. I’ve decided not to line Dre up with good lefties going, but with Zitos neck injury, its an intriguing matchup. I’m trying to see what Andre has done in the past against him.
Yahoo has it in their sports section
ESPN might too, Andre has not done very much against Zito. Rod Barajas has one of the best home run rates against Zito now averaging one HR in a little more than 12 at bats.
Can someone explain the balk
that resulted in the inning being extended, leading a 1-0 score to becoming 4-0 and then Lilly being pulled early and the subsequent spiral to 10-0? I looked up balk and discovered that there are about 15 or more specific actions that can be called a balk. According the the article at dodgers.com, this particular infraction seems to have been that the umpire ruled that Lilly stepped (leaned?) towards home before throwing to second.
Can someone explain a) what exactly he did, b) what’s supposed to wrong with doing it that it should lead to this penalty?
As best I can make out, all the 15+ outlawed activities appear to be that the pitcher can’t pretend that he’s going to pitch or throw one direction before actually pitching or throwing another direction. Why not, pray tell? What sort of terrible things would, and presumably did, this sort of behavior lead to?
The balk rule
has been in place since before the turn of the 20th Century. My hunch is that since base stealing was such a big part of the early game (the home run being as rare as sighting Haley’s Comet), they wanted to make sure that base stealers had a fair shot of the stealing the base.
Rule 8.05© states that the pitcher must step directly toward the base he is throwing to. In the umpire’s opinion, Lilly was stepping toward home before throwing to first.
It’s a very fine line. Lilly has gotten called for over 20 balks in his career.
Public domain or not, I’m sort of puzzled as to why this sort of protection from “deceptive” motions is thought necessary. A rule is a rule, OK, but why is it there? BH’s reasoning sounds reasonable, I guess, but it seems odd that base runners need to have the pitcher’s intentions telegraphed to them first.
It’s just the way the game evolved, especially the way pitching evolved. In the late 19th century, pitchers started to have big windups once they could start throwing overhand. But once they did that, runners quickly realized that it was easy to steal, especially since catchers didn’t have very good protective equipment.
So, when runners were on base, pitchers started developing rather tricky ways of throwing over to first. Eventually the Powers That Be realized that it was very easy to pick someone off using certain techniques, so those methods were outlawed.
If you went to a baseball game in the 1870s, the pitcher would be standing to closer to home, but throwing underhand. And it would have been much easier for the pitcher to throw over to first base because his pitching motion would have been less elaborate.
Watching the replays (but not getting the audio), I thought they were calling him for crossing his leg. Lilly’s motion starts with him rotating his body away from the batter. When he tilts back with his leg extended, it appears that his right foot is in line with his left leg. If he tilts just a little bit too much, then his right foot might cross beyond his left leg, which, by rule, would mean he has to go to the plate.
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."
Being a lefty myself, i'm familiar with this rule.
When a LHP moves to first, he has about a 30-degree slice of pie from the rubber towards home plate where he can land his foot and still throw to first. Lilly moved more like 60 degrees before throwing.
by Taylor Maricle on Apr 3, 2011 12:42 PM PDT up reply actions
If a pitcher did that, it would be impossible to steal a base.
Pickoff moves used to be abused, with the pitcher, say, going through all of his mechanics and then not throwing the ball, turning around, and catching the runner stealing/getting his secondary.
by Taylor Maricle on Apr 3, 2011 12:44 PM PDT up reply actions
Big time O’s prospect Zach Britton is making his MLB debut today. BA said he has the best sinker in the minors (3.44 groundout to flyout ratio).
Obviously
He will be the next Fernando Valenzuela, winning both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award this season. :)
By the way, he is about 3 months older than Kershaw, and was drafted in the same class. Kershaw has pitched about 100 more innings in the last 3 years.
Outside of Kershaw arriving at 19 while Britton was 23, Kershaw is 4 seasons away from FA counting this year while Britton is 6 depending on Britton staying for the year.
Fuk'd
dylanohernandez
Don Mattingly’s son, Preston, has been released by the Cleveland #Indians, according to the Associated Press.
Maybe if he hurries, he could still have a future in basketball.
Well, maybe not.
So, i need help from anyone that watched the entire game yesterday. I’m trying to follow Kemp’s defensive numbers this year, and before yesterday fangraphs had him making 3 balls on 3 balls in his zone. Today, they have him down for making only 4 of 6 and already at -1 DRS. I watched the first half of the game and the only ball I remember going to him that he didnt catch was the double by Rowand that no CF would have gotten to. What there anything else that he misplayed?
Mark DeRosa singles on a line drive to center fielder Matt Kemp.
Mark DeRosa doubles (1) on a fly ball to center fielder Matt Kemp. Brandon Belt scores.
Kemp’s zone covers all of centerfield so even if it was uncatchable it still counts as a missed play, he just doesn’t get penalized for it.
@andrewngrant
by regfairfield on Apr 3, 2011 11:37 AM PDT up reply actions
Thats what i initially thought, but in each of the last 2 years he has made 287/317 plays in his zone. That wouldn’t seem to me that they include uncatchable plays and everything that is hit to centerfield.
by UCLADodger32 on Apr 3, 2011 11:41 AM PDT up reply actions
I’d have to see the double then, maybe it wasn’t as uncatchable as we think.
@andrewngrant
by regfairfield on Apr 3, 2011 11:44 AM PDT up reply actions
Good Luck Kuroda
Hope you can throw some shutout ball today.
You’ll probably need to in order to have a chance at a win.
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