Wednesday, October 05, 2005
BUEHRLE VERSUS WELLS
The Buerhle scouting report from STATS INC. on ESPN.com is right on.
Buehrle succeeds by keeping it simple. He attacks hitters with a low-90s fastball and a plus-plus changeup, working fast and throwing strikes. He used those two primary pitches to set up a cut fastball that sometimes comes and goes, but was generally in his 2004 arsenal. Buehrle yields a lot of home runs, in part because he is based at U.S. Cellular, and can give up ringing hits against batters who know he is going to challenge them in hitter's counts. He very rarely beats himself.
Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus thinks the Sox should hit well tonight.
As our research indicates in Mind Game, power-hitting teams tend to have the advantage against finesse pitchers like Buehrle, Mariano Rivera, or the St. Louis Cardinals' staff; it's another manifestation of the opposites attract phenomenon in platoon matchups. Finesse pitchers thrive by working quickly, keeping their pitch counts down, and avoiding placing themselves in dangerous situations, things that become much harder to execute against a team as patient as the Red Sox.
As for Wells, nothing changes...
The formula for Wells is pretty simple. If he gets his curve over, he can be a dominate pitcher. If not, cross your fingers and get ready to duck...
The entire Other Sox lineup like the MFY can take Wells' mistakes deep. He has to be on with the curveball to keep the Other Sox off balance.
BY THE NUMBERS
Buehrle versus...
Johnny Damon - .231 .250 .256 in 39
David Ortiz - .351 .400 .568 in 37
Bill Mueller - .304 .320 .391 in 23
Jason Varitek - .450 .500 .750 in 20
Wells against...
Jermaine Dye - .214 .214 .357 in 28
Carl Everett - .217 .250 .391 in 23
The Buerhle scouting report from STATS INC. on ESPN.com is right on.
Buehrle succeeds by keeping it simple. He attacks hitters with a low-90s fastball and a plus-plus changeup, working fast and throwing strikes. He used those two primary pitches to set up a cut fastball that sometimes comes and goes, but was generally in his 2004 arsenal. Buehrle yields a lot of home runs, in part because he is based at U.S. Cellular, and can give up ringing hits against batters who know he is going to challenge them in hitter's counts. He very rarely beats himself.
Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus thinks the Sox should hit well tonight.
As our research indicates in Mind Game, power-hitting teams tend to have the advantage against finesse pitchers like Buehrle, Mariano Rivera, or the St. Louis Cardinals' staff; it's another manifestation of the opposites attract phenomenon in platoon matchups. Finesse pitchers thrive by working quickly, keeping their pitch counts down, and avoiding placing themselves in dangerous situations, things that become much harder to execute against a team as patient as the Red Sox.
As for Wells, nothing changes...
The formula for Wells is pretty simple. If he gets his curve over, he can be a dominate pitcher. If not, cross your fingers and get ready to duck...
The entire Other Sox lineup like the MFY can take Wells' mistakes deep. He has to be on with the curveball to keep the Other Sox off balance.
BY THE NUMBERS
Buehrle versus...
Johnny Damon - .231 .250 .256 in 39
David Ortiz - .351 .400 .568 in 37
Bill Mueller - .304 .320 .391 in 23
Jason Varitek - .450 .500 .750 in 20
Wells against...
Jermaine Dye - .214 .214 .357 in 28
Carl Everett - .217 .250 .391 in 23
2 Old Comments:
so i've been hearing a lot about this city of champs best of boston sports dvd, and i finally went online and bought it. i just got it today and watched it and it is so sweet. the freaking clips were amazing but the rock music topped it off. great dvd. could just put it in and listen to it as a cd.
By 
, at
2:14 PM
always did say that BOSTON was a city of CHAMPIONS... hey, the REAL Rocky was from there!
By 
Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™, at
7:09 PM
Thank you - Red Sox!
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