jake westbrook v. clayton richard
[2010 regular season stats, per statcorner]
4.64 tRA 4.81
97 tRA+ 93
4.29 FIP 3.84
0.3 WAR 0.0
it's a matchup of unspectacular, but solid sinkerball artists (although richard had a substantial down year for groundballs at 44% - he had groundball rates of 48% and 52% in 2009 and 2008). if you spot dave duncan in the dugout during the game, breathing heavily into a mask like dennis hopper in "blue velvet," you'll know why.
i had long thought that richard would be a nice cheap pickup for the cards when he was with the sox. he seemed to be undervalued there. instead, he went in the peavy trade in which the padres got way overpaid for a very expensive starter in decline. peavy's still a good pitcher, when healthy, but the cost made him impossible for san diego to keep.
i am testing out using the statcorner info, just to shake things up. new year, and all. let me know what you think. in case you're wondering why westbrook's numbers from last year are so crappy, remember that's the combined cleveland/st. louis data. the splits look more like this (CLE/STL): 5.56/3.13 (tRA); 75/130 (tRA+); 0.1/2.3(WAR); 4.66/3.64(FIP). also, remember that westbrook spent far more time with cleveland than st. louis, so his poor performance there outweighs his great couple months here.
The lineups for Saturday's game (per goold):
CARDINALS
1. Ryan Theriot, SS
2. Colby Rasmus, CF
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. David Freese, 3B
5. Lance Berkman, RF
6. Allen Craig, LF
7. Yadier Molina, C
8. Skip Schumaker, 2B
9. Jake Westbrook, P
PADRES
1. Will Venable, RF
2. Jason Bartlett, SS
3. Orlando Hudson, 2B
4. Brad Hawpe, 1B
5. Ryan Ludwick, LF
6. Chase Headley, 3B
7. Cameron Maybin, CF
8. Nick Hundley, C
9. Clayton Richard, P