RealGM

SERIES THREAD 5/1/07 - 5/2/07



OAKLAND ATHLETICS ( 12-13 )
AT
BOSTON RED SOX ( 16-8 )
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Fenway Park, Boston, MA
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PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

GAME 1: Thursday, May 1st 2007, 7:05 pm

Joe Blanton (2-1, 3.55 ERA) vs Curt Schilling (3-1, 3.27 ERA)

GAME 2: Wednesday, May 2nd 2007, 7:05 pm

Chad Gaudin (1-1, 2.54 ERA) vs Josh Beckett (5-0, 2.48 ERA)

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Hey, 500 pounds of pitcher in game 1.

Win.

Bleeding Green wrote:Hey, 500 pounds of pitcher in game 1.

Win.

And that

I'm not as impressed with all of these low-era pitchers that Oakland churns out year after year as I used to be.

It's the foul territory in their ballpark.

"Expansive foul territory reduces batting average by roughly five to seven points, making this the best pitcher

Plus it's a big park, too. Plus they pitch in Seattle and Anaheim which are both pitcher parks. It's a pretty nice division for pitchers.

They do have some good pitchers, though. Harden, Haren, Mulder, and Hudson were/are excellent regardless of ballpark. Not so sure about Zito. He definitely benefits from that stadium.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor

There are so many 8, 9, and 10 pitch at bats at Fenway, where the batter fouls off pitch after pitch, that would end after like 2 pitches at Oakland, because the first foul ball is caught. So not only does the batting average drop for the batter, but the pitcher is throwing fewer pitches and can go deeper into the game, saving the bullpen, etc. It would be interesting to see stats on number of pitches per inning and game in that park.

I think you're really overstating the effect foul ground has. At most it's probably like a 2 or 3 pitch difference per game.

Also, here is tonight's lineup. Drew is out due to a stomach virus.

Julio Lugo, SS
Coco Crisp, CF
David Ortiz, DH
Manny Ramirez, LF
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Mike Lowell, 3B
Jason Varitek, C
Eric Hinske, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B

Papelbon blowing the save...

Can you believe Papelbon has an 18.00 ERA in May this year? That's terrible. Even Mark Redman has a better May '07 ERA.

Fire Jon Papelbon.

How ironic is that, of course the A's with their piss poor offense have to touch Papelbon... geeez! Our offense should have put the game away earlier though, after the third they did nothing.

Hopefully Beckett can get his 6th win tonight!!!

man, francona better not pull a torre and not overuse okajima

WIN!!! BECKETT 6-0!!!

Mo still unbeaten in series threads...

Markos wrote:man, francona better not pull a torre and not overuse okajima

That's the beauty of Japanese pitchers: they can theoretically throw every day. Provided, of course, you have no use for them two seasons later.