Tomorrow, it's Chad Gaudin, in the midst of a breakout season. Although he isn't doing it by striking hitters out at a particularly impressive pace, he did fan 10 Devil Rays on Thursday to inflate the ol' strikeout rate a little. Gaudin is a three-pitch pitcher with his fastball, the Slider of Great Humiliation and a show changeup.
Gaudin has pronounced splits. He treads lightly around lefties and eats righties for breakfast. Lefties are .282/.386/.411 with 36 strikeouts and 54 walks (or 0.67 K/BB); righties are .233/.298/.359 with 83 strikeouts and 25 walks (or 3.32). If the Jays were still in contention I'd make an impassioned plea to start Adams, Olmedo and Stairs here; since they're 10 games out, whatever lineup is most effective for building character is fine by me.
The current Jays' roster is a combined 1-17 against Gaudin, but with 6 walks and 3 strikeouts. The hit is a Vernon Wells double.
Wednesday's getaway game features soft-tossing cutter fiend and groundball machine Lenny DiNardo, who didn't make it out of the second inning in Tampa Bay Friday.
After that game, DiNardo said he thought his stuff and location were way off. "My pitches looked about average. I just didn't have it today. I was leaving it up, and everything was predictable ... and that's never good for me. ... My cutter was a notch up and didn't have the depth it should have. And my changeup, I felt by the time I did have some swings and misses on it, it was pretty much too late. And my curveball was pretty loopy."
If this Jays team got to face DiNardo 162 times, they would have a hard time losing the AL East. They've crushed him with great consistency, and the individual splits illustrate that: Vernon Wells is 5-8 with a walk and a homer against him; Reed Johnson, 4-8 with a walk; Aaron Hill, 6-8 with two walks and four doubles and a homer; Troy Glaus, 3-6 with a walk; Gregg Zaun, 0-2 with two walks, and so on. But he'll always own Lyle Overbay, and the leveling effect of the Getaway Day Strike Zone works in DiNardo's favor when Roy Halladay is providing the opposition. It should be an interesting matchup.
Personnel moves: The on-again, off-again relationship between Travis Buck and the 15-day DL is on again. They were made for each other. Also, Donnie Murphy has been demoted to AAA. The A's recalled utility infielder J.J. Furmaniak (stats), who's having his best year since 2004. It's fueled by a .354 BABIP. Furmaniak's versatility and ability to play shortstop should get him plenty of opportunities to find out whether that newfound success will translate to the major-league level.
And if the Jays go up 30-3 at any point during the series, they now know which position player will fill the Frank Menechino role: backup catcher Rob Bowen. With the A's in a double-digit hole in the bottom of the eighth on Saturday, and Huston Street and Alan Embree the only two relievers available, and Kiko Calero on the mound and headed for a jam, manager Bob Geren (or "Green" if you're Tim Langton) sent Bowen out to the bullpen to warm up.
The Credit Section: All offensive stats, pitches per PA for pitchers and league average stats are from the Hardball Times. Pitchers' stats and leverage indices are from Fangraphs. Minor-league stats are from Minor League Splits and First Inning. K% and BB% are strikeouts and walks as a percentage of plate appearances; GB% + LD% + FB% = 100.
Dee Brown's minor league stats are available here; I put his MLB numbers in the chart to give an impression of how often the A's play him.
