1* Red Sox -140
Clay Buchholz vs Andy Oliver who is making his first start of the season. He was called up for Phil Coke and will get the tough task of facing the Red Sox. He's a big LHP that throws a FB/SLD Combo. The Red Sox have hit LHP well and i expect them to get a few against the rookie. So it comes down to: Can Clay pitch like hes capable of? I noticed on his fangraphs page that hes throwing a cutter instead of the slider this year. So i google and discovered that hes regripped his slider and instead has went to a cutter or some sort. But it has been a far more effective cutter/slider hybrid. He has, at this point, basically ditched the slider-effects of the pitch to go for more of a straight-up cutter (as far as Pitch f/x classifications are concerned), but has seen swings-and-misses on 14.6 percent of the pitches after seeing around seven percent hacks on the cutter/slider in his first five starts, so whatever change in grip he made has been effective. I would expect as the season wears for this pitch to be even more crisp. Another thing i love this year about clay is that hes only giving up 11% line drives and even less the last 5 starts (which have been insane). Anyone in baseball knows that the less LD'S means less contact. Do you want line drives sprayed or weak flyballs and groundballs? No brainer right? Line drives result to ALOT of runs.
Clay's has had gopher-itis this year, but that was expected after last season's anomaly in that dept. But every other saber stat is pretty much in tact. I expect Clay to pitch well and the Sox to be able to hit the kid today from Detroit.
Clay Buchholz vs Andy Oliver who is making his first start of the season. He was called up for Phil Coke and will get the tough task of facing the Red Sox. He's a big LHP that throws a FB/SLD Combo. The Red Sox have hit LHP well and i expect them to get a few against the rookie. So it comes down to: Can Clay pitch like hes capable of? I noticed on his fangraphs page that hes throwing a cutter instead of the slider this year. So i google and discovered that hes regripped his slider and instead has went to a cutter or some sort. But it has been a far more effective cutter/slider hybrid. He has, at this point, basically ditched the slider-effects of the pitch to go for more of a straight-up cutter (as far as Pitch f/x classifications are concerned), but has seen swings-and-misses on 14.6 percent of the pitches after seeing around seven percent hacks on the cutter/slider in his first five starts, so whatever change in grip he made has been effective. I would expect as the season wears for this pitch to be even more crisp. Another thing i love this year about clay is that hes only giving up 11% line drives and even less the last 5 starts (which have been insane). Anyone in baseball knows that the less LD'S means less contact. Do you want line drives sprayed or weak flyballs and groundballs? No brainer right? Line drives result to ALOT of runs.
Clay's has had gopher-itis this year, but that was expected after last season's anomaly in that dept. But every other saber stat is pretty much in tact. I expect Clay to pitch well and the Sox to be able to hit the kid today from Detroit.
