Saturday, April 07, 2012

Game 2: Rangers vs. White Sox

Rangers won the opener 3-2, just like I didn't predict ;) but I did predict the win, so that should count for something.

This time it is Chicago's Jake Peavy against the Rangers Derek Holland.

Peavy went 1-2 with an 8.78 ERA in the preseason. Good for the Rangers. Peavy hasn't done well when pitching in April over the past several seasons, which is another good thing for the Rangers. In fact, the previous three seasons, Peavy is 0-2 with an 8.80 ERA... I'm not sure this is good coaching, putting Peavy up against the Rangers to open his season.

Rangers vs. Peavy
  • Adrian Beltre is batting .235 (8-34) with 2 doubles, 2 homeruns, and 5 RBIs. He's fanned more times than hit, with 9 strikeouts.
  • Yorvit Torrealba is batting .241 (7-29) with a double, 2 homeruns, and 3 RBIs.
  • Josh Hamilton is batting .500 (6-12) with 2 homeruns and 4 RBIs.
  • Mitch Moreland is batting .750 (3-4) with 2 homeruns and 5 RBIs.
  • Mike Napoli is batting 1.000 (1-1) with 3 walks. I just thought that was interesting, so I had to share it.
As a team, the current roster is batting .289 (33-114) with 6 doubles, 8 homeruns, and 20 RBIs. There shouldn't be any problem with the Ranger's offense in this game.

Derek Holland is a career 27-22 with a 4.73 ERA. When he goes the distance, he shuts them down. He has 5 complete games in 63 starts, all five are shutouts. He doesn't have much success with the White Sox (11.05 ERA; 0-1 record in two starts). The Sox hit him good with a .364 batting average and have gone yard 3 times in 7.1 innings. The Ranger fan in me says this will change. Those numbers are from last year. Hum.

On a good note, Holland is going to be better than those numbers indicate. The current roster is batting .286 (10-35) against him (still, not much better than the Rangers vs. Peavy) with a double and a homerun. Holland's stock is going up, and I don't think Peavy's stock is going up, but going down. Looking at strickly the numbers I have seen, I like the Rangers in this one.

Forecast: Rangers over the Sox, 7-4. Holland goes six plus innings, Nathan gets another save.

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