Anaheim ? 167:
Anaheim got an early wake up call after their season opening loss to Texas and got their first win of the season yesterday. Sometimes that first win is the hardest. I can definitely see the Angels bats staying hot in this one to take 2 of 3 in the series. Manager Mike Scioscia made the comment yesterday about everyone wanting to get all the ceremonial stuff over with so they can concentrate playing baseball and not worrying about the other distractions going on. Having Ramon Ortiz on the mound should be a big plus.
Ortiz has pitched in the majors for 3 seasons and if you take a look at his stats, you?ll see some trends in his stats that should be made note of. Ortiz has improved his ERA, his control (walks allowed per 9 innings), and has increased his strikeouts per 9 innings each and every season. The only negative is the 40 home runs that he allowed last year, but even that was something that he cut way down in the 2nd half of last season. He?s a guy that takes pitching very seriously. Always emotional and someone that is constantly working on his problem areas and I think you?ll see the continued improvement in the homerun category this season. In case you?re wondering, this spring he?s only allowed one home run in 6 spring starts that included 24.1 innings pitched.
Ortiz has also dominated the Texas Rangers over the course of his young career. He has a 9-1 record in 13 career starts vs them and was also very dominant vs this Texas team last season going 3-0 in 5 starts while holding Texas batters to hit a microscopic .171 as a team vs him.
Overall, Ortiz held opposing batters to just a .210 average last season. This is impressive, but even more impressive are his ?pressure pitching? numbers. Take a look:
Ortiz with runners on??..allowing batters to hit just .189 off him
Ortiz with runners in scoring position?.allowing batters to hit just .187 off him
Ortiz with runners in scoring pos and 2 out?allowing batters to hit just .150 off him.
John Thompson will be starting for the Texas Rangers today. Now normally a slight edge would go to him as he?s never faced the Angels in his past except for one lifetime start. I say normally because I don?t think he?s prepared enough this season (mechanics, injuries) to have that advantage. His stuff has not been too good this spring and if you take a look, you?ll see that he?s made 6 starts and was just 1-2 with a whopping 6.86 ERA while allowing 33 hits in just 19.2 innings!
To make things worse for Thompson, in his last spring start, he sprained his ankle and this could play a role. Even if that?s sound which the way it sounds he tested it a couple days ago, you have to wonder if he?ll be a little more unfocused with this in the back of his mind. Reason I say this, is because Thompson?s been on the DL quite a bit the last several years, and there?s some pressure on him, as he?s being heavily counted on to be in the Texas rotation which is down to a 4-man rotation to start the season.
Home Plate Umpire in this one is scheduled to be Doug Eddings who has had a larger than average strikezone over the past few seasons. The last 3 years, Eddings has had a strikeout/walk ratio way over the league average of 2 to 1. Check them out:
2002: Eddings had a 2.6 to 1 K/BB ratio
2001: Eddings had a 3.1 to 1 K/BB ratio
2000: Eddings had a 2.7 to 1 K/BB ratio.
I believe this could be beneficial as well to Ortiz. The last 2 games Ortiz has started with Eddings as the home ump, he?s recorded 13 strikeouts and only walked 3 in 12 innings?so he does matchup well with Eddings. Thompson has no experience with Eddings the past couple of years from my info.
Bottom line, I think the World Series Champs have a big edge in pitching in this one(both starting and relieving) and they take care of business and take the series. .
Good Luck! :thumb:
-ndnfan
