I had opportunity to watch the Yankees/Rays game today on my second screen and I have to agree with the folks @BettorsInsider – the umpires are not helping with the hitting problems this year. I don’t know why they seem worse this year than in the past – it could be that the increased ball movement is confusing them as much as the hitters!
It’s gotten so bad I’m willing to support testing robo-umps.
On to the K watch…
Tigers @ White Sox, 8:10 pm ET
It’s hard to find a pitcher hotter than White Sox pitcher Lance Lynn. Thus far this season he’s 6-1 with a 1.37 ERA, a WHIP of .93, and 57 K in 52.2 innings. If you’re into the geeky stuff, check out his visualization report on baseballsavant – especially his crazy consistent release point. The only thing he’s not doing is going deep into games – most starts he’s going 5-6 innings and then calling it a day. Bottom line is Lynn’s K count hasn’t been great because of his innings per start. Facing Detroit should be a walk in the park – but we’re not here to pick wins. BetRivers has the over/under set at 7.5 and despite usually picking the Tigers to go over, I’m taking the under at -103.
Mariners @ Angels, 9:38 pm ET
Justus Sheffield, pitching tonight for the Mariners, hasn’t been the superstar that the Yankees had promoted him as – yet. I love his stuff but he’s clearly still learning the ropes. In a couple of years he may be an ace – and he’s a lefty – so teams will have a long leash with him. In his last 5 starts he only hit 5 strikeouts once, and that was against the K-happy Rangers. FanDuel has the over/under set at 4.5 and I’ll take the under at -124.
Mets @ Padres 10:00 pm ET
The Padres have Yu Darvish taking the mound tonight and the Mets are still a mess. No team has been more bitten by injuries than the Mets – and they lost their leadoff hitter Jonathan Villar last night. Their only bright spot is that Francisco Lindor may have turned the corner and is finally hitting – and I attribute that to my acquiring him for my fantasy team. Anyway, back to Darvish – he has been great, but his strikeout numbers have been inconsistent. He’ll strikeout 10 in 7 innings in one start, and then 5 in 7 innings the next. His home and away numbers are equally inconsistent – so I wouldn’t count on that. What we can count on is the Mets striking out in bunches. I’m not going to bet the bank on this one, but I will put a little something on Darvish going over 7.5 at +120 from Barstool Sportbook.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!