Jake Peavy was 2- for -2 on Thursday with a double and a triple, raising his average to .222 on the year. But that's not why we own him is it? He improved to 3-0 with a win over the Diamondbacks at Petco but the bottom line wasn't pretty. Jake allowed 5 runs, 4 earned in 5.1 IP on 10 hits and 2 walks. There is some good news … 8 Ks for one thing and the 4 scoreless innings he threw to start the game allowing just 3 baserunners. Arizona got to him after that however. Beginning in the 5th 9- of -11 hitters reached. Peavy speculated that he let down a bit after the Padres scored 5 in the 3rd to open their lead to 7-0. Maybe. We'll cut him some slack at 3-0, 2.13 on the year and just chalk this up as an aggravation.
Noah Lowry is starting to justify my severely tested faith in him. He posted his third strong outing of the season on Thursday allowing the Cards 2 runs over 7 IP on 4 hits, 2 walks and 4 Ks. The win only improves him to 1-2 because the Giants scored only once in his two previous starts. Noah's 2.70 ERA tells you how well he's pitched however. It looked like the same deal yesterday for a while as the Cardinals scored in the top of the 5th to make the score 2-0 before the Giants busted out for 5 runs over the 5th and 6th. His 4.0 K/9 is not what you'd like it to be, and neither is his 3.6/9 walk rate, but he's throwing ground balls and he's only given up one HR. Noah has allowed just 15 hits which keeps his WHIP at a very manageable 1.15. His .211 OBA will come up and at that point there will be issues if he doesn't get more stingy with his walks and his HR rate normalizes. The Dodgers are next at Chavez Ravine so stay the course for now.
Here's one for your league to fight over. A wild pitch charged to Dontrelle Willis on Wednesday was reclassified as a passed ball. That converts one run that Willis has allowed this year to an unearned run dropping his ERA from 5.25 to 4.88. Make sure your commissioner is on top of that one. He'll love you for it!
The Rick Vanden Hurk experiment was given it's last rights last night. He allowed the Mets 8 earned runs in 4 IP on 7 hits, 2 walks and 6 Ks. That brings his ERA up to 9.00 over 11 IP. It also brings his WHIP to 1.90 and his walk rate to 4.9/9. Oh ya ... and with the two HRs he gave up, his HR rate is now 2.4/9. The Marlins will probably stick with him another turn or two, or until they just can't take it anymore. You don't have to. Atlanta would be next.
How good has Rich Hill been this year? He threw 8 shutout innings at the Braves on Thursday allowing 4 hits and a walk while striking out 7. One of those walks came when Hill caught a cleat delivering the 4th ball. Rich improves to 3-0 and lowers his ERA to 0.41. Rich also got 10 GBOs too which is a pretty good deal for a power pitcher. if you are scoring at home that is 18 (one DP) of the 24 outs he got yesterday which were via the K or a groundball. That's the way its done. His ERA over the two seasons and this one has dropped from 9.13 to 4.17 to 0.41. That's pretty nice progression. He won't pitch at this pace all year of course but there's nothing fluky about this. Hill has matured into a legitimate front of the rotation starter.
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