August 10, 2012

Weekly Planner

Week 20

by Paul Sporer

There are usually questions about most, if not all, of the guys I don’t do any write-ups for each week, so let’s try something new and do a little something on every “start” and “consider.”  I’ll still do a little something on the group of sits, but those are generally rather self-explanatory. 

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Auto-Starts: CC Sabathia, Zack Greinke, and Jake Peavy

I wouldn’t say I’m close to removing Greinke from the “auto-starts,” but he needs to be held accountable for the fact that he can’t get his results to match those fancy peripherals.  Tons of strikeouts and a great strikeout-to-walk ratio are nice and all, but enough with the implosion starts that keep your ERA in the high-3.00s.  This isn’t bad luck; it’s him pitching poorly too often.  Even the best have rough outings, but guys with his skills don’t usually have this many. 

Start
Matt Moore (@ SEA; @ LAA)
Anibal Sanchez (@ MIN; vs. BAL)
C.J. Wilson (vs. CLE; vs. TB)
Hiroki Kuroda (vs. TEX; vs. BOS)
Bartolo Colon (@ KC; vs. CLE)
Alex Cobb (@ SEA; @ LAA)
Matt Harrison (@ NYY; @ TOR)
Ryan Dempster (@ NYY; @ TOR)
Wei-Yin Chen (vs. BOS; @ DET)
Jose Quintana (@ TOR; @ KC)
Justin Masterson (@ LAA; @ OAK)

Moore started to turn it on in mid-May with a big quality start against Boston in which he walked just one and fanned eight. In his 14 starts from that point, he has posted a 3.16 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 8.9 K/9, and 2.2 K/BB in 85 1/3 innings.  Once he didn’t hit the ground running, I’ve been eyeing him for a second-half surge. 

Even Jim Leyland admits to leaving Sanchez in too long during his debut with the team in Toronto; he was great through five and solid enough in the sixth, but he never should have seen the seventh.  I’m only dinging him slightly for that one, and then he rolled Cleveland before the Yankees rolled him.  That’s the long way of saying he’s really only had one bad start.  Stick with him, you AL-only-ers who are just getting your first exposure to him. 

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