Royals v. Athletics Matchups Preview

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Apr 14, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Lefty-smasher Lorenzo Cain will face a left-hander in Rich Hill on Friday night. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /

Friday: RHP Edinson Volquez (1-0, 1.54 ERA) v. LHP Rich Hill (1-1, 3.12 ERA)

This is one of the more intriguing matchups of the weekend.

Volquez, as you already know, has been dominant during his first two starts of the season, striking out 15 batters in just 11.2 innings of work.

Volquez could be described as a reclamation project, putting together a 3.30 ERA over 393 innings over his last two season after registering a 5.71 ERA in 170.1 innings in 2013.

However, when it comes to reclamation projects, Rich Hill takes the cake.

I would highly recommend you read that piece by Jon Morosi in the link, but I’ll give you a synopsis here.

Back on July 24 of 2015, Hill was released by the Nationals. Not having any teams willing to give him an opportunity to start, and I’m talking minor league as well, he signed with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, and independent league.

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After he had shoulder surgery in 2009 and Tommy John surgery in 2011, Hill was forced to begin throwing over-the-top again, if he wanted to move out from being a lefty-specialist into being a starting pitcher again.

To wrap this up and get back to the series recap, Hill went from being released and relegated to Independent ball for any chance to start, to throwing a two-hit, complete games shutout for the Red Sox in a day over three months.

As it comes to the matchup, the two pitchers couldn’t really be any different. Volquez has power stuff, while hill hasn’t hit 93 MPH once this season.

However, despite the lack of velocity, Hill garners an unusual number of swings and misses on his fastball.

Volquez walk-prone nature will benefit from the A’s being the worst team in the American League at drawing walks, which is hard to believe with the Royals also being in that league.

The two teams occupy the walk-drawing cellar so far this season, so we should see some pretty quick baseball games this weekend.

Must-See Matchup – Rich Hill v. Lorenzo Cain

It is matchups like this that I miss talking about Billy Butler, and his lefty-killing career.

However, when Butler left, Cain picked up right where Billy left off in his mashing of lefties, hitting .335 against south paws in 2015.

He OPS’d at a .959 clip against lefties last season, as well as hitting 7 of his 16 home runs off of left-handers, despite having 200 fewer plate appearances against them.

Next: Friday - Young Looks To Bounce Back

Apr 12, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Mike Moustakas is a notorious sinker-ball hitter. He will see plenty of those from Chris Bassitt on Saturday. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /

Saturday: RHP Chris Young (0-2, 7.45) v. Chris Bassitt (0-0, 2.92 ERA)

Chris Bassitt is one of the first pitchers I’ve ever written about that I have a general knowledge of what he does.

Bassitt has been around since 2013, and is one of the rare pitchers that has seen a progressive increase in velocity since he joined the league, rather than a plateaued or decrease.

Yes, it’s not really all that progressive, but you get the point.

His whiff numbers have been very erratic, but he has at times gotten some swings and misses with his fastball.

However, he makes his living on getting hitters to beat the ball into the ground. Specifically with his sinker, that has generated more ground balls so far this season than it has in the past.

Bassitt figures to not be a fantastic matchup for the Royals, who have historically struggled to hit the ball in the air and have had some issues against sinker-ballers. This game might be a BABIP-fest though, if we know anything about the Royals

Opposite of Bassitt is Chris Young, who is coming off of a very predictable rough start in Houston.

This matchup will be much more favorable for Young, pitching in a pretty spacious Oakland ball park against a team that doesn’t walk a lot and has one of the lowest home runs per fly ball ratios in baseball.

Must-See Matchup – Chris Bassitt v. Mike Moustakas

Mike Moustakas is a notorious sinker hitter, hitting a higher percentage of home runs against sinkers than any other pitch he faces.

He is also knocking the crap out of the ball so far this season, with an average exit velocity of just over 96 MPH in 2016.

If Bassitt can keep Moustakas from elevating his pitches, it’ll be a long weekend for Moustakas, and that is what Bassitt has done for much of his career.

However, Moustakas has been very successful at not hitting sinkers on the ground.

Next: Can The Royals Solve Gray?

Apr 12, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Kris Medlen recovered from a shaky first-inning in Houston to grab his first win of the season on Tuesday. He will start again on Sunday. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /

Sunday: RHP Kris Medlen (1-0, 3.60 ERA) v. Sonny Gray (1-1, 2.70 ERA)

Medlen had a pretty rocky beginning to his 2016 season, giving up two runs in the first inning on three hits and two walks.

However, he recovered nicely to strike out seven batters over five innings of work in route to his first win of the season, while not surrendering any more runs after the first inning.

The Royals will be opposed by Sonny Gray, who will be the marquee pitcher of the weekend for either team. In three starts against the Royals, he has posted a 3.15 ERA, and has given up just one home run in those 20-innings.

This is probably the first real outlier from the Royals early season rotation shuffle, where you see Medlen (the Royals bona fide fifth starter) facing another team’s ace.

(I’m not counting Chris Young against Noah Syndergaard because you could argue that matchup favored the Royals.)

This is also a rare MLB game between two starting pitchers who are 5’10 or shorter.

While they are similar in that aspect, they are both pretty different styled pitchers. Both have mostly average velocity on their fastballs (although Gray’s “sinker” can get into the mid-90’s), but Gray has the hands-down better stuff.

Must-See Matchup – Sonny Gray v. the Royals

Despite starting the season against the likes of Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, Gray is arguably the best pitcher the Royals have (and maybe even will) face this season.

Being buried in Oakland has kept Gray’s name out of the ears of many baseball fans, but he is coming off of a season where he finished third in the Cy Young Award voting.

Over 427 innings during the last two seasons, he has posted an ERA of 2.90 and has given up just four run sin 13.1 innings this season.

Next: Royals Ride Winning Streak Into Oakland

The Royals haven’t had much success against him in the three times they have faced him, and with one of his feature pitches being his sinker, their ability to keep the ball of the ground may be in question on Sunday.

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Royals v. Athletics Pitching Matchups Preview

The Royals open up a three-game set against the Oakland A’s tonight 9:05 PM CT

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