Game 2: Soft-Tosser Special

Barry Zito vs. Bronson Arroyo

Curveballs for days

Tonight's game matches up two soft-tossing veterans in Arroyo and Zito. The former Cy Young Award winner Zito has had a pretty rough go of things from the moment he moved across the bay from Oakland to San Francisco. His ERA jumped almost a full point from 3.55 over his 7 years with the A's, to 4.48 in his 5+ seasons with the Giants. Zito has shown some glimpses of his former self over his first 3 starts of 2012 though. Over 21 innings pitched, he has given up only 4 earned runs, and walked only 4 batters. He's currently sporting a WHIP of 0.857. The good news is, quite a few Reds have had success against Zito the past few seasons.

• Jay Bruce: 4 for 6 with a double and a HR
• Brandon Phillips: 3 for 5 with a double
• Scott Rolen: 1 for 2 with a double
• Drew Stubbs: 3 for 5
• Todd Frazier: 1 for 2 with a HR
• Ryan Ludwick: 3 for 13 with a HR

On the other side of things, Bronson Arroyo hasn't even faced the Giants since 2009, when most of the current Giants weren't even with the team. Pablo Sandoval (0 for 3), Nate Schierholtz (2 for 4, 2 doubles), and Barry Zito (0 for 4) are the only guys that will see action tonight that were with the team then. Angel Pagan (4 for 18 lifetime) and Aubrey Huff (12 for 23 lifetime) have seen some success vs. Arroyo in the past with other clubs. Huff has not faced Arroyo since 2006 though. It should be interesting to see if Arroyo, who gave up the most HRs in the majors last year, but has only given up 1 in 3 starts this year, can keep the ball inside the ballpark now that the Reds are back in GABP and the balls seem to be flying a bit more.
 

 Swing Away Drew!

Drew Stubbs continues to impress. Small sample size is something you must keep saying to yourself over and over until about the end of May, but I like what I've seen from Drew the past week. He is swinging earlier in counts which helps him two-fold: 1) He is making contact early in at-bats and getting hits. And 2) He isn't looking at strikes early in the count and getting behind which leads to strikeouts. Look at these freaking career numbers for Drew Stubbs with different counts:

• First pitch - .424 AVG, .421 OBP, .706 SLG, 1.128 OPS, 12 HRs
• 0-2 count - .059 AVG, .066 OBP, .067 SLG, .133 OPS, SEVEN hits in his career with an 0-2 count. 87 strikeouts.
• 1-2 count - .121 AVG, .129 OBP, .211 SLG, .340 OPS. 134 strikeouts
• 2-2 count - .158 AVG, .165 OBP, .246 SLG, .410 OPS. 129 strikeouts
• 3-2 count - .220 AVG, .455 OBP, .296 SLG, .751 OPS. 89 strikeouts and 80 walks

Now, this isn't some strange phenomenon that plagues only Drew Stubbs. Look at the count splits for any major league batter and you're going to see batting average decline the more strikes there are in the count. But rarely do you see numbers so small with an 0-2 count. And it should be pretty clear to Drew that patience at the plate is something best left up to guys like Joey Votto (for comparison, Joey Votto bats .206 with an 0-2 count, and OPS .494). Drew Stubbs should go up there and swing at the first strike he sees, and he seems to be doing that and the results are more hits and less strikeouts. Isn't that somethin'?

Other ins, outs, and what-have-you's:

• Yahoo! Sports highlighted Zack Cozart this morning. It's a pretty bad article if you ask me, but hey, any accolades Mr. Cozart gets is well deserved and good for this team. You can read the "article" here.
• For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about UK being honored at last night's game, nary a boo was heard by me when they introduced Mr. Calipari. Looks like the UK-haters were all bark and no bite (Bark in the Park joke!)
• Ryan Ludwick has shown some power and I hope he gains some confidence from that. Last night's HR was a no-doubter.
• Red Wanting Blue, an awesome band out of Columbus is at Bogart's on May 12th. You should for sure go see them.
• MLB Trade Rumors reported that the Reds were close to trading Chris Heisey and Juan Francisco to the Braves for Jair Jurrjens and Jairo Asencio. Consider that bullet dodged.
• I caught some flack on Twitter last night for saying sacrifice bunts are dumb. Someone even said I "don't know baseball". If you want some good reading on why sac bunts are stupid and are only excusable in a few very specific scenarios, check out this article which is a lot easier to understand than the other one I posted.
• If you don't already follow me on twitter, you can click the link on the right side of the page to follow me. Also, leave comments! Tell friends! I enjoy feedback!
• Lastly, check out this Yu Darvish pitch from last night. 94mph 2-seam fastball. Look at that freaking movement (.gif once again courtesy of the goons over at Something Awful's Sports Argument Stadium)