Saturday BP, 5/5/18

MLB does this now on Gameday previews. I don’t remember this happening before:

With all the Statcast data available and the sort of expansion of what data they post, it feels like Baseball gets it. But posting batting average data means, really, they’re just so close. I don’t understand how on base percentage isn’t simply the preferred way to demonstrate batter success versus pitchers. It’s stubbornness. Which, in my experience, is just ignorance doubling down. Anyway... adjusted to OBP, here’s what today’s matchup looks like:

Belt .308 OBP | 13 PA
Blanco .300 OBP | 10 PA
Crawford .444 OBP | 14 PA
Hernandez 1.000 OBP | 1 PA
Hundley .412 OBP | 17 PA
Longoria .333 OBP | 21 PA — (not sure whey B-R and MLB.com have different PA against)
McCutchen .500 | 12 PA
Posey .231 OBP | 13 PA
Sandoval .250 OBP | 12 PA
Tomlinson .333 OBP | 3 PA
Williamson .667 OBP | 3 PA ** added this just in case he is activated today

And McCarthy’s 3.09 ERA is a nice start, but his FIP is 4.86. Given that and the lineup’s relative success against him, there’s a nonzero chance the Giants might do well today.

On the other hand, as our new Staff Writer, Kenny Kelly, pointed out in his series preview:

Blach is a mortal man against all teams that aren’t the Dodgers.* ... maybe PECOTA just didn’t take the time to get to know the real Ty Blach, to look beyond his career K/9 of 4.25 and see his better than average HR/FB ratio.

*2.02 ERA against the Dodgers, 5.14 ERA against everyone else.

Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Johan Camargo scare me. The sound the ball makes off their bats sounds very close to this. And they devour lefties:

Albies (88 PA, 1.147 OPS)
Acuña Jr. (8 PA, 1.250 OPS)
Camargo (83 PA, 1.068 OPS)

I guess what we should hope for today is... runs.