[Poll]The Hook: Week 3 Matchup of the Week

Posts: 1704 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 12:30 am

Pitchers ineligible (previously used):

Daisuke Matsuzaka
Zack Greinke
Scott Kazmir
Johan Santana

As always, we'll allow for write-in candidates, provided that they're not on the list of starters who have already been involved in the MOTW. As you can see, it may be a bit of a down week for great pitching matchups. Still, there are definitely some intriguing ones.

Schilling vs. Halladay - A pair of absolute workhorses in a key AL East matchup.

Beckett vs. Pettitte - I'm probably asking for it here. I really don't want to watch a Yankees-Red Sox game!

Verlander vs. Contreras - Two nice power pitchers in a big AL Central battle.

Lackey vs. Haren - A pair of guys hitting their prime in a battle of the two teams that figure to battle it out for the AL West.

Hernandez vs. Weaver - Weaver's kind of sketchy, as he's scheduled to make his first start of the year on Monday. We'll find out if he's ready to go real soon.

Johnson vs. Peavy - The Unit's debut, plus a nice battle of old school vs. new school.

Harang vs. Oswalt - Big matchup in the NL Central featuring two of the NL's top aces.

Glavine vs. Smoltz - Talk about nostalgaic. A pair of old teammates square off in a big matchup in the NL East.

James vs. Perez - Like I said, it's kind of a down week. James is looking like a terrific young hurler. You never know what you're going to get out of Ollie.

Myers vs. Patterson - Neither's pitching well to start the year, but both are capable of 200 K's with solid secondary numbers.

Voting starts now and ends Tuesday at 11:59 PM CT.

Posts: 6893 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 12:54 am

Felix/Weaver has potential -- if it happens (dependent on when Weaver makes his season debut).

BUTTT, I think we know where I'm going on this...my vote goes to Haren/Lackey. These guys are so evenly matched it's not even funny (I'm not sure why it would be). This is their second matchup already this season, with the first being a close 2-1 final in Anaheim.

Plus, I'd love to hear some analysis of both of these guys, so might as well kill two birds with une stone.

Furthermore, how often do the West Coast matchups get more than a couple of votes? Gotta represent California baseball.

Posts: 7864 · AiNoKeA Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Location: All Ova Posts: 7864

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

Glavine vs. Smoltz - Talk about nostalgaic. A pair of old teammates square off in a big matchup in the NL East.

Couldn't have said it better myself....that's where my vote went.

Posts: 1704 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 3:20 am

quiksilver wrote:

Felix/Weaver has potential -- if it happens (dependent on when Weaver makes his season debut).

BUTTT, I think we know where I'm going on this...my vote goes to Haren/Lackey. These guys are so evenly matched it's not even funny (I'm not sure why it would be). This is their second matchup already this season, with the first being a close 2-1 final in Anaheim.

Plus, I'd love to hear some analysis of both of these guys, so might as well kill two birds with une stone.

Furthermore, how often do the West Coast matchups get more than a couple of votes? Gotta represent California baseball.

I'm a big fan of that one, too (hence it's in the poll... there were a couple of other solid matchups in the AL, though the NL figures to have quite a few mismatches), but went with Felix and Weaver myself. Admittedly, like Justin said, it's no sure thing that we'll see the two square off. Weaver is slated to make his season debut Monday morning in Boston. Talk about a scheduling SNAFU for the West Coast fans. The game will start at 10 AM EASTERN. Weaver's debut figures to come at 7 in the morning for Angels fans.

Assuming nothing else goes wrong in the interim, they're scheduled to square off next Sunday in Anaheim.

Posts: 1704 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 3:25 am

TheRealDeal wrote:

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

Glavine vs. Smoltz - Talk about nostalgaic. A pair of old teammates square off in a big matchup in the NL East.

Couldn't have said it better myself....that's where my vote went.

Again, not a whole lot of great matchups in the NL. I love the history here, though Glavine's a borderline fantasy starter at this point in his career. I'm not 100% sure we'll end up getting a Glavine start in there this year if it's not against Smoltz or Maddux. On the positive side, there should be a few more chances for us to see him square off with Smoltzie because of the unbalanced schedule. Once some more of the top pitchers have been knocked off the list, I'm sure that becomes more of a no-brainer. As of now, though, I see that as about the fourth or fifth best matchup of the week at best.

Speaking of....... I'm interested in seeing how the voting turns out. I honestly get the feeling that we'll be going out west for one of the AL West matchups. If that's the case, we'll have started the year with three consecutive AL matchups of the week.

Posts: 6893 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 3:38 am

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

Talk about a scheduling SNAFU for the West Coast fans. The game will start at 10 AM EASTERN. Weaver's debut figures to come at 7 in the morning for Angels fans.

Yeah, ridiculous! When I saw it I did at least a triple take -- I thought for sure it was a typo. Who plays baseball at 7 am pacific, honestly? Really though, I didn't know games were played this early, and especially games involving West Coast teams. Some real numnuts do the scheduling sometimes it would seem.

Posts: 7864 · AiNoKeA Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Location: All Ova Posts: 7864

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

TheRealDeal wrote:

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

Glavine vs. Smoltz - Talk about nostalgaic. A pair of old teammates square off in a big matchup in the NL East.

Couldn't have said it better myself....that's where my vote went.

Again, not a whole lot of great matchups in the NL. I love the history here, though Glavine's a borderline fantasy starter at this point in his career. I'm not 100% sure we'll end up getting a Glavine start in there this year if it's not against Smoltz or Maddux. On the positive side, there should be a few more chances for us to see him square off with Smoltzie because of the unbalanced schedule. Once some more of the top pitchers have been knocked off the list, I'm sure that becomes more of a no-brainer. As of now, though, I see that as about the fourth or fifth best matchup of the week at best.

Yeah don't get me wrong, Felix v.s. Jered is a great matchup, however, Jered is coming off an injury and Felix is just smokin' hot right now, so it's the obvious choice. But me, I like to think outside the box with Glavine and Smoltz and the history the two have, along with a divisional matchup.

Posts: 6137 · Zen master Joined: 15 Apr 2002 Location: Tulsa Posts: 6137

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

If that's the case, we'll have started the year with three consecutive AL matchups of the week.

That's why I picked Harang/Oswalt.

Posts: 7269 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 12:44 pm

TheRealDeal wrote:

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

Glavine vs. Smoltz - Talk about nostalgaic. A pair of old teammates square off in a big matchup in the NL East.

Couldn't have said it better myself....that's where my vote went.

I agree. Rematch. And perhaps they'll pitch better since it won't be freaken cold!

Posts: 4601 · Posted: Apr 14, 2007 3:12 pm

I went with peavy/unit. just a hunch

Posts: 1704 · Posted: Apr 18, 2007 2:31 am

The winner of this week's Matchup of the Week was the (projected) Felix Hernandez-Jered Weaver battle we expected to see on Sunday. However, the weather and a surprising decision by the Mariners seem to be making that matchup null and void.

The Mariners were rained out in Boston last Thursday, bumping the M's rotation back a day. While the expectation would be that they would throw their number one starter on his regular rest and adjust the rotation around him, that hasn't been the case. Hernandez was originally expected to go today against the Twins, but the M's threw Jeff Weaver instead and proceeded to get pummeled. Hernandez will now be going Wednesday and next Monday. Jered Weaver's second start this week is also in question, as Anaheim's rainout (again, in Boston) over the weekend pushed their rotation back a day.

The most fun that we're having here is due to the weather. I would immediately proceed to the backup (the option that received the second most votes was Roy Halladay vs. Curt Schilling), but the Red Sox rotation was thrown out of whack by all the rain in Boston as well, meaning Halladay's expected to go Thursday against the Sox, but Schilling has been pushed back to Friday.

An extended DL stint is going to ruin our #3 choice, as Randy Johnson has been pushed back to April 24 for his season debut and won't be facing Jake Peavy.

I'm inclined to go with the old men squaring off for a handful of reasons.

1) They haven't been affected by the weather. Though the Mets were rained out on consecutive days, they threw Glavine Tuesday on his regular rest. He'll square off against Smoltzie on Sunday.

2) The obvious matchup of former Cy Young winners who pitched together on the same team for better than a decade.

3) It's the leading vote getter of any matchup that's actually going to happen this week.

4) Talk about your contrast in styles! Smoltz isn't exactly your prototype for a power pitcher anymore, but he's still a strong strikeout pitcher. Glavine is perhaps the ultimate finesse lefty in the game today.

Anyway, my apologies for the matchups not agreeing with what's actually going to happen on the schedule. However, if we want to vote on who we'll be breaking down in the Matchup of the Week, I'm going to have to project who's facing who ahead of time. As the weather starts returning to normal, that should become a lot easier......

Posts: 7864 · AiNoKeA Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Location: All Ova Posts: 7864

Jim Meyerriecks wrote:

I'm inclined to go with the old men squaring off for a handful of reasons.

LOL....It's good to see Jim on the TRD bandwagon!

Posts: 3828 · Posted: Apr 18, 2007 3:40 am

quiksilver wrote:

Felix/Weaver has potential -- if it happens (dependent on when Weaver makes his season debut).

BUTTT, I think we know where I'm going on this...my vote goes to Haren/Lackey. These guys are so evenly matched it's not even funny (I'm not sure why it would be). This is their second matchup already this season, with the first being a close 2-1 final in Anaheim.

Plus, I'd love to hear some analysis of both of these guys, so might as well kill two birds with une stone.

Furthermore, how often do the West Coast matchups get more than a couple of votes? Gotta represent California baseball.

My thoughts exactly. I was thinking Haren vs Lackey is the safest bet for a good pitching duel. However, I voted Weaver v Felix. I just want to see how Weaver looks this year. My thoughts coming into the year is that his motion will either:
- Be timed better by hitters
- Lead to arm problems

He already had some arm problems, but I want to see if he is the real deal or not. His numbers from last year were awesome. I think this matchup will atleast show us what Weaver is made of.