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After a relatively quick five-game road trip (supposed to be six before the rainout), Atlanta heads back home for what promises to be a very fun weekend no matter who wins on the field.
Tonight, Atlanta retires John Smoltz's number 29 in a pre-game ceremony, and also is giving out Sid Bream bobble heads of his famous slide on Saturday. Saturday also features the Alumni softball game, so it should be pretty fun.
Also, the Toronto Blue Jays are in town for a three game series. Toronto is 30-27 on the year, and sits in fourth place in the American League East, two games behind Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
Offense:
As a team, Toronto ranks ninth in the American League in batting average (.248), tenth in on-base average (.314), tied for fifth in slugging percentage (.418), sixth in wOBA (.319), and tied for fifth in wRC+ (101.)
Individually, we'll start with Edwin Encarnacion, who is hitting the cover off the ball. So far, he's sporting a line of .279/.348/.578(!!!) with a .299 ISO, .392 wOBA, and 151 wRC+ to go along with 17 home runs. Rajai Davis is hitting .253/.311/.470 with a .355 wOBA and 126 wRC+. He leads the team in steals with 12.
Jose Bautista comes in with a line of .229/.336/.476, a .351 wOBA, and 123 wRC+. He's second on the team in home runs with 15. Old friend Kelly Johnson is doing well, hitting .251/.349/.409 on the year, with a .339 wOBA and 115 wRC+. Fellow former Brave Yunel Escobar isn't doing as well, hitting only .257/.310/.341 with a 79 wRC+.
Colby Rasmus is hitting ok at .246/.314/.381, with a 91 wRC+, while Brett Lawrie has gotten going after a slow start to hit .281/.318/.381. J.P Arencibia doesn't walk, strikes out a ton, but has some pop, which his line of .231/.272/.428 reflects.
Pitching match-ups and the Blue Jays bullpen after the jump.
Friday, June 8th, 7:35 PM ET
Game one pits Brandon Beachy against Kyle Drabek. On the year, Drabek is 4-6 with a 4.35 ERA, 5.46 FIP, and 4.74 xFIP. Control issues are an issue for Drabek, who walks over five batters per nine, while striking out almost seven per nine. He throws five pitches, a four-seam, sinker, cutter, curveball, and change. He throws hard, getting fastball up to almost 94 miles per hour on average. Fastball/sinker is what he works off of, but he throws his other three pitches about the same amount. He gets a ton of whiffs on his curveball, over 21% of the time.
Saturday, June 9th, 4:05 PM ET
On the year, the rookie Hutchison is 5-2 with a 4.35 ERA, 4.28 FIP, and 4.07 xFIP. He's given up one earned run or less in four of his last five starts. Control has been an issue with him, as he's walking just over five batters per nine while striking out just over six per nine. He throws four pitches, four-seam, sinker, slider and change. Hutchison throws decently hard, averaging over 92 miles per hour on his fastball. Primarily, he works off the fastball and sinker, throwing those about three/fourths of the time. He gets whiff rates over 12-percent on both of his off-speed pitches.
Sunday June 10th, 1:35 PM ET
Game three pits Ricky Romero agains Tim Hudson. Romero comes in at 7-1, but has an ERA of 4.02, 4.76 FIP, and 4.19 xFIP, so he's been pretty bad despite what the record shows. He's walking 4.48 batters per nine, while striking out just under seven per nine. Romero throws a fastball, sinker, curve, and change. Both the sinker and fastball average over 91 miles per hour. His changeup is his main off-speed pitch, and it's a good one with a whiff rate of over 17 percent. His curveball also misses a ton of bats, but isn't thrown as often as the change.
***All pitch info from www.brooksbaseball.net***
Bullpen:
Casey Janssen -RH (CL)
Francisco Cordero -RH
Jason Frasor -RH
Darren Oliver -LH
Luis Perez -LH
Carlos Villanueva -RH
Chad Beck -RH