Major League Baseball

Daily MLB pitcher duels: April 10

Published Apr. 10, 2015 12:06 p.m. ET

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As we reach the back end of most teams’ pitching rotations, strong matchups are certainly going to be a bit sparser. However, there are still a few fun options to check out on MLB.tv today. Have a look:

Wade Miley (BOS) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (NYY)

7:05 PM

It’s an age-old rivalry, but both of these starters are newcomers to their respective clubs. Miley came over from the Diamondbacks for a subpar return—Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, and minor leaguer Raymel Flores—and will be expected to hold down the back end of the Boston rotation after four mostly-solid years in Arizona. The 28-year-old left-hander has reached 200 innings in each of the past two seasons, and managed 194.2 the year before that. In that time frame, he’s been right about league average (104 ERA+) with other peripherals—7.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.30 WHIP. That won’t necessarily elicit oohs and aahs, but also aren’t exactly painful. Combined with the innings and relative health, he’s what most teams would love to have in the Nos. 4 or 5 spot.

Miley’s velocity is pretty good for a lefty, registering 91.3 mph on average on his four-seamer last year and 90.9 mph on his two-seamer. The slider and the changeup are his go-to secondary pitches, with the former (16.9 percent whiff rate) the more devastating of the two. Miley is also a big-time groundball guy, which mixes quite nicely with his league-average strikeout rates. Last season, four of his five pitches had groundball rates above 49 percent, which is pretty fantastic. Ultimately, it isn’t terribly hard to see why the Red Sox prioritized extending Miley, who they got for three years and $19.25 million with a $12 million team option for 2018.

Eovaldi on the other hand is making his first start as a Yankee after coming over in the trade that involved Garrett Jones, Martin Prado, and David Phelps. Eovaldi had an uneven 2014, at times looking dominating with really great stuff and a decent penchant for groundballs, and at other times getting absolutely blistered, like is the case with his 1–10, 5.51 ERA second half.

There’s a lot to like about Eovaldi from the standpoint of just the arm; among qualified starters, only Garrett Richards, Yordano Ventura, and Wily Peralta had a harder average four-seam fastball than Eovaldi’s 95.5 mph—almost a full tick ahead of Stephen Strasburg. But that pitch has a tendency to run pretty straight, so even at that velocity it was hit to the tune of a .315/.359/.460 batting line. The other troubling thing for Eovaldi moving forward in Yankee Stadium is that lefties dusted him up pretty good last year (.293/.330/.438), and that’s the kind of thing that’ll be unforgiving on the short porch in the Bronx. Still, if he puts it together—and he’s just 25, so that’s a distinct possibility—the Yankees have a really nice piece here.

Taijuan Walker (SEA) vs. Drew Pomeranz (OAK)

10:05 PM

The hope here is that Walker is finally healthy and ready to help the Mariners be one of the very best teams in the American League. Walker has been waylaid by shoulder bursitis which ate up a big part of the first half last year, but managed to look pretty solid in his second cup of coffee with the club after that: 2–3, 2.61 ERA (3.68 FIP), 8.1 K/9, 1.29 WHIP. The nice thing for the Mariners is that with Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma at the top of the rotation, they can have a bit more patience with the youngsters like Walker—whom many believe still has all the characteristics of an ace. Walker won’t be 23 until August, so the sky is still the limit for this youngster.

Pomeranz had a really nice season for the A’s last year, and while it wasn’t completely out of nowhere, it was pretty surprising. The 26-year-old lefty came over from Colorado with a career ERA of 5.20, and proceeded to lower it by a full run while posting a 2.35 season ERA in 20 appearances as a swingman for the A’s. Between Pomeranz and Jesse Chavez, the A’s were playing with house money and winning last year. That’s the sort of thing that not only allowed the team to overcome big injuries to Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin, but still have the depth to move Tommy Milone for Sam Fuld to try and help out the postseason stretch run.

Pomeranz likely isn’t guaranteed a season-long role as the A’s No. 5 starter—not with Griffin and Parker on the comeback trail and Chavez nipping at his heels from the bullpen—but that just speaks to the depth of the pitching staff for Oakland, and is by no means an indictment on Pomeranz, a two-time former top-100 prospect via Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America.

Warm-Up Tosses

There’ll probably never be a time I’m not interested in a Mark Buehrle start (3:05 ET vs. Baltimore) … Collin McHugh gets a chance to prove his season last year was not an aberration against Texas today … It’s hard to believe it has come to this, but the Twins are looking to Milone to be a stopper today against Hector Noesi and the White Sox. Actually, both teams are 0–3 so I suppose it applies to Noesi as well … Tyler Matzek gets the ball for Colorado today. The back end of that rotation—he and Eddie Butler—is far more interesting than the front end … The injury-riddled Rays turn to Steven Geltz today. He has ridiculous strikeout numbers in the minors and brief time in the majors ... Brett Anderson vs. Chase Anderson was on the fringes of making this list. I’ll be watching both all season to make sure Brett stays healthy, and to see just how good Chase (10th in NL ROY voting) really is … Jason Vargas vs. Hector Santiago is a little interesting. Vargas gets by with help from his (defensive) friends, while Santiago ranked in the top 20 among MLB starters in lowest hard-hit rate, per ESPN … The final game of the night is Tim Lincecum and Brandon Morrow. Lincecum went 10th and Morrow went fifth in the 2006 MLB draft, but it’s fair to say both of their careers are on the rocks.

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