Overthinking It
Gio Gonzalez and Max Scherzer are Striking Out Everyone
Ben Lindburgh, Baseball Prospectus
Gio Gonzalez
So far, Gonzalez going from the AL to the NL has worked something like Superman going from Krypton to Earth. Last winter, knowing that the A’s odds of survival were slim and the Coliseum’s days were numbered, Billy Beane sent Gonzalez away in search of a new existence in the DC Universe. Outwardly, Gonzalez is still the same mild-mannered pitcher he was in Oakland’s atmosphere. But as soon as he escaped his doomed former ballpark, he began to display previously unsuspected powers. If phone booths still existed, he’d be using one to change into his uniform.
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Against Gonzalez, with two strikes, right-handed batters this season are striking out more 56 percent of the time and hitting .056/.143/.090. Not only is that .233 OPS lower than any other lefty starter’s with two strikes against righties, it’s lower than any righty starter’s with two strikes against righties. Most righties facing Gonzalez haven’t thrown their bats into the stands and walked slowly back to the dugout, but they might as well have. If they’d all done that before the pitch, they wouldn’t have hit much worse.
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http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=17118
