Wednesday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer: Deadline Done, Sabean’s Thoughts, Belt Benched

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty exhausted from that trade deadline. Maybe if I were making at least $4MM this year I would be less exhausted, but I know this is a very stressful time for players and their families. At least I have a choice in whether I get relocated or not. Back to the people you came here to read about, the Giants have lost 5 games in a row and still have the sixth worst record in the Majors. They’ll have Chad Gaudin on the mound today, hoping he can put his last start behind him, and the Phillies hope they can start a winning streak with Kyle Kendrick on the mound today.

So, there’s Brett Pill getting another start, this one vs. a RHP, and Roger Kieschnick gets his MLB debut, so that’s very exciting for him. Hero to the world Buster Posey is also back, batting cleanup in this game.

I’m not sure how many left handed hitters the Phillies have, but they were nice enough to only include three lefties in their lineup against Gaudin. RHH are batting .175/.221/.309 with a .233 wOBA against the Giants starter while LHH are going .264/.371/.328 with a .311 wOBA against. Three lefties in the lineup is still enough to do damage against a Giants team that scored three runs for the first time yesterday since last Wednesday when they lost 8-3 against the Reds.

Jul 19, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick (38) pitches during the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s take a look at the pitch repertoire for both pitchers so we know what we’ll be seeing from the center field camera angle tonight. First, for Gaudin:

Nothing we don’t know about him, mostly a fastball-slider guy, and since those pitches might be a little easier to pick up for lefties, you might be able to understand why they hit him a little better. His fastballs sit in the low 90s, changeup 6 MPH slower than the four-seamer, and the slider with some bite at 80. Any outing with Gaudin would be a nightmare if he can’t spot his fastball, since he uses it so much. For Kyle Kendrick:

Primarily a three-pitch guy, sinker, split, cutter, with the fastball in the low-90’s/high 80’s and the cutter and split comfortably in the 80’s. Kendrick has posted a 5.70 ERA in July, his worst month, going against two playoff-caliber teams, and two not-playoff caliber teams, not showing any pattern of much even within a small sample like that.

Other notes from the beat writers on this trade deadline-y day:

I mean, it’s not like other GM’s are going to come out and spit back at Sabean.

Or maybe one kind of did. On to bearded news, because we can’t get enough of it:

The Beard is keeping his account entertaining, at least:

But nowhere in those first two tweets did I see “The Giants did not want Brian Wilson,” but I mean, that there were offers to consider before the Dodgers went all Dodgers payroll on Brian Wilson, maybe that is a little telling. Maybe it’s not. Who knows!

Yay. Here we go again.

Now let’s go play some good, clean football, everybody.

The series with the Phillies will resume at 4:05 PM PST.