Daniel Cabrera, RH Ervin Santana, RH (7-9, 4.74) (13-7, 4.50)
Why are they playing a game at 12:35 local time on a Wednesday? Hell if I know.
Cabrera returned to Baltimore and threw sixteen scoreless innings, but then he got beaten up by the Rangers last time out, plus the walks were back. With the scoreless streak, he walked five and struck out 17. In five against Texas, he walked four and struck out seven.
Walks, walks, walks. Randy Johnson's worst walk period as a major league starter was from 1989 through 1992. In those seasons, his BB/9 numbers were 5.38, 4.92, 6.80 and 6.16. His K/9 numbers just kept going up, too: 7.28, 7.95, 10.19, 10.31. These were Johnson's age 25, 26, 27 and 28 seasons.
Cabrera is 25 right now, and oddly he has a strange match with Johnson in this regard. In 2004, he was at 5.44. Last year, 4.86. This year, an absurd 6.91.
Like Johnson, he started bad, got better, and is now much worse. Also like Johnson, that K-rate keeps climbing: 4.65, 8.77, 9.52. Someone teach him a nasty slider, huh? Johnson is pretty much a once in a blue moon-level great pitcher, but who knows? Cabrera's still really hard to figure out. If he ever DOES learn to control the plate, he'll own the league for a decade or so.
Ervin Santana hasn't had the breakout-type season some might've been hoping for, but he's shown improvement from his rookie season, and he doesn't give up many hits. He's 24 in December. The Angels have a keeper here, and honestly if we dealt Tejada over there, this is one of the guys I'd want in return. He's nothing flashy yet, but I think he's gonna be a good one.