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It is awfully difficult to see the role of road favoritism attached to Brad Penny these days. He has struggled to a 6.36 away from Tiger Stadium, as opposed to 3.98 at home, with his W’s per 9 at 4.47, vs. 1.88 at home, and his HR’s per 9 at 1.55, vs. just 0.44 at spacious Comerica. But what if things are even worse than that? Penny has already thrown more IP than he has in a season since 2007, and for a guy that has rarely kept himself in proper condition what if he runs low on fuel? That is what we see right now – over his last two starts he has been peppered for 11 runs on 20 hits over 10 IP, without getting a single K of the 54 batters that he faced. That’s right, 54 batters, no K’s. Let’s color him as most vulnerable here, especially with the projected Baltimore starters knocking him around to a .360 tune (32-89, with four different Orioles having HR’s against him).
While Penny stumbles, Alfredo Simon has been a good story that few are paying attention to. Simon has worked to a 3.45 since the All Star break as he settles into the starting rotation, but his stuff has been even better than that – a 1.12 WHIP, with 18 K’s vs. only five W’s over those 31.1 frames, and only two HR’s allowed. That puts him far above Penny’s form, which is not reflected at the price point.
Any discussion of these teams also must acknowledge the scheduling aspects. The A.L. East is now 43 games over .500 vs. outside competition, while the A.L. Central is -26, and we can see how that directly impacts someone like Penny – of the 121 pitchers that have worked at least 100 IP, his difficult of batters faced is #114. With an overall ERA of 4.92, just imagine how bad his numbers would be had he faced even an average slate.
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