Comm. KTE, 5/7-5/8: Here We Are Now, Going To The South Side

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Thanks to injuries up and down the starting rotation, lefty strikeout artist/erstwhile reliever/Newark native/Bloomfield Tech alum Hector Santiago starts tonight. Santiago brings an array of fastballs to the table (2-seam, 4-seam, split) and a couple of other offerings that fall directly off of said table (sinker, screwball-like change). Command was formerly an issue-- hence his previous slot in setup/long work-- but has improved a little, making his velocity changes difficult to handle.

Trying to catch his oft-nasty stuff will be Georgia native Tyler Flowers, who "calls a good game" behind the plate (read: cannon arm with no precision/not so good at blocking pitches), is positively Buckian astride it so far (.296 OBP, w/ a sub-.400 SLG despite 16 HRs in 349 PAs), and, failing major-league success, may have a nice second career lined up in civic service of the canine-catching variety.

Who's on first, team?

[Zvon]

gj&nice try

[Edgy MD]

Playing first is erstwhile DH Adam Dunn, who doubtlessly is the greatest clout-or-an-out player in history, hitting a staggering .159 with 11 homers two years ago, and then bouncing back to .209 with 41 homers last year.

More astounding is his so/bb numbers, leading the league in both last year, with 105 walks, and 222[/bigpurple]strikeouts, which somehow isn't a record, coming up one short of Mark Reynolds 2009 campaign. But mercy, that's a three-true-outcome dude, and some people love that.

Segunbase?

[seawolf17]

When you think White Sox second basemen, you think Julio Cruz. But he retired a long time ago, so now it's Jeff Keppinger, who we know because he was a Met and is terrible. .194/.191/.213 so far this year.

[Frayed Knot]

The hell with the individual players, this seems to be all we need to know:
R/G - last in AL: 3.35/G
Team BA - last in AL: .223
Team OBA - last in AL (by 30 points): [u:4am5tq5l].276[/u:4am5tq5l]
Team SLG 0 2nd last in AL: .368 (.002 ahead of Minnesota)
OPS+ = 70 - last in AL
BBs - last in AL
Ks - 5th most in AL

Hell, after seeing this chart I'm starting to think that Harvey really isn't all that good.
Of course we have to score too at some point.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Manning the hole is Alexei Ramirez, a Cuban refugee who most certainly did not walk off the island (166 career walks in 3163 PAs), and who is something of a declining strongman himself, with the bat (with his wRC and slugging numbers-- currently at .345 on the year-- decreasing for four years running).

Good-to-great defender, with

(if very iffy at stealing bases)... but most of the local press around him seems to give off a Angel Pagan-with-the-Mets-but-we're-more-Midwesternly-polite kinda vibe. Skinny. Prone to giving good skinny-dude weirdface.

Who's at the hot corner? And does anyone have any info about that guy on the mound tonight?