M’s vs. A’s Series Preview- 4/12/2010

Just a quick preview here, since these teams just played last week.

Pitching Match-ups:

Monday  Ryan Rowland Smith vs. Justin Duchscherer

Tuesday Doug Fister vs. Brett Anderson

Wednesday Jason Vargas vs. Gio Gonzalez

For those who missed the first series, Duchscherer is making his second start after missing all(?) of last year due to injury and depression, I believe (maybe it was anxiety).  He’s a bit of a junk-baller, fastball in the high 80s, mixes his pitches well.  He was a solid pitcher in 2008, but I’d say the jury’s still out on this year.  Looked okay in his first start.  Anderson was pretty dominant last week against the M’s and stands to become one of the better pitchers in the league in short order.  Still he’s in his second season, so we’ll hope to benefit from some early season inconsistency.  If he’s on, he’s tough to beat.

Gio Gonzalez is the new guy, a young lefty who gave up a couple of runs in six innings in his first start this year.  Spotty command, decent stuff, especially a curveball that gets him a lot of ground balls.  He had mediocre results in about 100 innings last year, but he’s been a top prospect for while.

It’s looking like a gray, rainy week in Safeco.  Hopefully a return home will be good for the Mariners.  I’d honestly be surprised if they don’t win this series.  The bats are in a terrible slump, and Oakland is pretty dependent on its pitching.  Things should start to even out soon.  It’s the bottom of the order throwing for the Mariners, but outside of Felix, I don’t think there’s much difference between the other four pitchers right now.  Snell has left the team for family reasons, by the way.  No other info currently available, but Wak said he doesn’t expect him to miss a start, so it shouldn’t have much effect.

Enjoy the games!  Hope to see you at Safeco.

-Matthew