Kansas City will be the last team to get their season underway as the Royals don't take to the field until 9:05 CST on Friday evening to play the retooled Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim's Angel Stadium. With baseball's idiotic Opening Day Week schedule, it will cause a lot of Royals fans to be chomping at the bit on Thursday and for most of Friday as well.
So with that all being said, let's take a closer look at the opening game Friday and some of the matchups you will see. While the lineups haven't been finalized, we know the pitching matchup will have Bruce Chen squaring off against Jered Weaver. Onto the numbers...
Weaver, 29, is 14-6 in 24 career starts during the months of March and April. He's often off to a hot start, as June is the only month that Weaver has enjoyed more success during the course of his career. Opponents are hitting just .231/.279/.358 against him during the first month.
While the Royals lineup may not be set, it appears all the positions are set. Here are the career numbers against Weaver for whom we resume will start-
Humberto Quintero - No at-bats
Eric Hosmer - No at-bats
Chris Getz - 1-for-5 three strikeouts and two walks
Alcides Escobar - 0-for-2
Mike Moustakas - No at-bats
Alex Gordon - 4-for-14 one home run and three RBI. Also has struck out and walked four times each.
Lorenzo Cain - No at-bats
Jeff Francoeur - 0-for-2
Billy Butler - 5-for-23 one double and two RBI. Also has struck out three times and walked once.
Total
10-for-46 one home run and five RBI
As a team, current members of the Royals are hitting .235/.343/.647 against Weaver for their careers. That is basically a cross between Getz and Betancourt's career numbers...not good.
Royals pitcher Bruce Chen pitched once against the Angels last season and that outing didn't go so well. He went five innings, allowing five runs on eights hits. He also allowed three home runs. However for his career he is 1-1 with a 4.01 ERA in 24.2 innings. On the positive side he has a career 3.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio against the Halos.
Here are the current Angels numbers against Chen-
Chris Iannetta - No at-bats
Albert Pujols - 3-for-8 two home runs and two RBI. Pujols has walked three times and been struck out twice by Chen.
Howie Kendrick - 3-for-7 two home runs and two RBI. Chen has also struck out Kendrick once.
Erick Aybar - 3-for-6 with a double
Alberto Callaspo - 1-for-3 with a double
Vernon Wells - 6-for-19 with three home runs and seven RBI. He has struck out three times and walked twice
Peter Bourjos - 0-for-2 with a strikeout
Torii Hunter - 2-for-10 with a home run. Also has struck out and walked once
Kendrys Morales - 0-for-3
Total
18-for-58 with eight home runs
As a team the Angels squad is batting .353/.800/1.215 in their careers against Chen.
Bruce Chen's best career numbers come at the end of the season but he is 11-7 during the first month with a 4.42 ERA and 1.44 WHIP. Batters are hitting .201/.314/.576 during the first month against the 34-year old lefty.
So what does all of this add up to? Nothing really, but ironically Chen has a better first month statistically, though Weaver has a better record, ERA, and WHIP during that same time of the season.
Let's get the season going so we have actual games to discuss and not just past history.