00:00 The two former teammates just this year, DRS, prior to the trade deadline in early August
00:10 with the New York Mets.
00:11 They face off against one another tonight in Arlington with Texas a -136 money line
00:18 favorite.
00:19 DRS, does the marquee nature of this game, does the notoriety of this game, does the
00:24 significance of this game weigh into how you look at the numbers tonight in Arlington?
00:29 It's pretty massive and if you take a look at the Rangers being the favorite, I agree
00:32 they should be the favorite because technically they have the better pitcher on the mound.
00:35 How could you say that?
00:36 Both of these guys are great guys going to the Hall of Fame, I get that.
00:39 But if we take a look at the last six and a half weeks in Major League Baseball, looking
00:42 at some ex-FIP numbers, we take a look at Max Scherzer, a 3.50, which is very commendable.
00:48 If we go down and take a look at Verlander, that's a 4.87.
00:51 So forget about ERA, forget about everything else.
00:53 If we just take a look at some of those analytical numbers, theoretically the better pitcher
00:57 is going to be Max Scherzer.
00:58 Now if we line this up and take a look at some real numbers on the field, Verlander,
01:02 you take a look at his last 30 days, 72 batters he's faced against right-handed batters.
01:06 Keep in mind, once again, Verlander is a right-handed pitcher.
01:09 A .288 ISO, which is elevated.
01:11 A .397 weighted on base percentage, which is elevated.
01:14 If we flip it over and take a look at Max Scherzer, who's faced 113 batters combined
01:19 between lefties and righties over the past 30 days.
01:21 How about this ISO power number, an .098 and a weighted on base percentage of .197, which
01:26 is incredible.
01:27 So if we equate that to lefties and righties here, a .145 ISO to lefties and .025 ISO to
01:33 right-handed bats.
01:34 Now the question is going to be that red hot lineup here for the Houston Astros, how are
01:39 they going to fare going up against a very good pitcher?
01:41 Well, the one thing that we do like is in this lineup tonight, there's not a lot of
01:45 strikeouts here for the Houston Astros.
01:47 Quite frankly, the only guy that strikes out at a high clip is Martin Maldonado in the
01:51 9 hole at 34%.
01:54 Everybody else 20% at less, which includes a couple of guys in the middle of that lineup,
01:57 only striking out around 10% of the time against right-handed pitching.
02:00 It could be a great matchup between these two, but the better pitcher theoretically
02:04 here for me is Max Scherzer.
02:06 [Music]
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