Tuesday starting pitcher preview: New York Yankees at Cleveland Guardians

Gerrit Cole (2-0, 0.73 ERA) will be making his third start of the regular season for the New York Yankees tonight (Tuesday) against the Cleveland Guardians.

Cole actually has 1.370 wins and 0.000 actual losses for the Yankees in the regular season. He has a 0.18 true ERA. (For more information about my own created statistics of actual wins and actual losses and true ERA, you can read more about that right here).

In other words, Cole let Nick Castellanos of the Philadelphia Phillies reach first base (on a walk) in his last start and then Cole was taken out of the game and replaced by a reliever. That baserunner eventually scored, so Cole gets partially blamed for that run eventually scoring.

To put it more plainly, Cole has been almost completely lights out in his first two starts of the regular season when the issue of scoring by the Yankees opponent comes up.

Cole’s actually winning percentage (when I am only really talking about innings pitched and runs allowed) regardless of the win or loss result for any one specific game in the regular season is .916.

In other words, that’s really good, that’s great and about anything better than that is perfect!

Cole would still be 2-0 this regular season regardless of the win or loss result for any one specific game if I am evaluating his performance (for each game) based on whether it was a winning or losing performance.

The Yankees went 1-4 in Cole’s starts in spring training and Cole has not had three games in spring training and the regular season combined in which New York has won or lost three straight times this season.

New York can win three straight times in Cole’s starts with a win on Tuesday night.

Cole is 132-71 right now in his career in the regular season with a 3.22 ERA and 1,949 strikeouts.

Gerrit Cole has to be a Cy Young Award winner favorite right now as he has pitched at least 6.0 innings, giving up three hits, walking at least two batters and striking out at least eight, and not allowing a home run or allowing a batter to get hit by a pitch in both of his regular season starts.

The batting average for Cole’s opponents in each regular season start (so far) was .150.

Cole’s opponents have a .244 on-base percentage, a .175 slugging percentage (that’s awful), and a .419 on-base plus slugging percentage this regular season.

Gerrit Cole’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR) on Baseball-Reference.com is 0.8 and on FanGraphs.com it is 0.7. (I know nothing about WAR, so don’t ask me about it, I just thought I would mention it for no reason at all, for the people who do care about it).

According to MLB.com, among qualified players, Gerrit Cole is tied for third in wins, is tied for 10th in ERA, is tied for 22nd in innings pitched, is tied for seventh in runs, is tied for eight in earned runs, 15th in WHIP, and 14th in batting average against.

This is Cole’s first road start of the season (and that even includes all of spring training) and his next start will likely be in Yankee Stadium vs. the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, April 16.

His next start after that will likely be in Yankee Stadium against  the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, April 22.

Hunter Gaddis of the Cleveland Guardians

Hunter Gaddis (0-0, 3.72 ERA) will also be making his third start of the regular season for the Cleveland Guardians.

Gaddis actually has 1.007 wins and 0.000 losses for the Guardians in the regular season. He has a 3.03 true ERA. (For more information about my own created statistics of actual wins and actual losses and true ERA, you can read more about that right here).

His true ERA would have been even worse if Seattle Mariners baserunner Cooper Hummel would have been able to advance additional bases while Gaddis was actually still in the game on March 31. Hummel eventually scored for the Mariners.

The actual winning percentage for Hunter Gaddis (when I am only really talking about innings pitched and runs allowed) regardless of the win or loss result for any one specific game in the regular season is .554.

Gaddis would 1-1 this regular season regardless of the win or loss result for any one specific game if I am evaluating his performance (for every game) based on whether it was a winning or losing performance.

The Guardians went 2-2-1 in every game Gaddis’ pitched in during Spring Training.

Cleveland won both games Gaddis started in this regular season (so far).

On March 31, Gaddis pitched 3 2/3 innings in a game Cleveland won 9-4 at the Seattle Mariners. He gave up five hits, allowed one walk, recorded four strikeouts and gave up four runs and four earned runs.

In his last start on April 5, Gaddis pitched six innings in a game Cleveland won in 10 innings 6-4 at the Oakland Athletics. He gave up just one hit, two walks, four strikeouts and gave up zero runs and zero earned runs.

The Guardians have won three of their last four games Gaddis has pitched in (with the one non-loss being a 5-5 tie to the Texas Rangers on March 20), and the last time the Guardians actually lost when Gaddis pitched was on March 9.

Like Gerrit Cole and the Yankees, Cleveland could also win three straight times when Gaddis has pitched with a win tonight.

Gaddis has given up the same number of hits as Cole in the regular season (six), but he has given up fewer walks (three) than Cole (five)!

Hunter Gaddis is 0-2 (four starts and four games) with a 10.06 ERA in the regular season in his career with 13 strikeouts.

He has a chance to pick up his first career regular season major league victory if he pitches at least five innings tonight and the Guardians have a lead when he exits tonight’s game on the 101st day of the year.

Mr. Gaddis also celebrated his 25th birthday on Sunday (on the 99th day of the year) on the same day that the late professional golfer, a Spaniard by the name of Seve Ballesteros (who won The Masters Golf Tournament twice in his career) would have celebrated his 66th birthday if he was still living today (I just had to mention that).

Opponents of Gaddis have a .171 batting average, a .256 on-base percentage, a .286 slugging percentage and a .542 on-base plus slugging percentage this regular season.

The last five statistics I just mentioned are all worse than Gerrit Cole.

So all of those things I just mentioned about Gaddis would especially be a gut punch to Gerrit Cole and New York considering Cole hasn’t actually won anything extremely important in the Big Leagues yet (no World Series ring, no league MVP award and no Cy Young award yet).

Four of Gaddis’ five spring training games were at home except for the tie on March 20 (the last Spring Training game Gaddis pitched in and started) and Gaddis has made his first two regular season starts on the road, which were both wins for Cleveland.

In an optimal five-man rotation, Gaddis’ next start will likely be Monday, April 17, at the Detroit Tigers. His next start after that will likely be on Sunday, April 23, vs. the Miami Marlins.

Something just tells me that Tuesday is going to be a very good night for Gerrit Cole, as the Yankees lost by one run to the Guardians on Monday night or he is not going to have a good night for the Yankees as Cole had two and three walks (in that order) in his first two regular season starts.

I have a feeling the losing team of this game is going to lose the next three starts (including tonight) from one of tonight’s starting pitchers. That probably won’t happen. I am probably just overthinking it. But I guess it still could very much happen!

Comparing the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians

On the pitching side of things, in Major League Baseball, as a team, the Yankees are tied for sixth in wins (which should actually be ranked third) with seven other teams with six wins, they are tied for third in fewest losses with eight other teams with four losses, 4th in ERA (2.76), tied for 18th in most innings pitched (88) with four other teams, tied with the Milwaukee Brewers with the 4th fewest hits allowed (69), tied with the Minnesota Twins with the third fewest runs allowed (28), the fourth fewest earned runs allowed (27), the third fewest home runs (6) tied with the Seattle Mariners, the ninth most hit batsmen (5) tied with the Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers, the 11th fewest walks (34) tied with three other teams, the second most strikeouts tied with the Houston Astros (105), the fifth best/lowest WHIP tied with the Texas Rangers (1.17), and the Yankees opponents have a batting average of .214 tied with the Milwaukee Brewers as the third worst in MLB (so that is very good for the Yankees)!

On the pitching side of things, in Major League Baseball, as a team, the Guardians are tied for second in wins with three other teams with seven wins, they are tied for third in fewest losses with eight other teams with four losses, they are ranked 8th in ERA (3.73, and the Atlanta Braves also have a 3.73 ERA but are ranked seventh for some reason), are first in most innings pitched with 103 2/3 innings, tied with five other teams with the tenth fewest hits allowed (86), tied with the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres with the 13th fewest runs allowed (47), 12th in fewest earned runs allowed (43), tied with four other teams for 8th fewest home runs allowed (9), the 15th most hit batsmen (3) tied with four other teams, the 11th fewest walks (34) tied with three other teams, 8th most strikeouts (98), fourth-best/lowest WHIP (1.16), and the Guardians opponents have a batting average of .222 as the fifth worst in MLB (so that is very good for the Guardians)!

Offensively, in Major League Baseball the Yankees are tied for 17th in runs scored (46) with the Washington Nationals, 22nd in hits (78) with the Baltimore Orioles, tied for fourth in home runs (16) with the Los Angeles Angels, tied for 17th in runs batted in (44) with the Washington Nationals, tied for 11th in walks (38) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants, tied for 16th with the Chicago White Sox in strikeouts (89), fifth in stolen bases with 12, 18th in batting average (.241), 18th in on-base percentage (.321), fourth in slugging percentage (.452) and tied for 5th in on-base plus slugging percentage (.773) with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Offensively, in Major League Baseball the Guardians are tied for ninth in runs scored (53) with the Arizona Diamondbacks, 10th in hits (93), tied for 28th (worst in MLB) in home runs with the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals with five, 13th in runs batted in (47), second in walks (56), tied for 14th in strikeouts (90) with the Detroit Tigers, first in stolen bases (19), 20th in batting average (.239), 11th in on-base percentage (.333), fifth in slugging percentage (.350) and 23rd in on-base plus slugging percentage (.683).