4/15 Pirates @ Reds

The Reds are back, I used to hate off days, but it was relieving to not have to make a blog post! The Reds start a 4 game series at GABP vs the Pirates starting tonight at 7:10pm. Tonight we have Charlie Morton (1-0, 2.08) vs Bronson Arroyo (2-0, 2.08). Yeah, they both have the same ERA, giving up 3 runs in 14 innings. Weird. We're expecting a lot of rain in Cincinnati and from what I'm looking at right now it looks like at least 60% chance of rain till 10pm and we're expecting 2 inches of rain by Sunday...I'll do a quick write-up because most likely it's not going to happen according to my meteorologist Eric. I also predicted about 5 snow days this year, and I was 0-5, so take the rain info for what it's worth. For real weather updates follow a Reds' fan and weather expert on twitter @stormchasernick. He should be on top of that stuff today, I don't want to put any pressure on him though.

Morton vs the Reds, and some notes:

• Gomes, Phillips, Rolen and Stubbs all bat over .300 with 10+ plate appearances.
• Votto has struggled and is 1-10.
• Bruce & Rolen have home runs.
• As a team the Reds bat .316 (30-95) in their career vs Morton.
• 13IP this year, 9 IP vs righties and they are batting .077 vs him.
• Awful vs lefties, in 4IP he has given up 8 BB, 3 runs and they are batting .375.

Reds bat .258 (16-62) vs Pirates' closer Joel Hanrahan, with 3 home runs from BP, Bruce and Heisey. Check out the rest of the stats here. Also note, because Blogger is very moody I can not unbold these sentences no matter how hard I try. I hate when technology conquers me.

Pick to Click: Rolen

Arroyo vs the Pirates, and some notes:

• Over the past 3 years, Arroyo is 5-1 vs the Pirates with a 1.93 ERA.
• Out of the top 6 players in terms of plate appearances vs Arroyo, the best one is Ronny Cedeno, who is batting .217.
• Three current Pirates bat over .300 vs Arroyo, and they are 2-6, 1-3, and 1-3. Not much you can tell from those #s, the only players with a examinable sample size have done awful vs Arroyo.
• Arroyo hasn't given up a run while a lefty was batting this season, and the Pirates lefties are their best run creators, Neil Walker and Lyle Overbay.

Francisco Cordero isn't too good vs the current Pirates, who have a .313 avg (14-44). Check it out for yourself here.

Pick to Click: Jose Tabata

Other things going on in the world:

-It's going to rain in Cincinnati this weekend, a lot.

-Janish gets a cool piece on him from CBS Sports. His new nickname is "Soft J".

-Have you heard of Trackman for golf? They are coming for baseball as well...stuff like this amazes me. Some of you may not like the physics and big numbers behind baseball, but I love it so I'll keep posting it.

-Derrick Williams has declared for the NBA draft, I think he goes #1 over Kyrie Irving.

-Hot Wheels in real life? No way.

-Jeff Ruby hosted a roast with local celebrities, check out some of the quotes here. Hilarious stuff from guys like Brennaman, Marvin Lewis, and Brian Kelly.

-Dustin Mosely of the Padres is 0-3 with a 1.82 ERA. He has gotten 0 runs of support this season. Sounds kind of like Aaron Harang for the Reds the last few years, except much worse.

-This is one tough dude, I guess that's why he is playing hockey. Make sure you read the poll and vote.

Thanks for reading, and remember I will now be tweeting little stat tidbits (i.e. This dude bats .095 in a 0-1 count, or this reliever has given up 3 home runs to this guy..) during games so be sure to follow me at @EricLilly7