The third of Milwaukee's aces will take the mound today as Yovani Gallardo is scheduled to make his Spring Training debut.
- He relies heavily on a four-seam fastball
- Also features a curveball that hangs around the 80 mph range
- Can also throw a slider consitently for strikes - likes to keep this away from hitters.
- Does not get hitters to swing at pitches outside the strike zone, but that's consistent with the fact that hitterse rarely swing at his pitches in general.
Follow the jump for the Cubs starter as well as lineups
He will be facing the Cubs Carlos Silva. Silva is one of seven pitchers battling for two spots in the Cubs five-man rotation, though he seems to think that he has a spot sewn up and the other six guys are up for the other spot. The other guys fighting for the rotation spots are Randy Wells, Braden Looper, Todd Wellemeyer, Andrew Cashner, James Russell and Casey Coleman.
Silva thinks the spot is his based on his stats to start the 2010 season. Through 11 starts to begin the 2010 season, he was 8-0 with a 2.93 ERA. An irregular heartbeat sidelined him in August and then he suffered tendenitis to end his season.
Those stats, however, were a new development for Silva. Before being traded to the Cubs he was a combined 5-18 with an ERA over 7. Silva came to the Cubs from the Mariners in the Milton Bradley trade.
Lineups:
Brewers:
Counsell 4
Cruz 6
Braun 7
Fielder 3
McGehee 5
Kottara 2
Dickerson 8
Boggs 9
Almonte DH
Gallardo 1
Other pitchers: Merklinger, Segovia, De La Cruz, Fiers, Henderson, Bucci
Cubs:
Fukudome 9
Castro 6
Byrd 8
Ramirez 5
Pena 3
Soriano 7
DeWitt 4
Hill 2
Silva 1