Fascinating nuggets of information on both teams before the game or series begins.

Example: April 1, 2007

 Pitching Notes:

• Ty Wigginton is the only Tampa Bay Devil Rays hitter with at least four at-bats to hit over .200 against Chien-Ming Wang, tonight’s starting pitcher for the Yankees.

• Wang has thrown Wiggington a first-pitch slider in 7 of the 12 at-bats he has against him. Wang throws a first-pitch slider only 18% of the time to all hitters.

Wang throws his fastball at least 70% of the time on every count except for 0-2 and 1-2.

• Look for Wang to use the slider more tonight. Tampa Bay hitters have seen 48 Wang sliders for strikes, and hit 2 of them hard. His only strikeout to his toughest opposing hitter (Wigginton) came when he threw 3 consecutive sliders on the outer part of the plate.

• Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay’s number one pitcher and tonight’s starter has had a hard time putting Yankees hitters away when he gets ahead in the count. More than half (13) of the Yankees 24 hits versus Kazmir have come when he was ahead in the count.

• Another key for Kazmir tonight will be the command of his changeup. He doesn’t throw it as often as his fastball and slider, but he has struggled to keep it in the strike zone against the Yankees in the past. Kazmir’s strike zone percentage with his changeup is 27% against the Yanks, compared to 38% against the rest of the league. Also, Yankees hitters have chased his changeup out of the zone only 25% of the time, compared to 30% for the rest of the league.

Hitting Notes

• Alex Rodriguez is the Yankee hitter who may have the toughest time tonight. In twelve scouted at-bats against Kazmir, A-rod has produced one single, two walks, and four strikeouts. Three of the four strikeouts came on inside pitches. Rodriguez has not hit one of the fourteen fastballs that Kazmir has offered him on the inner third of the plate in the past two seasons.

• Sal Fasano, the Yankees backup catcher was 2 for 2 against Kazmir, with a homerun last season. The homer came on an 0-1 changeup – not a good choice considering Fasano’s batting average on fastballs, curves, and sliders from lefties is .250, but he has hit .400 over the last two seasons against left-handed changeups.

• Bobby Abreu finished third in the league in taken strikes in 2006. This is nothing new to Abreu, who has been one of the top 5 “take-artists” in each of the past ten seasons.

• Robinson Cano chased more pitches out of the strike zone than any other Yankee hitter in 2006. He became more undisciplined as the season went, especially with breaking pitches, chasing 40 percent from before the all-star break, and 51 percent afterwards.

• Rocco Baldelli, the Devil Rays centerfielder is 2 for 11 against Wang, lifetime. The career .289 hitter generally struggles against pitchers with Wang’s stuff, particularly his 94 mph fastball. Baldelli has a .098 batting average against fastballs in the 94-95 mph range.