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The Blue Jays look to guarantee a series win this afternoon in Cleveland as Mark Buehrle toes the rubber against Corey Kluber of the Indians. The 28-year-old right hander put together a solid 2.7 WAR season in 2013 on the back of low walk totals and a 45% groundball rate. On the heels of struggling to get solid contact against Justin Masterson yesterday, the Blue Jays will get another shot at a pitcher who relies heavily on their sinker to get outs. Kluber throws his sinker about 50% of the time along with a cutter and slider, plus a changeup against left-handed batters. His hard stuff hovers in the low-90's, although his slider/curveball (depending on who you listen to) is by far his best pitch.
Here's the movement on his pitches and you can decide whether he has a cutter and slider or a slider and a curveball:
via FanGraphs
It feels like a great Saturday morning for some GIFs:
Here's Kluber's slider/curveball/nasty striking out Kelly Johnson, which isn't that hard to be fair:
Here's the sinker that he throws a lot:
Hopeful Actual Lineup
I'm pretty pleased the lineups are already out because it's getting hard to know who's on the team anymore (although this isn't a bad lineup):
Today's lineup in Cleveland. (1:05pmET) Welcome back @lamelaza_7 ! pic.twitter.com/dlKLvOTlOq
— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) April 19, 2014
#lovethisteam:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BlueJays&src=hash">#BlueJays</a> bullpen is a bit of a mess today. Santos, Cecil, Delabar, Wagner, Redmond not available unless it's an emergency.</p>— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/gregorMLB/statuses/457538928292397057">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>That leaves Happ, Rogers and Loup as the only relatively fresh arms out of the bullpen. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BlueJays&src=hash">#BlueJays</a></p>— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/gregorMLB/statuses/457539250167095296">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Find The Link
Find the link between Corey Kluber and the Arizona Diamondbacks 29-year-old utility infielder
Enjoy the game this afternoon, Corey Kluber is pretty underrated so it should be a fun one to watch.