Chris Sale (2.78 ERA/ 25.0% K%/ 6.4% BB%) vs Bruce Chen (5.42 ERA/ 17.2% K%/ 5.4% BB%)
This is Sale's 6th start against the Royals this season. I'm tired of constantly being reminded how awesome he has been this season for the White Sox.
Random Pre-Game Thought:
It's interesting to me to see how much traditional statistics still dominate the thought process for so many baseball fans and writers. Miguel Cabrera's late MVP bandwagon relies heavily on the fact that he leads two Triple Crown categories, and has a real shot to "win" the first AL Triple Crown since 1967.
Justin Verlander is another great example of traditional statistics still dominating more advanced metrics. While Verlander's season this year has not been as impressive as last season, he still is pitching dominantly and leads all American league pitcher in fWAR. Without the high-win total, however, none of the national media is particularly interested in his season.
Although Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez both won AL Cy Young awards, they both had very low ERA's and nobody dominated in wins those seasons. If Verlander had won 24 games in 2009 instead of 2011, I imagine many of us would still be griping about Greinke losing the AL Cy Young despite having 2.3 more fWAR.