It wasn't the start that O's fans were hoping for, but as one data point it wasn't terrible. We'll go in-depth on 2012 Matusz once he has accumulated three or four starts, but some quick thoughts for today:
- Overall Matusz's stuff was good, though he was at times inconsistent with his implementation.
- This was among his best showings this year (including Spring Training) with regards to release point. He was highly consistent finding the same slot and release point for his four offerings, which aided in his deception and allowed a 90 mph fastball to miss some good bats.
- The curve and slider were, at times, above-average to plus. His focus moving into start two will be commanding each better to both sides of the plate.
- His change-up wasn't really there for him, though it appeared this was more a result of him not turning it over consistently. As a feel pitch, it's more likely he just didn't have it last night than it is there are long term issues with the offering.
- I counted 9 to 11 pitches that could have easily been called strikes that were not. Pitch fx put the number at 8 no-doubters (significantly in the strikezone) that were not called strikes. This is part of the game, but against a patient and opportunistic line-up like the Yankees, you can bet you are going to run into trouble if it takes you are required to get four or five strikes past a hitter in order to retire him.
Overall, it was a middle-of-the-road start, scouting-wise, and an ugly start from a stat-line perspective. Matusz next matches up against the Jays on Sunday -- we'll hope he maintains the quality of his pitches while improving the placement of his secondaries.
4 comments:
the worst part of Matusz not getting the called strikes were some of the calls against the O's (specifically the called third strike that was way out of the zone in the 7(?) inning)
Definitely agree there were a few strikes missed. Give him a few more starts and see what he does. In the meantime what do they do with Wada once he's ready to come back?
Philip, Wada should be able to slide into a bullpen role once he's ready to throw at the ML level. I imagine, once healthy, he will get the opportunity to step in for the first injured or struggling arm.
Gotta say my dad and I each kept our laptops up during the final game on different sites to keep tracks of the calls (out of my calls of suspicion). It was almost fine worthy how small the plate was for O's pitchers and how big the plate was for Yanks pitchers. I don't like to blame the umps for calls (as a long time player I know it can be easy to blame them and hard for them to genuinely see the whole thing) but this entire series was laughable. Some of the 'balls' were in the hitters zone that made me salivate (little bit up and in). Actually, 2 of the Yankees 'wins' were strikeouts. It almost had me throwing my 2k dollar laptop at my 2k dollar TV. It is nice getting some fair calling when playing the rest of idk, every team in the league (besides the Red Sox too). I expected the team to collapse after that sweep. The way they battled back (with a complete effort) makes me think we may actually have a team here in charm city again! (I am going to keep wearing my 90-2000s birds hat to display my pride during the bad years) There is SO MUCH MONEY here in MD. Imagine if all those 'Yankees and Red Sox' fans with their mythological 'great uncles who were from somewhere near the cities' actually became Orioles fans. We would compete for the AL east EVERY YEAR. We need 2-3 good Showalter magic seasons and we could see our own O's dynasty.
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