Friday night pitchers

Just some thoughts on some of the pitchers I was watching on a busy Friday night of baseball.

Clay Buchholz (Boston Red Sox v. New York Yankees) 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

It’s easy to see why he’s such a highly touted prospect and how he’s already got a Major League no-hitter on his resume. His fastball looked to be in the low to mid 90’s for most of his six innings of work which probably seem like 100+ after his changeup and curveball were coming in right around 80 mph. The curveball was buckling some knees and making some Yankees hitters look completely foolish. While he did get a bit wild in the fifth inning – walking Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada before allowing a run scoring double from (red hot) Jose Molina -he was excellent throughout the night and showed more of what Red Sox fans have to look forward to.

Manny Parra (Milwaukee Brewers v. New York Mets) 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

I didn’t see as much of this one but I watched a couple innings from Parra so I could see what this youngster is all about. The first word that came to mind after watching him throw one pitch was “smooth”. He looked really easy getting the ball to the plate, reminding me of Andy Pettitte at times. I didn’t see any of the knee-buckling off-speed stuff that Buchholz was tossing but he did a nice job against a tough Mets lineup. As with most rookies, he would benefit from increasing the percentage of strikes thrown as he was at about 60% (43 of 72) last night.

Chien-Ming Wang (New York Yankees v. Boston Red Sox) 9IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

It’s tough to fault a pitcher who just threw a complete game two-hitter against a tough Red Sox lineup, but I saw an alarming number of fly balls during Wang’s performance. He started off the first inning by fly ball outs from Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia (and then striking out David Ortiz) which is when I first said to myself “he’s not getting his sinker down enough”. Of course, he made it work well enough to complete the game on only 93 pitches so what do I know?

Barry Zito (San Francisco Giants v. St. Louis Cardinals) 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Zito’s going to be haunted by his massive contract until it expires because there just seems to be no possible way he’s ever going to regain the Cy Young form that ended up earning him that contract in the first place. He’s trying to transform himself into a “crafty lefty” a la Jaime Moyer because his fastball just isn’t overpowering enough at this point. He showed through most of Friday night’s game that he is indeed making this transition and was quite effective against all Cardinals not named Pujols. I don’t expect to see many more lines like he had last night and he’ll struggle to get to 10 wins for the eighth straight season with the anemic Giants offense supplying minimal run support.

Opening Week

It seems that every year I find myself on the road for work during the first week of the baseball season. Sometimes domestic travel, sometimes abroad (like this year). Hey, I don’t expect sympathy seeing as I just got to spend 4 ½ days in Florence soaking in the gorgeous history of Italy (and working hard, of course) , but it could have been timed better since I absolutely live for the early part of the season. I always look forward to the first few weeks so we can see how the teams will get out of the gate. Will last year’s surprise team hold up and become a legitimate contender for another year? Will the powerhouse teams meet the media’s expectations and get out of the gate by opening an early lead in the standings? How will those players who impressed in the spring carry over into the real action?

So far, after about five games per team, we haven’t gotten many answers but the three things that jump out at me at this point are the fact that the Rays are atop the AL East (tied with Baltimore), the performance of potential phenom Johnny Cueto of Cincinnati and the 0-5 record of the supposedly World Series bound Detroit Tigers.

The Rays are the darlings of the league this year with many predicting a breakthrough for the perennially losing franchise and through four games (an exceptionally small sample size to be sure) they’re showing what they’re capable of. If their starting pitching continues to perform at this level (and presumably the return of Scott Kazmir in early May will only improve the situation) there’s no reason they can’t be in the middle of the Wild Card race come August and September.

As for Cueto, who knows what his major league debut will turn into? He dominated a good Arizona lineup for seven innings, striking out 10 batters, to show that his strong spring performance was no fluke. According to scouts across the baseball world, he’s got the stuff to continue succeeding at this level, but you never know with rookies. It’s good to see him get out of the gate like this but I expect a typical bumpy first season for him like most rookie pitchers.

And what’s up with Detroit? With that lineup they should be able to overcome the shortcomings of their bullpen, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Scoring only 13 runs in five games just isn’t getting it done. And with Miguel Cabrera and Gary Sheffield already banged up, it’s possible that this team could be chasing Cleveland for the rest of the season. It should be a great race throughout the summer and I’m really looking forward to it! Of course, when I head to Stockholm in mid-May I will again be relying on internet cafes and CNN International for my baseball fix!