Brian Matusz will be our #1 starter by year's end

[Sports Guy]

He is doing a great job of mixing his pitches today and keeping the hitters off balance.

[higgybaby]

The biggest difference so far between today and his start vs the mfy's, is the way he is finishing in his delivery.

[blid]

He let the lead off man on in basically every inning. I didn't tihnk he looked real good today.

[Lucky Jim]

He let the lead off man on in basically every inning. I didn't tihnk he looked real good today.

Not great. But he looked like a major league pitcher. No fastball command, though, and that is always going to come back to haunt you.

[Chevytrckman3]

Matusz can't finish off the hitters with 2 strikes. I'm not saying Matusz can't or won't ever become a solid ML pitcher. But, when he pitches, even when he starts off a game looking good early, I always get the feeling it's just a matter of time before a team gets to him. Just doesn't have the command of his pitches, and doesn't have the stuff to make up for the lack of command. He's definately not the control pitcher he was touted at, coming out of college.

[olehippi]

Matusz is really frustrating to watch. Even when he is "on" he will make that one bad pitch that hurts him. I hate to say it, but I fully expect Wada to replace Matusz within two weeks.

[Sports Guy]

He let the lead off man on in basically every inning. I didn't tihnk he looked real good today.

His command still needs work but he looked a lot better today vs the Yankees game.

The double and homer in this inning weren't poor pitches, but they needed to be located just a little bit better.

Its encouraging to see him trusting his off speed stuff some and get grounders in key situation(which resulted in DPs).

His swing% is decent today ands he is throwing a lot more strikes.

As JP just said, the mechanics and stuff is much improved.

But his command has been off a little bit here and there and that has hurt him.

[Sports Guy]

His poor handling of guys like Davis and Francisco today wasn't good...Through too many balls to those guys.

As JP just said, he is coming out of windup too much. He is trying to throw too hard.

I would have liked to see Paulino call something offspeed there, to keep him back more.

[blid]

He could have given up a lot more runs too, but he was helped by some double plays. I agree that he was better than he has been and turned in an acceptable outing, which is good to see especially in light of last year. How many times has he thrown that high ball that no one is ever gonna wave at today?

[jtschrei]

Matusz just needs more experience. I think he can be more deceptive as he becomes more experienced... knowing when to pitch inside, knowing that he should never throw a 2-0 fastball, but instead a 2-0 changeup.

He really needs to work on 2 things:

1. He's got to refine his control and his delivery. He absolutely cannot pitch up in the strike zone. He was up alot today and did not really get punished for it.

2. He's got to keep working on that changeup. That needs to be his 2 strike pitch. And that pitch has to be down in the zone.

[Sports Guy]

He could have given up a lot more runs too, but he was helped by some double plays. I agree that he was better than he has been and turned in an acceptable outing, which is good to see especially in light of last year. How many times has he thrown that high ball that no one is ever gonna wave at today?

But him getting the DPs is a great sign because the pitches were down and they couldn't do anything but hit grounders.

Damn Gregg...would have liked to see BMat end up with just the 3 runs allowed...IR end up making ERAs look so much worse..but BMat shouldn't have put them on.

EDIT: Now his numbers really look poor! Damn Gregg!

[Pedro Cerrano]

Brian Matusz: Winning Streak Stopper.

[Kinvan]

You mean the number one starter in Norfolk right?

[atomic]

You mean the number one starter in Norfolk right?

not as long as eveland is in norfolk.

[atomic]

But him getting the DPs is a great sign because the pitches were down and they couldn't do anything but hit grounders.

Damn Gregg...would have liked to see BMat end up with just the 3 runs allowed...IR end up making ERAs look so much worse..but BMat shouldn't have put them on.

EDIT: Now his numbers really look poor! Damn Gregg!

Yeah it is all greggs fault. Matusz put runners on base. Couldn't make it through six innings. Even if gregg had cleane up his mess it would have still been a poor start