Matusz Tonight

[Lucky Jim]

You mean you were hammering about nothing and I took it to mean something. Sorry, I didn't realize it meant nothing when you typed it.

It's definitely my fault that you over-reacted and then, typically, converted that over-reaction into some ham-handed attempt to pick your millionth internet fight. Agreed.

You'll have to find someone else. I'm off to bed.

[The Rick]

I"m not questioning his effort so maybe that was a poor choice of words. What I mean is that he looked so incompetent tonight that he did not resemble a ML pitcher.

Yeah, I'd say it wasn't a professional result, rather than effort.

I think he relies on a rhythm to his game to be "on". Once that rhythm gets disrupted, usually early, he struggles to recover and get back on his game.

Matusz has had 5 games this year where he's given up 4 or more runs. In 3 of those games, he allowed a first inning run. In another he allowed a 2nd inning run, and in the other he fell apart late (against the Blue Jays on 4/15).

In his quality starts, he's gotten off to a good start, and has been able to make a good game out of it. If he doesn't, he struggles to rebound.

So my theory: confidence, poise. He's just not there yet. But the good news is the stuff is back.

[Dipper9]

Please! When the catcher sets up on the inside corner and the ball misses the target by a foot you rarely get the call even if it's technically a strike. I don't like it but it works that way for all pitchers. Matusz brought everything on himself. Heck I'd even blame Andino's error on him because Andino felt like he had to turn the impossible DP to help Matusz out of the jam. Matusz was just plain awful. Please don't bring the umps or defense or anything else into the discussion. It was not a professional effort.

Brian Matusz was brutal tonight, but this bolded sentence has got to be either 1) taking things waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far just to prove a point, or b) the absolute dumbest thing I have ever heard on the Hangout. I am leaning towards 1 being the correct choice!

[DrungoHazewood]

I"m not questioning his effort so maybe that was a poor choice of words. What I mean is that he looked so incompetent tonight that he did not resemble a ML pitcher.

Doesn't everyone sometimes? Seems a little over-the-top to say he was "unprofessional". I take that to mean he wasn't prepared, that he was treating this start like it was something that just didn't matter.

[Dipper9]

Doesn't everyone sometimes? Seems a little over-the-top to say he was "unprofessional". I take that to mean he wasn't prepared, that he was treating this start like it was something that just didn't matter.

One more thought. While I am not blaming the ump for Matusz's struggles last night, you could see he was clearly perturbed on a few of the calls early in the game. Had he gotten those calls, things MAY have turned out much differently. But, as we have seen, bad umpiring is part of the game.

[glenn__davis]

This season's gone just as I thought it would for Matusz. A few steps forward, a few steps back, and by the end of the year we'll be feeling pretty good about him in our rotation for the next few years.

You generally don't just bounce back from a season like he had last year. But I think last night's start notwithstanding, it's been a positive season for Matusz so far.

[Flash- bd]

This season's gone just as I thought it would for Matusz. A few steps forward, a few steps back, and by the end of the year we'll be feeling pretty good about him in our rotation for the next few years.

You generally don't just bounce back from a season like he had last year. But I think last night's start notwithstanding, it's been a positive season for Matusz so far.

This. The problem is that many people here--including possibly myself--started to have visions of that run at the end of 2010 going through their heads after the last few starts. Matusz is still developing and we should expect him to settle in somewhere between a 4.15-4.50 ERA by the end of the year. In the AL East that's pretty valuable, especially if there's still upside, so like you said, we'll likely feel pretty decent about him long term when all is said and done this year.

[Flash- bd]

I thought I explained it but here it is in case you missed it. And to address the bolded in your post. No, I don't think the great majority of ML pitchers with 2+ years of experience ever look like Matusz looked last night. Do pitchers sometimes have trouble getting the feel for a pitch? Sure. Do they sometimes have trouble finding the strike zone? Sure. I just think that was pretty much a complete meltdown last night.

You're going to get a lot of flak for the bolded part. There are undoubtedly hundreds of counter examples/evidence to that. One just off the top of my head is Brandon Morrow: see his May 25th start against Texas, and his two following starts.

[Flash- bd]

There may be many examples of pitchers getting knocked out early. The comment was that "doesn't every pitcher look like that sometime?". Again, I said I don't think the great majority ever look like that with 2+ years of experience. Just my opinion, but I don't even think Arrieta has looked like that when he has completely lost it a few times this year.

Exactly my point-- Morrow has 2+ years of experience (significantly more than Matusz) and didn't even get out of the 1st inning while allowing 6 ER and 8 baserunners. In 2006 Erik Bedard had a 3.76 ERA for the year but in his 7th start posted this line: 2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K.

There's hundreds, probably thousands of examples of pitchers who have 2+ years of experience, who were actually better pitchers than Matusz, and who probably looked significantly worse than Matusz did last night.

[Frobby]

Matusz was just awful last night. He just had no command at all. It was really painful to watch. You just have to hope he gets whatever was bothering him squared away in his next bullpen session and gives a better performance next time.

[MrOrange82]

Matusz was just awful last night. He just had no command at all. It was really painful to watch. You just have to hope he gets whatever was bothering him squared away in his next bullpen session and gives a better performance next time.

I don't know what it is with Oriole pitchers. Granted, the next sentence might illuminate the problem, but I just don't know. I'm no scout (see?), but I thought Matusz looked sharp out of the gate (i.e., the first two batters). It seemed like he slipped almost immediately upon introducing off-speed stuff into the game mix. And the preceding isn't an isolated situation. For some reason, it seems like the O's starters are just prone to having the wheels fly off. I almost feel like...had Matusz gotten out of the first unscathed, he might have been fine for the entirety of the time he was out there. O's starters rarely seem able to do that, though...semi-struggle through a quality start (like Chen did the other day).

[DrungoHazewood]

Exactly my point-- Morrow has 2+ years of experience (significantly more than Matusz) and didn't even get out of the 1st inning while allowing 6 ER and 8 baserunners. In 2006 Erik Bedard had a 3.76 ERA for the year but in his 7th start posted this line: 2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K.

There's hundreds, probably thousands of examples of pitchers who have 2+ years of experience, who were actually better pitchers than Matusz, and who probably looked significantly worse than Matusz did last night.

Well, of course there are. In August of 2010 Jon Lester had a start where he allowed 13 baserunners, 2 homers, and 9 earned in 2.0 innings. In Sept of 2010 Ryan Dempster had a start where he allowed nine earned in 1 2/3rds. In June of 2010 Jamie Moyer, going on 24 years in the bigs, was chased after allowing 9 earned and getting exactly three outs. In June of '09 Bronson Arroyo walked three, gave up seven hits and nine runs in 1.0 inning. In Carl Pavano's first start of '09 he allowed nine runs in 1.0 inning. June of '06 Kevin Millwood allowed nine hits and nine earned in a 1-inning start. In April of '05 Hideo Nomo walked five, gave up five hits, and allowed eight runs in 2.0 innings. In '04 32-year-old Jose Contreras had a start where he had five walks and allowed eight earned in 1.2 innings. In 2000 Andy Benes had a start where he allowed four homers in 1 2/3rds. In 2003 Greg Maddux went 16-11 in his 17th MLB season, but had a start where he allowed nine runs and three homers in two innings. Just this year Mat Latos, Josh Beckett, Colby Lewis and Clay Buchholz have had starts where they allowed five homers. Barry Zito has a 2.98 ERA this year, but had a start where he walked 7 in 3+ innings.

This kind of thing happens constantly. Let's get Matusz working on some things and back on track like the vast majority of good pitchers who do this.

[Frobby]

I figure that even good starters can be expected to have 4-6 really awful starts in a season. It's when you have 8-10 of them that it becomes a problem.

[NewMarketSean]

He needs to improve his fastball command, no doubt. But he needs to throw less fastballs. He needs to work backwards like he did when he first came up.

[Todd-O]

You know what's crazy about his horrible start last night? Seems like a lot of us felt like Matusz was going to give us one of our best shots at winning a game at Fenway over this series... Turns out he was absolutely awful. Unpredictable, for sure