Matusz Tonight

[Moose Milligan]

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

I wish you two would just break up already.

[Moose Milligan]

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

No, predictable. He doesn't build off good starts. He can't string good starts together for an extended period of time.

[Dipper9]

No, predictable. He doesn't build off good starts. He can't string good starts together for an extended period of time.

He had 5 out of 6 quality starts in a row before last night.

[Frobby]

He had 5 out of 6 quality starts in a row before last night.

Right, and I'd say he did a pretty good job of stringing together good starts at the end of 2010.

What I find mystifying about Matusz is that he is primarily a "command and control" pitcher, but some days he goes out there and has no command whatsoever. And when he doesn't have command, he's naked out there. A guy like Chen might have slightly better command one game vs. another, but his command is never terrible like Matusz's was last night.

[OFFNY]

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

OOTodd, I'm actually more happy than sad about that. Think about it. Chen pitched great, and we won a game that most were expecting us to lose. Hammel pitched well (albeit he had to leave an inning or 2 earlier than he could have due to to our bad defense and maybe a little bit of squeezing from the umpire), and we won that game, which most were expecting us to lose. I'm obviously not happy that Matusz got knocked on his ass last night, but all in all, if you had told me before the series that things would turn out this way, I would have been pretty satisfied ....... much more satisfied than if we had dropped the first 2 games and then had Matusz pitch great and salvage the series finale. The series righted our ship more that let it sail off course as a team, even though Matusz as an individual was bad.

[OFFNY]

.

BRIAN MATUSZ O(vs. BRAVES 6/15)

IP:. 0

H:o 0

R:O 0

BB: 0

SO: 0

Pitches: 000 (00 Strikes, 00 Balls)

2012 ERA: 4.82

*****************

MATUSZ BY INNINGS

0

[Trackmaster]

Matusz is probably fine, it's Arrieta and Hunter that we need to replace.

[Dipper9]

Matusz is probably fine, it's Arrieta and Hunter that we need to replace.

Not sure what your story is yet. You are either one sarcastic sumunagun, or else one of the most negative posters I have ever read. :scratchchinhmm:

[Grt 2BA FL Gator]

It'll be interesting to see how Brian does tonight. Before last start's disaster, I was ready to pencil him in as someone we could depend on for the rest of the season to go along with Hammel and Chen (big to have 3 of 5 guys we can count on IMO).

Maybe that was a little premature, and that is why I'll be watching intently tonight. Go O's and Go Brian!

[Malike]

I'm sure of this. Atlanta is very happy to see Matusz on the mound tonight.

[OFFNY]

.

ATLANTA BRAVES SEVARB ATNALTA O(June 15th)

Michael Bourn - CF

Martin Prado - 1B

Brian McCann - C

Dan Uggla - 2B

Chipper Jones - 3B

Matt Diaz - LF

Jason Heyward - RF

Andrelton Simmons - SS

Tommy Hanson - RHP (7-4, 3.55 ERA)

http://baseballpress.com/lineup.php

[flashjordnk]

It'll be interesting to see how Brian does tonight. Before last start's disaster, I was ready to pencil him in as someone we could depend on for the rest of the season to go along with Hammel and Chen (big to have 3 of 5 guys we can count on IMO).

Maybe that was a little premature, and that is why I'll be watching intently tonight. Go O's and Go Brian!

QS Totals: Hammel 6, Chen 6, Matusz 6, Hunter 5, Arrieta 5

QS%: Hammel 50%, Matusz 50%, Chen 41.5%, Hunter 41.5%, Arrieta 35%

Consecutive Quality starts: Hammel 4, Matusz 4, Chen 2, Hunter 2, Arrieta 1

I agree I wish had better damage control because when it's off, it's really off. Hammel seems better at mitigating damage.

But to me...he's just as likely to go out there this year and be quite good. I view this weeks performance as more important to whether or not I include him as a guy I count on more so than last week. If we get a good one this week, I'm willing to chalk last week up as the outlier, because that will be 6 decent performances of the last 7 we got from BMat.

[spmags]

All of this may be too obvious to be worth stating, but here are some interesting numbers

In his 7 starts where he has thrown >60% strikes on the first pitch his ERA is 2.80 and he is throwing a first pitch strike 66.1% of the time. This impacts him in a predictable way his BB rate in these starts is 2.8/9InningsPitched

In the 5 starts where he throws less than 60% first pitch strikes his ERA is 9 and he throws a first pitch strike 43.1% of the time. His BB rate here is 6.95/9IP.

Slider and Curve seem to be his most effective pitches. Not an overwhelming fastball (91.1 average) so maybe he is just tentative when he doesn't feel like he has his best "stuff" then can't throw the curve and slider because he is chronically in 2-0 holes.

Hope he can get that 1st pitch over tonight.

[OFFNY]

.

BRIAN MATUSZ O(vs. BRAVES 6/15)

IP:. 5.67

H:o 9

R:O 4

BB: 3

SO: 7

Pitches: 116 (70 Strikes, 46 Balls)

2012 ERA: 4.94

*****************

MATUSZ BY INNINGS

15

18

20

14

21

28 *

* Matusz retired 2 batters before departing in the 6th inning.

[Frobby]

I don't second guess Buck often, but he left Matusz in at least one batter too long.