Matusz makes Oriole debut today (AFL)

[tywright]

He threw his cutter in college. Most scouts thought it was his slider.

Hmm, interesting. I assume, he throws it only to righties.

[TyCobb]

He threw his cutter in college. Most scouts thought it was his slider.

That is pretty hard thing to confuse. Especially being they are scouts.

[Stotle]

That is pretty hard thing to confuse. Especially being they are scouts.

Well, I'll let you put two-and-two together, but his cutter was seldom listed as a pitch, yet Coach Hill stated it was one of his better pitches.

EDIT -- Just did a quick search for "Coach Hill Matusz" since I couldn't remember when I heard Hill talk about this. This isn't where I heard it, but it's essentially what I was getting at.

"He's got a great changeup and he's developed an excellent cut fastball that acts like a slider," Hill said. "His curveball was his bread-and-butter pitch in high school. It's still a good pitch but the changeup and the cut fastball overtook those."

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080523&content_id=2753212&vkey=draft2008&fext=.jsp

EDIT 2 -- Just to be clear, I fully admit that I didn't acknowledge his cutter when I did my write-up last Spring.

[Ruzious]

I see Nate Spears playing there (who we gave up to get Corey Patterson) is doing well for the Cubs - we try to give them all the 2nd basemen we develop (back to Augie Ojeda). OBP in the .390's - perhaps a little better 2B prospect than Corey's brother was.

[rhall]

That is pretty hard thing to confuse. Especially being they are scouts.

Well, it's not as hard as you might think. Not every guy throws the stereotypical pitch. Where do you think we got the word "slurve"? When a pitch kind of behaves in the grey area between defined pitches, sometimes a new pitch type is defined (slurve), but usually the scouts just pick the one it more closely resembles, which is subjective. This is why some scouting reports have David Hernandez throwing a slider and others a power curveball. I also am reminded of the gyro-ball that Dice-K supposedly threw (it ended up just being a great changeup).

[Tony-OH]

From what I've heard and read, his cutter moves so much it's been mistaken for a slider so that would explain the "extra" pitch. He's got four pitches from what I've heard, not five, so the cutter/slider must be the same pitch.

[Stotle]

From what I've heard and read, his cutter moves so much it's been mistaken for a slider so that would explain the "extra" pitch. He's got four pitches from what I've heard, not five, so the cutter/slider must be the same pitch.

That is my understanding, as well.