Matusz updates

[OSfanfromCT]

Other observations: Angle makes Brian Roberts look like an NBA player. He's short, but he does have some pop in his bat. Waring is not so bad. He hit the ball hard all day, I think only one got through for a hit. Rowell isn't the fastest guy, but he looks like he has a very athletic glide in his step. He'll need more reps to get accustomed to the outfield, but with his height, he may be better off at 1st base.

Great post, and thank you for the insights. Any thoughts on how Rowell looked at the plate?

[AVencill]

I love this stuff from the HO. Helps make this place so great. Any feeling about whether Matusz was favoring the fastball and change over breaking pitches? I think he has admitted that much of his college success was based on his plus curveball. And when he left Sarasota, the word from the FO was that he needed to work on his other pitches to help get guys out.

As I have included in my game story, he was using a good mix of all four of his pitches. He threw a lot of curveballs and sliders to go along with a good amount of fastballs and some changeups. Most of Matusz's K's came on sliders, but he got one as he ran a fastball up and in on a batter.

BTW, that curveball he throws is just plain nasty. My goodness does that pitch have some bite to it.

[stomperspc]

I love this stuff from the HO. Helps make this place so great. Any feeling about whether Matusz was favoring the fastball and change over breaking pitches? I think he has admitted that much of his college success was based on his plus curveball. And when he left Sarasota, the word from the FO was that he needed to work on his other pitches to help get guys out.

I went to the game today also. It definitely seemed to me that Matusz was favoring his fastball. Having never seen him pitch before I don't know if he was throwing his fastball more often than he did in college, but he was definitely relying heavily on it. It seemed like he threw mainly fastballs in the first. He ended up working in all of his pitches (including a few really sharp curve balls).

His fastball looked better than I expected. He was keeping it down in the strike zone and the velocity looked good (there wasn't a radar reading on the scoreboard). Lots of ground balls and Matusz really only made a few mistakes like the double in the first on a fastball that was up in the zone. Like backwardsk mentioned, there was some light hits on decent pitches.

Overall, I was very impressed. Matusz looked just as sharp in the sixth as he did earlier in the game. Had it not been for a few errors and misplayed balls (I agree with backwardsk on the triple to Rowell...he just looked totally lost on that flyball) he probably could have made it through 7 at under 100 pitches. The fact that he seemed to be relying less on his curveball and more heavily on his fastball just makes the outing more impressive.

[backwardsk]

I love this stuff from the HO. Helps make this place so great. Any feeling about whether Matusz was favoring the fastball and change over breaking pitches? I think he has admitted that much of his college success was based on his plus curveball. And when he left Sarasota, the word from the FO was that he needed to work on his other pitches to help get guys out.

I was sitting behind home plate and he was throwing, from what I could tell, a good mix of breaking pitches. If it's a curve that he throws, it doesn't really break 12-6 like a Zito (when he was good) curve. The ball was breaking down and in on the righties. He was really mixing up his pitches and he had their good hitters tied up in the middle innings. The thing I noticed was that he got ahead of the hitters consistantly. Looking back at my notes, he faced 28 hitters; 7 made contact on the first pitch, on 16 hitters he got at least one of the first two pitches over for strikes, on the 5 hitters where he fell behind, they went 1-3 with 2BBs.

[backwardsk]

Great post, and thank you for the insights. Any thoughts on how Rowell looked at the plate?

He likes to swing the bat. He was aggressive early in the at-bat. The three at-bats I saw, (I left after Matusz left) he pounded everything into the ground.

[BillySmith]

I went to the game today also. It definitely seemed to me that Matusz was favoring his fastball. Having never seen him pitch before I don't know if he was throwing his fastball more often than he did in college, but he was definitely relying heavily on it. It seemed like he threw mainly fastballs in the first. He ended up working in all of his pitches (including a few really sharp curve balls).

His fastball looked better than I expected. He was keeping it down in the strike zone and the velocity looked good (there wasn't a radar reading on the scoreboard). Lots of ground balls and Matusz really only made a few mistakes like the double in the first on a fastball that was up in the zone. Like backwardsk mentioned, there was some light hits on decent pitches.

Overall, I was very impressed. Matusz looked just as sharp in the sixth as he did earlier in the game. Had it not been for a few errors and misplayed balls (I agree with backwardsk on the triple to Rowell...he just looked totally lost on that flyball) he probably could have made it through 7 at under 100 pitches. The fact that he seemed to be relying less on his curveball and more heavily on his fastball just makes the outing more impressive.

QUOTE=backwardsk;1718283]I was sitting behind home plate and he was throwing, from what I could tell, a good mix of breaking pitches. If it's a curve that he throws, it doesn't really break 12-6 like a Zito (when he was good) curve. The ball was breaking down and in on the righties. He was really mixing up his pitches and he had their good hitters tied up in the middle innings. The thing I noticed was that he got ahead of the hitters consistantly. Looking back at my notes, he faced 28 hitters; 7 made contact on the first pitch, on 16 hitters he got at least one of the first two pitches over for strikes, on the 5 hitters where he fell behind, they went 1-3 with 2BBs.

Thanks guys. I think we have a starter for 2010. :clap3:

[ripkenforprez]

I made it to my first Frederick Keys game with the sole purpose of watching Matusz pitch. I wasn't disappointed!

The first three batters he faced all scored. However only one of them was earned, I think. The Salem lineup only had one lefty in its lineup. The leadoff batter had a lengthy at-bat when he hit a squibbler to first base on the seventh pitch. The ball had a really funny spin to it and Vinyard didn't handle it and was charged an error. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Matusz broke his bat on a foul ball that had some wicked late breaking action. The next batter got a single in the 5.5 hole. One thing to note on this hit is that I believe the shortstop would have made the play if he wasn't cheating to second for a potential double play. Now, if not for the error, that would be two up two down.

The third hitter hit a rope into left center off the wall for a double to knock in the only run. Matusz fell behind 3-1 to this lefty DH. It was a really good at bat for him and he drove the ball to the opposite field. That was one of only 4 hard hit balls off of Brian.

After that double, Matusz started to cruise. The next batter grounded out to short with an RBI and the next batter flew out to left field. Three runs have scored.

Matusz then made the 6-7-8 hitters look silly with three consecutive strikeouts for the 3rd out in the first inning and the first two outs in the second. The ninth place hitter hit a solid single up the middle. One day he'll tell his grandchildren that he got two hits off of the great Brian Matusz. He later had a bunt single down the first base line that he couldn't have rolled it out there any better.

After the first two innings, I had him charted with 39 pitches (I had him at 95 pitches while the other reports had him at 96 so I must have missed one). I was afraid he wouldn't get out of the fifth.

In the third inning he gave up a single and a walk with two outs. He got the seventh place hitter to ground out to Vinyard to end the threat. In each of the first three innings he had at least two base runners get on. At this point, I had him at 61 pitches and was hoping he'd get through 5 innings.

In the fourth, he was very economical. After three pitches he had one out and a runner on first on the bunt single that I mentioned above. Then he threw a tailor-made DP ball to the short stop to get out of the inning on 6 pitches.

He struck out all three outs in the fifth with a two out single to right mixed in. This was the third time through the line up with the 2nd-5th hitters up. This was the strongest he looked. He got ahead 0-2 or 1-2 in each strike out. What a great sign to see him get stronger as the game progressed.

To my delight, they brought him out in the 6th. He had two outs on two pitches and I thought he may be able to come out for a seventh. However the second out was tagged to CF that Angle made a good play on going back. It wasn't a running catch or anything like that, but it was hit sharply over his head and he got back there and under it. It was the hardest hit ball off of Matusz. Then he gave up a triple. But, I'm sorry, Rowell made a terrible play on the ball. I understand he's making a transition to the outfield, but he literally did not make a move on the ball until it was over his head. It should have been caught. That would have gottem him out of the inning on 88 pitches. Then the next batter hit a ground ball to 2B, and he threw it into the dugout allowing the 4th run (3rd unearned) to score. Calmly, Matusz struck out the next batter to end the day with 8Ks.

Other observations: Angle makes Brian Roberts look like an NBA player. He's short, but he does have some pop in his bat. Waring is not so bad. He hit the ball hard all day, I think only one got through for a hit. Rowell isn't the fastest guy, but he looks like he has a very athletic glide in his step. He'll need more reps to get accustomed to the outfield, but with his height, he may be better off at 1st base.

Wow, nice recap. I was at the game as well and also right behind home plate. Matusz looked great. The first inning wasn't his fault as I'm still dumbfounded as to how Vinyard missed the ball off the first batter and the second batter shouldn't have reached either. Waring (I think it was him at 3B) barely made an attempt on it.

Overall it was a real treat as I had no idea Brian was going to be pitching. I only remember three or four balls that were hit with any kind of authority. Here's to Matusz making the real Red Sox look that bad ASAP!

[Beach Bum]

I also went to the Keys game today. You don't really need to know much about baseball to be able to pick out the guys with some potential to reach the major leagues. I thought that Matusz looked very good but not great. He appears to be at the right level for this stage in his career.

On the other hand, Billy Rowell must be the worst outfielder that I've ever seen. Not to be to hard on the guy but he doesn't seem to have much natural aptitude in picking up fly balls. I'm pretty sure that kid in the 1st Bad News Bears was a better outfielder than Billy Rowell was today.

[Big Mac]

I also went to the Keys game today. You don't really need to know much about baseball to be able to pick out the guys with some potential to reach the major leagues. I thought that Matusz looked very good but not great. He appears to be at the right level for this stage in his career.

On the other hand, Billy Rowell must be the worst outfielder that I've ever seen. Not to be to hard on the guy but he doesn't seem to have much natural aptitude in picking up fly balls. I'm pretty sure that kid in the 1st Bad News Bears was a better outfielder than Billy Rowell was today.

Yeah, rowell really did look terrible in the OF today.

He didn't look much better at the plate, he was swinging at bad ptiches early in the count and even his single was a weak ground ball between first and second. If the first baseman wasn't holding the runner on or had any range at all, it would have been an easy out.

I have been as big of a supporter of Rowell as anyone, but from what I saw today, he really hasn't made much progress from last season. I understand I only saw 4 AB's and a couple of plays in the OF, but from what I saw, he looked lost in every aspect of the game.

[AVencill]

To Rowell's defense on that triple (which made me turn away and want to cry initially), I think he was positioned perfectly if there wasn't much wind, but the wind did take that ball for a ride. I don't think there's been 15-20 mph winds when he's playing out in the field. It's still his 10th pro game out there and he's bound to make a few bone head plays.

Now the play where he over ran the ball hit by the line trying to barehand it, that one I can't defend.

We're all certainly in for a wild ride with Rowell in right field this season. Get your popcorn ready.

[The Pride of PG]

I chatted with Brian on Saturday and wrote it up today. Most of this in this thread or Adam's recap, but there are a couple new details about his transition from college to pro ball.

[Stotle]

I chatted with Brian on Saturday and wrote it up today. Most of this in this thread or Adam's recap, but there are a couple new details about his transition from college to pro ball.

Does Matusz refer to his fourth pitch as a slider or a cutter? His coach at San Diego said it was a cutter; basically everyone who writes him up calls it a slider. The action isn't really that different, but I'm curious what Matusz calls it. Thanks, buddy.

[NewMarketSean]

I was at the game... my takes on Matusz...

- Fastball was excellent. Thrown with pop to the glove and Brian seemed to locate it at will.

- Breaking balls were all in the dirt. A lot of Salem hitters were swinging at them, but he couldn't throw one for a called strike. I don't think he did all game.

- Kept the ball down down in the zone all day.

- Didn't seem to get rattled after errors.

- Very slow delivery. I think Salem stole third twice without a throw from the catcher. Didn't do a very good job holding runners on second base.

- Salem had maybe 2-3 balls hit hard. Most were pop ups or grounders. The defense was very poor today. Matusz should have allowed just 1 run.

I remember some people saying Matusz should have started in Bowie. From what I can tell the O's made the right move to start him in Frederick. He doesn't seem to have good control of his breaking pitches, but his fastball is great. I expect him to improve during the first half of the season and he'll finish the year in Bowie.

[Big Mac]

I was at the game... my takes on Matusz...

- Fastball was excellent. Thrown with pop to the glove and Brian seemed to locate it at will.

- Breaking balls were all in the dirt. A lot of Salem hitters were swinging at them, but he couldn't throw one for a called strike. I don't think he did all game.

- Kept the ball down down in the zone all day.

- Didn't seem to get rattled after errors.

- Very slow delivery. I think Salem stole third twice without a throw from the catcher. Didn't do a very good job holding runners on second base.

- Salem had maybe 2-3 balls hit hard. Most were pop ups or grounders. The defense was very poor today. Matusz should have allowed just 1 run.

I remember some people saying Matusz should have started in Bowie. From what I can tell the O's made the right move to start him in Frederick. He doesn't seem to have good control of his breaking pitches, but his fastball is great. I expect him to improve during the first half of the season and he'll finish the year in Bowie.

I was at the game as well, right behind home plate.

Most of his sliders were in the dirt, however he threw quite a few curveballs that were called strikes, right at the knees. His curveball is definitely a plus pitch and it seems he can locate it at will.

[QBsILLEST1]

I think he could handle Bowie right now with a sub 3.00 era. To say he is not dominating, to me is kind of crazy to say. His K/9 leads the league I believe. Half of the hits he gave up either would have been caught by major league fielders, or would not have happened because Matusz would have already been out of the inning. The guy could have pitched into the 8th with the same pitch count if his fielders would have caught what they were capable of.