Impressions of Brian Matusz

[Dr. FLK]

Thorne thinks his fastball is his slider, his changeup is his "heater", and his slider is his luggage.

Beautifully said (and my new signature).

But in this case, Thorne claimed to be relaying a conversation between DT and Matusz. But, judging by your comment, maybe he confused Ernie Tyler for DT.

[BillD]

I was very impressed. He showed a lot of poise pitching out of those jams, particularly the one with two strikeouts. He's much more polished than I expected.

[deathfromabove]

By the way, I think the line is 18 out of 24 batters he faced he started out with a strike.

[DuffMan]

My eyes are quite happy after seeing that pitching display!:clap3:

[Tbone83]

VERY impressed. Striking out the last 2 in the 5th had me cheering.

[Don_Aase_Fan]

Very, very impressed.

Striking out Thames and Rayburn to end the 5th showed me what Brian Matusz is all about. Cabrera had just hit a ground rule double, runners were on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and he could've easily come unraveled. Yet, he buckled down, established his fastball early to both guys and then promptly punched them both out with nasty sliders. It was very entertaining. My wife and I both stood up, cheered and high fived. Can't wait until his next start.

[SultanRob]

I love how he works both sides of the plate.

I love how he creates an extra side of the plate that the hitters don't know about, and throws the ball there from time to time.

[SteveA]

I loved everything I saw too. It's rare to see a rookie obviously throwing pitches that are clearly designed to set up other pitches.

If you put a gun to my said and asked me to find one negative, I'd say the pitch count was a bit high for 5 innings. When he's working on a multi-pitch sequence to set up a hitter and get him out, he's not going to get very many first pitch groundouts/popouts like a Washburn gets. He's either going to be basically a 5 to 6 inning pitcher, or else if he goes 7 or 8 a lot he's going to wind up putting up Sabathian-level pitch counts and racking up those Pitcher Abuse Points which some folks say are evil but Nolan Ryan says who cares.

[lfallo1]

- stays down in the zone, and was ALWAYS around the strike zone

- can get all his pitches over

- attacks hitters

- DOESN'T THROW HITTABLE BALLS

I absolutely love what i saw here in his first start. Pretty damn impressive.

[Shopay]

After just one start I can see that Matusz can:

1. Throw fastballs to any quandrant of the zone
2. Throw his fastball with some cut or and turn it over a bit.
3. Throw a slider that looks so much like a fastball that I saw nobody pick up on it all night. This allows him to throw some higher sliders for strikes because the hitters think they are high fastballs. His slider is so hard to read that Buck Martinez identified it incorrectly about 5 different times.
4. Throw a curveball that is only about 4-6 mph slower than his slider. This makes for a HUGE timing issue for hitters. They can't eliminate the curve and then adjust when they pick it up or it will be by them.
5. Throw a change up in any count. He actually has enough control of his change to throw it toward specific quandrants.
6. Pitch intelligently. Adjust. Stay calm.

I didn't realize that his slider was that good. It was easily a plus pitch IMO with a chance for plus-plus. That change was plus with a chance to be plus-plus. The curve was slightly above average, but looked like it could be better than that. He can pitch off his fastball.

If this guy stays healthy, he is going to REALLY help this club starting right now. Obviously, I was very impressed. I'll say the same thing about this guy that I said about Reimold in about his fourth game up here. He isn't going back to the minors (unless the Orioles are simply trying to keep him from throwing too many innings). This guy is already the best pitcher on our staff IMO.

BTW, as good as Matusz is, he doesn't have any pitch that is as devastating as the curveball that I've seen from Tillman. Tillman has an amazing hammer. That thing is easily plus-plus. I didn't post much on Tillman after either start, but I am also really impressed with him. He is further away than Matusz, but he is going to be very, very good assuming health.

The future is very bright and not too far away IMO...

Nice post Tech and completely agree on Tillman's curve. That pitch is unhittable. It's 12-6 and not 2 to 8 like Bedard's, but every bit as devastating. I hope some of "doom and gloomers" on this board are starting to see where this team is heading in the near future.

[Dr. FLK]

- stays down in the zone, and was ALWAYS around the strike zone

- can get all his pitches over

- attacks hitters

- DOESN'T THROW HITTABLE BALLS

I absolutely love what i saw here in his first start. Pretty damn impressive.

17 first pitch strikes to his first 23 batters. How refreshing...

[DoctorSteve]

It's all about command. Brian did a very good job of locating his pitches. Although I feel that is just the tip of the ice-berg. I really feel that thiskid, along with Bergesen, and Tillman Know how to pitch Chris just needs to locate his fast-ball. Bergy is an over-achiever and Matusz is the best pitcher we have in our entire system, for better or worse!

[OrioleMagic]

Am I too bold in comparing him to Tom Glavine or even a left-handed Greg Maddux?? I read in another thread where a scout compared him to Charlie Liebrandt.

Tonight is an exciting night for O's fans!

[DrLev]

Not to put a damper on the party, but lest we forget, Berken looked pretty darn good after his first start too. This isn't comparing the two guys in the least, but let's see how Matusz fares in his next few starts now that teams will have more and more complete scouting reports.

[WEAVERMAN]

After just one start I can see that Matusz can:

1. Throw fastballs to any quandrant of the zone
2. Throw his fastball with some cut or and turn it over a bit.
3. Throw a slider that looks so much like a fastball that I saw nobody pick up on it all night. This allows him to throw some higher sliders for strikes because the hitters think they are high fastballs. His slider is so hard to read that Buck Martinez identified it incorrectly about 5 different times.
4. Throw a curveball that is only about 4-6 mph slower than his slider. This makes for a HUGE timing issue for hitters. They can't eliminate the curve and then adjust when they pick it up or it will be by them.
5. Throw a change up in any count. He actually has enough control of his change to throw it toward specific quandrants.
6. Pitch intelligently. Adjust. Stay calm.

I didn't realize that his slider was that good. It was easily a plus pitch IMO with a chance for plus-plus. That change was plus with a chance to be plus-plus. The curve was slightly above average, but looked like it could be better than that. He can pitch off his fastball.

If this guy stays healthy, he is going to REALLY help this club starting right now. Obviously, I was very impressed. I'll say the same thing about this guy that I said about Reimold in about his fourth game up here. He isn't going back to the minors (unless the Orioles are simply trying to keep him from throwing too many innings). This guy is already the best pitcher on our staff IMO.

BTW, as good as Matusz is, he doesn't have any pitch that is as devastating as the curveball that I've seen from Tillman. Tillman has an amazing hammer. That thing is easily plus-plus. I didn't post much on Tillman after either start, but I am also really impressed with him. He is further away than Matusz, but he is going to be very, very good assuming health.

The future is very bright and not too far away IMO...

Great news, thanks VaTech