Studs, Duds and The In-Between

With my job allowing me to watch hours and hours of baseball, I plan on relaying the studs, the duds and the in-betweens of players I have seen. I will start with what I recall from this week, but I plan on keeping you in tune with everything I have watched/done.

STUDS:
Rich Harden: Dude is still disgusting with his fastball, changeup, slider trifecta. If he stays healthy and is able to limit his pitch count to pitch deeper into games, he may contend for a Cy Young (way to go out on a limb there TK)

DUDS:
Micah Owings: I was watching the Reds broadcast of this game and the announcers were talking of how he was an off-speed pitch away from being a good major league pitcher. This left me thinking: What game are you watching? Owings is a drastically different pitcher from when he was drafted. Once able to sit in the high 90's, Owings has been reduced to a low 3/4 release RHP who sits in the high 80's. The problem? The control issues still linger. He appears to be trying to get by with a decent cutter, but I have live scored 2 of his starts this season and he is lucky to still be a Red. Look for him at a AAA ballpark near you soon.

Matt Harrison: This one-time top prospect has struggled recently. Forget the W-L records. He is a fringe average major league pitcher. With a fastball barely breaking 90 (and huge command issues to boot), his quality changeup can't get a chance to get started. Needs to start figuring something out before the likes of Holland (more on him below) and Feliz start passing him by.

IN-BETWEEN:
Derek Holland: Needless to say, I was psyched to be scoring the game where this highly touted prospect made his debut. After suffering through the likes of Matt Harrison, I was rewarded by this FLAME-throwing LHP. Holland came in and was pumping 97 mile per hour fastballs (according to MLB Gameday) like it was his job (b/c, well, it is). Very nice arm action and the dude actually had command to. But, while his fastball is definitely plus, this kid wasn't ready for the bigs (don't let the stats fool you). Holland threw only 3 breaking pitches (I thought 3 sliders, another thought 2 sliders and a change) and only one looked at least average (a sick slider to strike out Aaron Hill). Kid needs to develop his off-speed stuff, and if that happens, he will be a # 1 or # 2 starter. However, even without it, a LH that can throw 97 out of the pen tends to have a long career.

Dave Bush: Yes, I charted his near no hit game. No, he wasn't dominant. A pitcher with good fade to his 2-seam fastball that sits in the high 80's, he rarely is. He throws 5 pitches (and may I add, it is SO much fun to try and distinguish between his cut fastball and his slider) and seems to have pretty good command of them all. My issue was when he missed, he missed up. Ryan Howard could have had 2 bombs in the game, but hit loud fly outs to CF. Don't get too excited and think he has finally turned the corner. While Bush is one of those whose peripherals look like he should be much better, he is a comfortable # 3 starter who will be right around a 4.10-4.50 ERA.

Tonight is the Colorado-Dodgers game (my live score assignment) with an expected pitching matchup of finesse LHP Eric Stults and sinkerballing RHP Aaron Cook. My thoughts on them (and maybe even some hitters) when I return.