Chart Observations: CLE @ KC

• Fausto Carmona started for Cleveland really struggled commanding his stuff early. From a 3/4 release, Carmona attacks hitters with a fastball at 91-94, a slider at 81-84 and a changeup at 84-87. Carmona's fastball is a plus pitch because of its great movement down and away from lefties (or in to righties), but he has some issues commanding it due to its movement. He is a pitcher that needs to aim at the middle of the plate and allow the natural movement of the ball to take it to the corners. Carmona's slider is a fringe average pitch. His changeup is an above average offering that has similar fade and sink as his fastball, though he also has some issues commanding that pitch. He has average command of his stuff. He is currently a # 3 starter unless his command makes drastic strides and then he can be a # 2, which is his ceiling.
• Gil Meche opposed him. Meche featured a fastball at 92-96, a curveball at 72-80, a cutter at 84-89 and a changeup at 83-87 from an over the top release. Meche's fastball is a plus pitch due to its velocity. His curveball is another plus offering with its 12-6 action and the big disparity in velocity between the two. His cutter is an above average offering that really gets in on the hands of left handers when it's right. His changeup is just a change of pace pitch to lefties to ensure they can't just sit on the fastball and is an average offering. His command is everywhere from average to plus from appearance to appearance. Meche is a strong # 2 right now and has the ceiling to be an ace if he can consistently command his stuff.
• Aaron Laffey has shifted to the bullpen. You would think a starter that sat in the high 80's from the left side would have a difficult transition, but he has been throwing very well. From a high 3/4 release, Laffey attacked with a 2-seam fastball at 84-86, a 4-seam fastball at 87-90 and a slider at 79-82 (which he only threw to Mark Teahen). Laffey's fastball is average and his slider is a frisbee slider that is above average. He has some pretty good deception in his wind up and seems to hide the ball from lefties very well. With that taken into consideration, he has a shot to be a groundball generating LOOGY. Without seeing his changeup, it is hard to say if he is a guy that can consistently get out righties and lefties. Being a former starter, I would say its a good bet for him to have a ceiling as a multi-inning reliever, but one you would rather pitch when behind.
• Rafael Betancourt featured a fastball at 93-95, a slider at 83-85 and a changeup at 88. Betancourt is a solid set-up man, as he showed above average command of his 2 main offerings. His fastball is a pretty straight 4-seam and his slider has great bite to it and it just drops out of the strike zone. Pitching at his ceiling right now.
• Kerry Wood closed out the game and featured a 4-seam fastball at 93-96, a cut fastball at 88-92 and a curveball at 79-81. He still has a strong deuce, but it is just above average now. His cutter is an average offering that has just enough movement on it to make hitters pause a little bit. His 4-seam is a plus offering due to its velocity. He showed average command this outing and really struggled to get a release point on his cutter early. A solid closer, but not one of the elite's and he is currently pitching at his ceiling.
• Jamey Wright featured a fastball at 89-93, a curveball at 78-79 and a cutter at 89 from a high 3/4 release. Wright has been having success out of the pen, but I don't see it lasting. Wright's fastball is a tick above average, his curveball is above average and his 1 cutter was below average. Wright tends to allow balls in play, so he will need a strong defense behind him to be good over the course of a full season. His command is above average, but can desert him at times, especially with his curveball. A solid middle reliever, but he is miscast as a set-up guy.
• Sidney Ponson lost his job in the rotation and is now their long reliever. He attacked with a fastball at 88-92, a slider at 81-84, a changeup at 84-86 and a curveball at 76-77 from a high 3/4 release. All of his pitches are average offerings. His command can be erratic from appearance to appearance and even from batter to batter, which severely limits his use as a long reliever if he allows a lot of base runners. A guy that is likely pitching with his last chance at being in the bigs. Upside is that of a swingman, one that can start for you occasionally when minor injuries dictate it and that can finish some blowouts by throwing multiple innings.
• Robinson Tejeda's big arm has landed him in Kansas City. He attacks hitters from a 3/4 release with a fastball at 92-97, a slider at 80-87 and a changeup at 81-86. Tejeda's fastball is a plus offering and he shows above average command of it. His slider is a below average offering that flashes above average. He has a tendency to throw spinners and is not consistent with any part of throwing his slider (release point, velocity, command). His change is also below average that flashes average and he has the same issues with his slider. He has always been looking for an off speed pitch to complement his fastball and needs to refine these offerings to reach his upside of a set-up man. Tejeda reaches back when he gets ahead 2 strikes (which may be part of the problem with the off speed offerings), hitting 96-97 on the gun during these times.

Got the Pirates-Nats at 7 tonight featuring Ian Snell and the major league debut of Craig Stammen.