ARI @ LAD

• Hiroki Kuroda made his return from the DL tonight. The 33 year old who stands 6-1, 220 has a medium frame that has room to add more muscle. He is a right hander who attacks from a high 3/4 release with the typical Japanese windup. His fastball is a 2-seam that shows fade and a little sink, though he will mix in an occasional 4-seamer. His split shows good sink and dive. His slider is sharp and will move more like a cutter. He really struggled to find a feel for his pitches early. Most of his sliders were left belt high, but the D'Backs hitters just missed them. He was relying on more sliders then fastballs until after the 2nd, when he began to pound the zone with fastballs. Solid middle of the rotation starter when right, probably a # 4. Pitching in LA helps take away a lot of mistakes.

1st: FB (90-93), SL (85-86), Split (79-83)

2nd: FB (90-94), SL (83-87)

3rd: FB (89-92), SL (85), Split (80-84)

4th: FB (90-93), SL (84-85), Split (83)

5th: FB (90-94), SL (85), Split (82)

• Billy Buckner attacks hitters from an over the top release. This is his 3rd (of 3 starts) that I have scored. His fastball is a 2-seam with good fade and sink. His change shows the same type of movement, but on a greater scale. His curveball is a 12-6 pitch that is his key. He struggled to command it in his last outing and got hit around a little. He had great command of it today and could throw it for a strike or bury it whenever he wanted. His fastball fades late and likes to pound it on the outside corner to get strike one. He is slowly trying to convince me to turn around my thinking, but I still think he is just a 5th starter, especially pitching in the hitters' park that is Arizona.

1st: FB (85-92), CB (79), CU (85)

2nd: FB (87-92), CB (78-83), CU (82-83)

3rd: FB (90-92), CB (77-82), CU (79-82)

4th: FB (89-92), CB (81-82), CU (80-82)

5th: FB (88-91), CB (77-80), CU (83)

6th: FB (87-92), CB (82-83), CU (81-83)

• Cory Wade is a 26 year old who stands 6-1, 190. The right hander has a medium frame that has room to add a little more muscle. He attacks from an over the top release. His fastabll shows good late fade and little sink. His curveball is a plus pitch, a big breaking 12-7, 12-8 type offering. His changeup is an above average offering with good fade and sink. A great middle reliever who could be in the mold of a Scot Shields and be able to throw 2 innings to get you to your closer.

6th: FB (88-91), CU (79), CB (72)

7th: FB (89-91), CU (81-83), CB (73-77)

• Clay Zavada (he pitches every Diamondbacks game I do) attacked hitters from a high 3/4 release with a straight 4-seam fastball. His delivery has a little bit of a head jerk.

7th: FB (88-89), CB (72)

• Juan Gutierrez is a big bodied (6-3, 210) right hander. The 25 year old has a medium to big frame that is maxed out and there may be some bad weight there. He comes from an over the top release. His fastball is a straight 4-seam. His slider is a tight 2-7 offering with good bite and it flashes plus as a pitch that just disappears. He can fly open and can over throw his fastball at times. He gets a great hip turn in his delivery to help him generate more velocity, though it is a high effort delivery. His change shows some sink, but it is below average. I think he adds and subtracts velocity from his slider as opposed to throwing a curveball. Set-up man is likely his ceiling and he can probably close some games down the line and not kill you.

7th: FB (94-96), SL (78-88)

8th: FB (94-96), SL (81-85), CU (87)

• Brent Leach is a 6-4, 220 pound left hander. The 26 year old has a big frame that has room to add a little more muscle. He attacks from a 3/4, almost high 3/4 release. His curveball is a slurvy 10-4 offering that needs to be tightened. His changeup has decent sink and a little run (struck out Justin Upton on this pitch) and his fastabll is a 4-seam with some run. Probably fits best as a LOOGY, but he could be an inning reliever depending on how much his command (a tick below average) can catch up to his slightly above average stuff.

8th: FB (90-93), CB (77-79), CU (84-85)

• Guillermo Mota attacked from a 3/4 release. His slider is a tight 2-7 offering that can be just a spinning fastball. His change shows some above average fade and some sink and his fastball has a little fade to it. I am still of the impression that he is close to being done.

8th: FB (93-94), CU (84-85), SL (86)

9th: FB (93-95), CU (85-87)

• Tony Pena is a 27 year old who stands 6-2, 220. The right hander has a medium frame that is maxed out and he may also be carrying a little bit of bad weight. He attacks from a 3/4 release. His slider is a hard 2-7 offering with good bite. His fastball is a straight 4-seam. He threw a ton of sliders (more then I thought he would) and he has a max effort delivery. I like him better as a closer then Qualls, but he sure made things interesting tonight.

9th: FB (95-98), SL (84-90)

• Josh Whitesell is a 27 year old first basemen who stands 6-1, 225. The lefty thrower and hitter has a medium frame that is maxed out. He has a slightly open stance while standing fairly straight up. He waves the bat in a circle above his shoulder as he awaits the pitcher to begin his delivery. His trigger is a step to square himself up followed by a little bit of a toe turn. He has a little bit of a longer swing and seemed to be pretty pull happy. He showed good power in the minors, but his defense is not good around the bag (he was pulled to move Mark Reynolds to first). He failed to scoop a short hop (not an easy play, but one a big league 1Bmen not named Ryan Howard needs to make) and didn't look very comfortable defensively. His upside is that of a bench bat to me.

Tomorrow I have a chart and a score. I will be scoring the next 3 Astros-Rockies games (and of course Michael Bourn just fouled a ball off his testicles, not like I wanted to see him play)