Chart Observations: NYM @ NYY

• Johan Santana comes from a high 3/4 release and showed a sweeping 11-4 slider with good bite, a change with great fade and sink and a fastball with some fade. His command was off in this game and was the reason he got hit, as he fell behind 3-0 to multiple hitters and struggled to locate his change.

1st: FB (89-91), CU (78-79), SL (80)

2nd: FB (89-92), CU (81-83), SL (80-83)

3rd: FB (89-92), CU (80-85), SL (83-84)

4th: FB (87-90), CU (79-83), SL (83-86)

• A.J. Burnett, a 6-4, 230 pound right hander, opposed him. The 32 year old has a big frame that is maxed out. He comes from a 3/4 release. His fastball shows some good fade and sink. His curveball is a power curve that is a sharp 1-7 offering with goot bite and is a knee buckler when it is on. His change shows good fade and sink, though it is rarely thrown (just the occasional lefty). Ace stuff, 4th starter results and he has been fairly consistent with that throughout his career. His command is just average and can be at any level from inning to inning. I wouldn't have paid him that much money.

1st: FB (94-96), CB (82-83)

2nd: FB (95-96), CB (83-85)

3rd: FB (93-97), CB (81-85)

4th: FB (94-96), CB (81-85), CU (88-89)

5th: FB (93-95), CB (82), CU (89)

6th: FB (93-96), CB (81-84), CU (88)

7th: FB (93-96), CB (80-84), CU (89-90)

• Brian Stokes added fuel to the fire when he entered. The 6-1, 210 pound righty has a medium frame that can add a little more muscle. The 29 year old comes from an over the top release, almost high 3/4 release. He is similar to Brandon League in that the ball comes out of his glove as soon as he starts his delivery, which is a classic drop and drive. He has a mini Ted Lilly style hip turn in his delivery. His fastball has some fade. His change shows sink, but can be fairly straight and was anywhere from below average to above average in this outing. His curveball is a 1-7 offering with okay depth. His change was good when it was down and away, but he showed some issues in getting it there. 10th or 11th guy in a pen, as his fastball is his only consistent major league offering.

4th: FB (92-96), CB (79-80), CU (77-80)

5th: FB (92-96), CB (78), CU (79-82)

• Jon Switzer is a 29 year old lefty who stands 6-3, 210. He has a medium to big frame that is maxed out. He comes from a high 3/4 release. He has a weird finish to his arm action, as he almost flicks the ball and that put a lot of extra stress on his elbow (may explain some of his injury issues in his younger years). His fastball is a fairly straight 4-seam. His slider is a 10-4 offering with good bite and his change shows a little fade. He tired in his 2nd inning of work, limiting him to mostly LOOGY work where his FB-SL combo can try to do some work.

6th: FB (88-90), SL (81-83), CU (81)

7th: FB (86-91), SL (82-83), CU (79-83)

• David Robertson is a 5-11, 190 pound right hander. The 24 year old has a small frame that is maxed out. He comes from an over the top release and hides the ball very well in a classic drop and drive delivery. His fastball is a straight 4-seam that looks like it may have some extra giddy-up on it. His power cruveball is a 12-6 pitch with good depth and can generate swings and misses. Setup man is probably his ceiling and he should have a pretty good chance of reaching it.

8th: FB (91-94), CB (79-80)

• Ken Takahashi comes from a high 3/4 release with a sweeping 10-4 slider, a straight 4-seam fastball, a change that shows some good fade, a big breaking 11-4 curve with decent depth and a 2-seam fastball with some fade and sink that he likes to throw in on lefties.

7th: 4 (86-89), SL (78), CU (81-82)

8th: 4 (87-90), 2 (84), SL (81), CU (82-83), CB (73)

• Phil Hughes, a 6-5 240 pound 24 year old, has moved to the bullpen. The right hander has a big frame that can probably get up to 250. He comes from a 3/4 release. He shows a fastball with some fade and sink, though it can be inconsistent. The curveball is a sharp 3-8 offering with great bite and depth while his newly added cutter has a little cut and sink, but it can be straight. Remember when him and Homer Bailey were regarded as the top pitching prospects in the game? They are now both at major career crossroads (at least as major as you can get for guys under 25). Hughes has the ability to be a back of the bullpen reliever with his FB-CB combo, but he will likely be receiving another opportunity in the rotation shortly and he is more valuable to the Yankees in the rotation.

9th: FB (93-95), CB (75-78), Cut (89)

• Francisco Cervelli is a 6-1, 210 pound catcher. The 23 year old righty thrower/hitter has a medium frame that is maxed out. He has a straight on stance with a little crouch and features a trigger of a toe turn and cocking of the bat. His swing can get a little long at times. He is regarded as a defense first catcher and I can neither confirm nor deny it, as the Mets never forced him to do anything. His bat will not play as a starter though. He doesn't show much power either now or down the road and merely hits gaps. He doesn't have a great eye at the plate and will get himself out. These couple of months in the bigs have served him pretty well, but he is just an organizational catcher unless his defense is Jose Molina good.

Chart Observations: PHI @ NYM

• Tim Redding is a 31 year old right hander who stands 5-11, 230. He has a small frame that is maxed out. He comes from a high 3/4, almost over the top release. His fastball shows some fade and sink, though it can flatten out and he mixes in a straight 4-seam on occasion. His change moves just like his fastball, just a little bit slower. He throws a hard curve as his preferred strikeout pitch and its a 12-6 pitch with late bite and he will also throw a bigger breaking curveball with good depth for strikes. His slider is a 1-7 offering that can be slurvy or sharp and it flashes late bite. His command is above average and he is your typical # 5 starter.

1st: FB (87-90), CB (78), CU (83)

2nd: FB (88-92), CB (73-76), SL (81-84)

3rd: FB (88-90), CB (75), CU (81), SL (81-82)

4th: FB (87-91), CB (76), CU (80-83), SL (81-84)

5th: FB (86-89), SL (80-84)

6th: FB (84-90), CB (75), CU (78-81), SL (81-82)

7th: FB (87-90), CU (80-82), SL (79-84)

• Jamie Moyer opposed him and came from a 3/4 release. His fastball is a 2-seam with good sink and fade. His cutter is an 11-4 pitch that moves more like a slider with decent bite. His change moves like his fastball, but has more sink. His curveball is a big breaking 11-4 pitch with good depth. He will throw changes in on lefties.

1st: FB (82-83), Cut (78)

2nd: FB (81-83), Cut (78), CU (76)

3rd: FB (81-83), CU (75), CB (70)

4th: FB (80-83), CU (74-75), CB (67-70)

5th: FB (80-83), CB (71)

6th: FB (80-82), CU (74-75)

• Clay Condrey is a 6-3, 225 pound right hander. The 33 year old has a medium to big frame that is maxed out. He comes from a high 3/4 release with a 2-seam fastball with good fade and sink and a cutter with late cut and some sink on occasion. Solid middle reliever.

7th: FB (89-92), Cut (87-89)

8th: FB (90-91), Cut (89)

• Pedro Feliciano is a sidearmer who showed a cutter with good cut and sink, a change with good fade and sink, a fastball with good late sink and some fade and a sweeping 9-3 slider.

8th: FB (87-88), Cut (81-83), SL (76-77), CU (74)

• Bobby Parnell comes from a high 3/4 release with a 4-seam fastball wtih some fade that will flash sink and a sharp 2-7 slider with good bite.

9th: FB (94-98), SL (84-88)

10th: FB (94-97), SL (87)

• Chad Durbin comes from a 3/4 release with a fastball that had good fade, a cutter with good cut and a slider that is more of a downward pitch then a side to side pitch (12-6ish)

9th: FB (90-92), Cut (86-88), SL (87)

• Scott Eyre comes from a high 3/4 release with a straight 4-seam fastball and 10-4 slider with decent bite.

9th: FB (89), SL (82)

• Ken Takahashi is a 40 year old who stands 6-0, 200. The lefty won't be adding any more muscle to his frame. He comes from a high 3/4 release. His slider is a 10-4 offering that can just hang or show good bite. He throws a 2-seam with good fade and some sink and uses it against lefties primarily. He will mix in a straight 4-seam. He accomplished his goal of pitching in the bigs and can't see him pitching past this season.

10th: 4-FB (90), 2-FB (82-84), SL (79)

• Sean Green is a sidearmer who features a sweeping 3-8 slider and a fastball with good fade and sink.

10th: FB (88-89), SL (74-75)

• Ryan Madson comes from an over the top release with a fastball that has some fade and flashes as a pitch with good sink as well and a change with good fade and sink that looks like a fastball out of his hand.

11th: FB (92-96), CU (83-86)

Diamondbacks-Astros later tonight featuring Dan Haren and Mike Hampton. Hampton is incredibly difficult to chart, let alone try and follow his stuff while scoring. I will try to give the best velocities I can for him.

A lot of Observations

Yesterday afternoon's game was blacked out, so I just scored it from Gameday. Charted the Mets-Phillies game and live scored the Rays-Red Sox game today.

• Oliver Perez has lost a lot of his stuff and almost all his command. This is no longer a pitcher who sat in the mid 90's and teased with you a great slider. This new version of Perez sits in the low 90's and teases with you a wildly inconsistent average slider. The main problem is all the old command issues remain. He struggles to control his stuff, let alone command it in the strike zone. You could also tell he was upset and frustrated with his performance yesterday (he was getting squeezed quite a bit as well). He has the look of a pitcher who doesn't know what else to do to try and get results. The Mets must tread carefully here, as he may be close to just losing the mental side of it as well.
• Jamie Moyer is a freak. The guy has a tremendous 2-seam fastball that sits in the low 80's. He complements this with an above average low 70's curveball, a high 70's cutter and a mid 70's changeup. He has above average command of all his pitches and looks to be ready to have another solid year as a back-end starter.
• Ken Takahashi made his major league debut. The 40 year old (no typo) lefty sits with a fastball at the high 80's, a decent changeup in the low 80's, a decent slider in the mid 80's and a curveball at the low 70's. He is an extra arm. He has good command, but nothing about his package jumps out at you. Plus, what team has much time for a 40-year old rookie (and only the Mets would have time if he was Latino)
• Pedro Feliciano threw a 1st pitch changeup to Raul Ibanez (who hit it out of the balpark to knot the game at 5) for some reason. Made zero sense.
• This leads me to my next point in regards to why Jerry Manuel may favor Omir Santos over Ramon Castro: game-calling. Castro called many questionable pitches, like changeups out of Perez when behind in the count and obviously struggling to command everything. Castro also rarely visited the mound to try and reassure his pitcher. Not saying anything for sure, but that was my observation. Castro is a very useful bat.
• Bobby Parnell has a big arm, sitting in the middle to high 90's with his fastball. He showed zero ability to command either of his off-speed pitches though (a mid 80's change and a high 80's slider). He can be a strong late inning reliever, but you have to wish that the kid could have gotten half a season in AAA to try and develop an off-speed pitch. You can't do that in the big leagues.
• I am going to echo what a lot of other people have said this season: Ryan Madson is the best reliever in the Phillies bullpen. Madson is throwing a high 90's fastball (sat at 95-96), a tremendous change that is effective to hitters on both sides of the plate at the low 80's with good bite and fade and a low 90's cutter. If Brad Lidge's struggles continue (and his slider lacked the same bite it showed last season again yesterday), then Madson is in the driver's seat for the closer's gig.
• Brad Penny was very strong for the Red Sox. He settled in, pumping in low to mid 90's fastballs, mid 70's curveballs and a mid 80's splitter. If he pitches to his potential (and he showed today that it is still a strong # 3 starter), then the Red Sox staff will be that much better.
• James Shields was on. Featuring a low 90's fastball, a devastating low 80's change, mid 70's curveball and a mid 80's cutter, he can be dominant when he is commanding all his pitches and he was doing just that. His change is a plus-plus pitch with tremendous fade and sink, causing many hitters to swing over the top of it. He can throw it to both right handers and left handers with equal success. Theo Epstein said it best on the telecast: "James Shields keeps proving he is a frontline starter in this league."
• Manny Delcarmen had some control issues, which the announcers say may be related to a hip flexor. I don't buy it, but he definitely struggled commanding his low to mid 90's fastball and low 80's changeup.
• Hunter Jones is an extra arm. The kid has a solid low 70's curveball, but with a fastball sitting in the mid 80's (mostly 86), he will get hit hard once teams just sit on that. A low 70's curveball is not a good pitch to have as your out pitch when you are trying to become a LOOGY.
• Ramon Ramirez is a very, very good reliever. Hard for me to fathom that both the Rockies (Huston Street and Manny Corpas are inferior pitchers) and Royals (though they did get Coco Crisp) dealt him away. He attacks with a mid 90's fastball and a mid to high 80's changeup that is just filthy. He is a luxury as a 7th inning guy with the likes of Saito and Papelbon ahead of him in the pecking order.
• Carl Crawford stole 6 bases to go with a 4-4 day. The guy knows how to use his legs by pounding the ball on the ground and just running. Of his 6 steals, only 1 was close (not Jason Varitek's fault, he was stealing them on the pitchers and twice stole the pitch after pitchouts, the best time to run).

I have copies of every game played thus far this season at my disposal at work, so if there is someone specific you would like for me to get a read on for you, let me know.