Chart Observations: ARI @ KC

• Max Scherzer comes from a 3/4 release and showed a fastball with some late run, a 2-7 slider with good bite and a change with good fade and sink that he will throw to righties. Mixed pitches very well, but can still have spurts with no control.

1st: FB (93-98), SL (85-87), CU (86-87)

2nd: FB (92-94), SL (84-86), CU (84-86)

3rd: FB (93-96), SL (84-86), CU (84-86)

4th: FB (92-95), SL (83-86), CU (85)

5th: FB (93-97), SL (85), CU (85-86)

6th: FB (92-99), SL (82-87), CU (85-86)

• Zach Greinke is a 6-2, 190 pound righty. The 25 year old has a medium frame that can add more muscle. He comes from an over the top release. His fastball is a 4-seam with some run and he has some extra in the tank when he needs it. His change shows good sink and fade and he will throw it to righties. His curveball is a slow, big breaking 12-6. His slider is a sharp 2-7 with good bite and is his out pitch. Ace.

1st: FB (92-98), SL (90), CU (81-82), CB (68)

2nd: FB (92-96), SL (87-88), CB (75-78)

3rd: FB (91-97), SL (84-88), CU (82-84), CB (69)

4th: FB (91-96), SL (85-88), CU (81-84), CB (67-73)

5th: FB (91-94), SL (83-88), CU (85)

6th: FB (92-97), SL (79-88), CU (82)

7th: FB (92-96), SL (86-88), CU (81-87)

• Scott Schoeneweis is a 6-0, 190 pound lefty. The 35 year old has a medium frame that can add a little more muscle. He comes from a high 3/4 release with a fastball that has some run and a sweeping 10-4 slider. Good # 1 lefty to have in a pen.

7th: FB (89-91), SL (80-81)

• Jon Rauch comes from an over the top release and showed a 4-seam fastball with some run, a change with good sink and fade and a big breaking 12-6 curve.

7th: FB (92), CU (84)

8th: FB (90-93), CU (85), CB (74-75)

• John Bale is a 6-4, 205 pound lefty. The 35 year old has a big frame that can add a lot more muscle. He comes from a 3/4 release. His fastball has some run in on righties and some sink. He will throw a straight change, as well as a fastball, from a high 3/4 release. Will throw his change to lefties. He has a classic drop and drive delivery and a 10-4 curve that is fairly slurvy. More of a guy to pitch when trailing then leading and not much of a major league pitcher.

7th: FB (87-90), CU (82)

8th: FB (89-90), CB (73-74), CU (80-81)

• Roman Colon is a 6-6, 235 pound righty who didn't get an out. The 29 year old has a big frame that can add a lot more muscle. He comes from an over the top release with a drop and drive delivery. His fastball is a straight 4-seam that flashes a little run. His slider is a sharp 2-7 with good bite. Seems like he has the tools to be useful, but pitched to the middle of the plate too often. Should be a solid middle reliever.

8th: FB (93-94), SL (79)

• Ron Mahay is a 6-2, 195 pound lefty. The 37 year old has a medium frame that can add more muscle. He comes from a high 3/4 release. He shows a 4-seam fastball with a little run, a straight change with some sink and a 11-4 slider with good bite. Solid # 1 lefty in a pen.

8th: FB (90-92), SL (83-84), CU (85)

• Juan Gutierrez comes from an over the top release and shows a 4-seam fastball with good run, a change with some sink and fade, a sharp 2-7 slider and a 12-5 curve with some depth and good late bite.

9th: FB (94-96), CB (79-83), SL (84), CU (84-85)

• Kyle Farnsworth is a 6-4, 235 pound righty. The 33 year old has a big frame that has room to add a little more muscle. He comes from an over the top release with a straight 4-seam fastball that flashes run, a sharp 2-7 slider with good bite and a low 90's cutter that has good cut and a little sink. Closer stuff, middle reliever command. I wouldn't trust him with anything more then a middle reliever.

9th: FB (93-99), SL (84-90), Cut (90-93)

ARI @ SD

• Max Scherzer is a 24 year old who stands 6-3, 215. The righty has a medium to big frame that has room to add a little more muscle. He comes from a 3/4 release and has a violent head jerk in his delivery. His shoulder was flying open early and resulting him to miss to his glove side. He then tried to correct it and began missing to his arm side. His changeup shows good fade and sink and was the best I have seen it. His slider was the worst I have seen it, as he threw maybe 2 strikes with it all night. It was a tight 2-7 offering with good late bite, but he looked to be overthrowing it. His fastball showed good fade and sink and moves likes a splitter when it is right. He was all over the place command wise, but a young pitcher with stuff that moves like his will have these types of nights. Still a potential # 2.

1st: FB (93-97), SL (88), CU (85-86)

2nd: FB (94-96), SL (85-87), CU (88)

3rd: FB (92-97), SL (85-87), CU (86-87)

4th: FB (93-96), CU (87)

5th: FB (93-96), CU (86-88)

• Kevin Correia was the opposing pitcher. The 6-3, 200 pounder has a medium to big frame that has room to add a lot more more muscle. The 28 year old right hander comes from an over the top release. He has a typical drop and drive delivery with the hands going over his head to start it. He has limbs flying around and it looks hectic around his release point. His fastball is a fairly straight 4-seam with some natural downward movement due to the nice downward plane he creates for his pitches. His slider is a 12-7 offering that is just a harder curveball. It has some bite and he has a good feel for it. He will mix in a 2-seam fastball with some fade and sink. His curveball is a big breaking 12-6 offering tha the will go to with 2 strikes against left handers as a put away pitch. His changeup has some good fade and sink. Correia's upside is a back of the rotation starter. In PETCO, he is a # 4 due to the park taking away a lot of his mistakes. He has above average command of all his stuff and did impress me with his ability to hit spots with is stuff. Could he be successful as a starter outside PETCO? I wouldn't be the team to take a chance.

1st: FB (89-95), SL (84-86), CB (75-77)

2nd: FB (89-94), SL (84-85), CB (76-77), CU (85)

3rd: FB (90-94), SL (84-86)

4th: FB (91-93), SL (83-85), CB (75)

5th: FB (90), SL (87), CU (83)

6th: FB (91-93), SL (83-85), CB (76), CU (85-86)

• Leo Rosales comes from an over the top release. The righty featured a 4-seam fastball with some natural sink, a change that is his best offspeed offering but is inconsistent with its fade and sink. It can flash slightly above average with excellent fade and sink and can act almost as a back-door 2-seam fastball. He will throw it to righties. His slider is a flat 2-7 pitch. Not a major league reliever.

6th: FB (88-91), CU (78-82), SL (86)

• Daniel Schlereth comes from a high 3/4 release. His curveball is a power pitch with 11-5 type movement and it has good bite. The lefty has a classic drop and drive delivery. His fastball is a 4-seam with a little sink and run. He struggled to command his stuff tonight. His change shows some fade, but he left it up and doesn't look to be even average. He shows a great ability to spike his curveball, but struggled to throw it for a strike. This is his 2nd pro season and he is in the bigs, I still think he has closer potential.

6th: FB (92-94), CB (77-81), CU (75-79)

• Clay Zavada comes from a high 3/4 release. His curveball is a good 11-4 offering, his change has good sink and fade and is his best off speed pitch and his fastball is a 2-seam with some fade. Solid lefty to have in a pen.

6th: FB (88-90), CB (72), CU (80-81)

• Luke Gregerson came from a 3/4 release with a 2-seam fastball that has good fade and sink and a late breaking slider that is a 2-7 type pitch. The slider has good late movement and generated a ton of swings and misses. He is a potential set-up man.

7th: FB (90-91), SL (81-85)

• Jon Rauch comes from an over the top release. The righty has a 4-seam fastball that has a little sink due to the downward plane he generates for his pitches. His curveball is a big breaking 12-6 offering with good depth. His change shows some sink and fade. His cutter had little noticeable cut. He had above average command tonight and was primarily FB-CB.

7th: FB (88-92), CB (73-75), CU (85-86), Cut (86)

• Edward Mujica came from a high 3/4 release. He showed a straight 4-seam fastball that will flash fade and a split that had good fade and dive. Solid set-up man, though Justin Upton hit a 430 foot shot off him, but who hasn't Upton done that to lately?

8th: FB (92-94), Split (86-88)

• Juan Gutierrez has an over the top release. The right hander showed a big breaking 12-6 curveball, a change with some fade but was pretty straight and a fastball with some fade. Solid set-up man potential.

8th: FB (92-93), CB (79), CU (80)

• Heath Bell came from an over the top release and showed a 4-seam fastball with a little downward movement and a sharp 12-6 curve. Above average closer.

9th: FB (92-96), CB (81-83)

I am tired. I am going to bed and sleeping until 1 hopefully. Got the Orioles-Athletics tomorrow featuring Vin Mazzaro and Rich Hill (dealt my Braves extra to get that game, which ended up being the Tommy Hanson debut, but I would rather see that as an extra report anyways.)

ARI @ ATL

• Kenshin Kawakami is another over hyped Japanese pitcher in my opinion. Kawakami attacked guys with a fastball at 86-91, a curveball at 68-73, a cutter at 85-89 and a splitter at 83-86. Kawakami's curveball is his only real plus pitch. However, what he is learning is that it is too slow to be an out pitch here in the U.S. Hitters here are fooled by it, but they recover in time to just flick their wrist and foul it off. Kawakami's fastball and splitter are each average offerings and his cutter is below average and barely cuts. His command is also just average. He comes from a high 3/4 release point and has the classic Japanese delivery with a pause right before the breaking of the hands. His upside to me is that of a back of the rotation starter.
• Max Scherzer opposed him and represented the other end of the spectrum. Scherzer has great stuff (tonight he was 90-96 with the fastball, though settled in at 92-93 after the 3rd inning, a slider at 85-88 and a changeup at 81-85) but can never pitch out of the 6th inning due to running up high pitch counts. Scherzer's command is above average, but he appears to get into moments where he loses it for a batter or two and allows them to reach. His fastball is plus, his slider is plus and his changeup flashes plus, though he has little command of the change. His mechanics also worry me, as he features a violent head jerk and he puts a lot of pressure on his throwing shoulder due to his arm action. Very good pitcher (likely a # 2 for a contender once he gains some more command), but he will always be a constant injury risk (but, every pitcher is.).
• James Parr is now a reliever for the Braves. He sat at 87-92 with his fastball, 80-82 with his changeup, 73-79 with his curveball and 80 at the 1 slider he threw. It is also worth noting he was 88-89 in his 2nd inning of work and lost velocity. I mention this because he is a borderline major league reliever as a 1 inning guy but has a chance to be a decent long man. He comes from a straight over the top release, and like every other pitcher that has that release, he has a plus curveball. His changeup is above average, but his fastball is just average. His command is above average right now, though it can jump around from plus plus to average in the course of an appearance. I just don't see a major leaguer here. I see a guy who will be on the bus to Gwinnett and back fairly often. Now, if he can maintain his velocity in the low 90's in multiple inning spurts, then he may stick in a pen.
• Scott Schoeneweis is your typical LOOGY, featuring a fastball at 88-90 and a slider at 80-82. Got out 2 of the 3 guys he faced. Solid guy in a pen.
• Juan Gutierrez has bounced back from a terrible year at AAA last year to profile fairly well as a reliever. He showed a fastball at 93 today (only threw 2 pitches), but I have seen him flash a slider and curveball as above average. His command will always be a question that he needs to prove and if he can answer it, he profiles very well as a Tony Pena type reliever.
• Jeff Bennett showed some command issues tonight and featured a fastball at 91-94 and a slider at 82-87. He appeared to be nibbling instead of attacking hitters. Both his fastball and slider are just average pitches from a 1-inning reliever, but he was typically employed as a multi-inning guy last year where his pitches have more value. Bennett may always have command issues, or he may just be breaking down from last year's work, but neither of those 2 options is very good. Bennett profiles well as a reliever to use when the starter gets pummelled when he has command. If he doesn't have command? You just saw it. That wasn't that valuable (1 IP, 4 BB)
• Esmerling Vasquez is an intriguing pitcher. He features a fastball at 92-97, a slider at 82 and a changeup at 84-88. Only his fastball is truly plus, while his slider and changeup are currently average. He sports average command, but is a pitcher to watch. The 25 year old has an explosive arm and his slider shows some potential as an out pitch. I believe that I would rather have my young (or somewhat young) arms take their lumps in the majors as opposed to the PCL and he could turn it around. You never know when the light will flick on for command. He is a guy that could be a future closer (though there is a TON of projection to that) and will likely be a solid middle reliever for a contender.
• Buddy Carlyle, the bus to Gwinnett is waiting. He featured a fastball at 87-90, a cutter at 83-86, a curveball at 72 and a changeup at 76-81. None of his pitches are plus, only the changeup is above average and he struggled with his command tonight. He is a guy that even when he has command only profiles as a mop-up type reliever. I personally think he may be done, but the Braves have a lot of relievers with similar stuff that actually have options to the minors left, so he may get a chance to stick it out and turn it around.
• Chad Qualls finished the game (for some reason) and featured a fastball at 91-94 and a cutter at 86-87. The Diamondbacks call it a cutter, so that is good enough for me, as I thought it showed some slider action. Both of his pitches are plus (while his fastball velocity isn't what's expected out of a closer, it is a 2-seam that gets great fade and bite). I would still prefer him as a set-up guy with his plus command, but he won't hurt you as a closer.
• Gerardo Parra, a 5-11 195 pound 21 year old, is a lefty stick that features a stance where he leans back on his back leg with all his weight there, leaving a straight front leg. He taps the bat on his back shoulder and utilizes a toe turn. This was one of the D'Backs top prospects and he showed it in this game. When you see him, he just looks like a player. He is a 60 or 65 runner and features a good looking line drive swing that shows a gap hitter who has plenty of time to add power. His swing has some loft to it, so it isn't out of the question. He is a guy that looks to be a solid starting center fielder for a contender down the road. Right now, I want to see how he reacts in a month when scouting reports get out, as he is very aggressive (which typically means he can't hit off-speed and jumps on early fastballs) and the sign of whether a player will make it as a starter or backup is in that first adjustment. I like him and think he projects to be a .280 hitter with about a .360 on base percentage (was .361-.469 at Mobile-AA) and should hit 15-20 homers a year while stealing 20-25 bases. You want that as your starting CF? I would.

Busy day tomorrow. Will be waking up at about 620 to get ready for church (yea, trying to be religious), then will head into the office after service at about 830 and do 2 charts. After that, we are scheduled (it poured here tonight) to have our first game in that summer league. One of these days, there will be room for a girlfriend in this mound of stuff to do.