Jake Odorizzi pitched fairly well in his debut. He’s a four pitch pitcher, featuring a slider, changeup and curveball to go along with the fastball. For the first four innings his fastball sat at 93 with good movement, but towards the end of his outing it was being thrown at 89-90 mph. That said, his last fastball was 93 mph but it was straight as an arrow. The slider looks more like a cutter than a traditional slider with big horizontal movement. To begin the game his command was a little loose; missing with his fastball up in the zone. What I liked the most about the start was he threw up and in to brush back lefties two times on 0-2 counts. That tells me he wants to own the inside part of the plate. Overall, I don’t see a top of the rotation starter, but I do see a pitcher who could have a ten year career in the back of the rotation. His delivery is free and easy, which should help him maintain a consistent release point and command.
Most Cole Hamels fantasy owners who were hoping for the beginning of a turnaround were against the lowly Marlins were disappointed with his performance. To begin the game he was very fastball heavy, which got him in trouble and lead to a run scoring. After the 1.1 innings he started attacking hitters with his changeup and his curveball. Both of the runs he allowed to score came from suspect defensive plays. The first came from Michael Young when he ventured too far off first base to try to get a ground ball Chase Utley easily could’ve grabbed. On the same play Hamels should’ve covered first base, but he didn’t; that base runner ended up scoring. The second came from a misplay by Delmon Young in right field. With a runner on first Ruggiano hit a fly ball off the right field wall. If Young played it correctly the runner doesn’t score. Overall, Hamels pitched a lot better than his previous two starts, but he’s still missing location with his fastball too often; specifically, in the middle of the plate. Hamels says he’s not hurt so if you own him you have to keep starting.
Jeremy Guthrie followed up his four home run outing last week to the Angels with another home run festival. However, this time he only gave up two homers this time around, making him tied in the majors with the most home runs allowed (he’s tied with Matt Cain with 13). The reason for his poor start was he got squeezed more than a few times by the umpire so he was forced to throw less quality strikes. That said, he didn’t adapt and didn’t hit his spots, which is what he needs to do in order to be effective.
Eric Hosmer went 3 for 4, but two of the hits were fluky in nature. One hit was slow ground ball to the second baseman and another was slap swing that bled down the left field line.
