Porcello's First Start

by David Tokarz on Apr 9, 2009 2:27 PM EDT

8 hits, 4K's, 1 BB, 2 HR and 3 ER (scratch that, 4ER, Nate Robertson let one in) in 5 innings.

It could have been a lot worse- I'm rather shocked that Leyland left him in the game to start the sixth- had he not, he would have avoided the Lind homer.

While I didn't get to watch the game, I made sure to keep tabs on the Gameday coverage. It looked to me that Porcello was hesitant to use his secondary stuff, but that he was throwing his fastball for strikes and getting a bunch of ground balls (8-3 GO-FO). Definitely wasn't a horrible first start though.

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watched most of Porcello's part . . .

Looked like the lefties were much more comfortable than the righties. Including the homer by Hill, I recall only 2 well-hit balls by righties, but at least 5 by lefties, Lind in particular. All of Porcello’s k’s were righties, a couple on nice curves—rios especiallyLots of weak comebackers from righties which suggests to me that his sinker has got good movement into righties.

Umpire had a tight zone, very rarely calling the high strike.

My overall impression was that he’s a lot like Justin Masterson. Masterson obviously has got more of a 3/4—sidearm motion, but both the process and results were quite similar.

by kazuokev on Apr 9, 2009 3:41 PM EDT reply actions

overall . . .

very nice start for a 20-year old rookie. Curve looked like it could be a good out pitch. Changeup still very much a work-in-progress—Lind crushed a hanging change for his HR to straightaway CF; much more of a show-me pitch, as I don’t recall one being thrown for a strike.

by kazuokev on Apr 9, 2009 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Scouting Report

I did a post on his stuff from Pitch F/X which can be found here.

Here is what his velocity looked like

i think he got too fastall-heavy in the last inning.

just from watching the gameday, his last 3 pitches were identical. [according to the gameday], and 7 of his 8 pitches to the last batter were fastball. I’d like to see the curve more often when he needs an out pitch.

Overall I was impressed.

by daveh33 on Apr 9, 2009 5:19 PM EDT reply actions

+1

That’s what I got from the gameday info. When he was mixing in the curve, he was doing very well.

by David Tokarz on Apr 9, 2009 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Wasn't watching

But i followed most of start on Gameday. The fastball seemed to have very nice movement and velocity. Although he is young and obviously will get better, in today’s start he didn’t give the Jays enough looks at his other pitches. From what I saw, he threw 5 or so curveballs (none that I saw for a strike), and I didn’t actually see a change though I missed when the damage was done to him in the 6th.

Remember: baseball guys... baseball...

by JD Sussman on Apr 9, 2009 5:26 PM EDT reply actions

Impressive

I watched most of it. While he’s certainly got a lot to work on, he definitely looked like he belonged. His stuff was as good as advertised, with some truly sick-looking fastballs and a big breaking curve. After the Hill homer he completely blew away the next two guys, so the potential for dominance is there.

The negatives I saw were that it looked like a lot of his pitches were up in the zone, and he seemed pretty worn-out by the end of the 5th. Hopefully he’ll be able to correct those without hurting himself…

I'm Matt (expletive) Bush!

by delomir on Apr 10, 2009 1:31 AM EDT reply actions