This isn't a full game write-up, but I just wanted to give a quick note on Deck McGuire's performance tonight.
McGuire's command was definitely not on tonight, and his fastball was really all over the place. He never got a handle on it, and concerns are creeping into the scouting community about how good his command really is. I was already hearing whispers, and I'm sad to say that he's confirming them on the mound right now. He could easily turn it around, though, and he has time to do so.
He sat 90-92 in the first, followed by mostly 90-93 the rest of the game. He dipped into the 88-91 range in the 6th inning and stayed there in the 7th, his final inning. The highest reading total was 93, and that was when he put some real strength behind it. He's more comfortable in the 90-91 range. I know that's concerning to most of you, and most of the questions I get about McGuire involve his fastball. However, when he does command it, he has enough quality zip, movement, and plane on it that he rarely gets hit hard.
His best pitch tonight was a very hard slider. There were times it looked more like a nasty cutter than a slider, and he was up to 85 with it. It was easily a plus pitch, and I'd give it a 65 grade. When he commanded it, no one could hit it. His curveball was more inconsistent, but the curves in the low-70s, mainly the ones 72-74, were borderline plus pitches. He unleashed a pair of back-to-back curveballs that had excellent two-plane movement at one point and left the entire scouting section very impressed.
Overall, it's definitely too much to put too much stock in one performance, but McGuire's upside is certainly in question at this point. He completely overmatched Kyle Parker, so that was interesting, but you have to wonder how much it's possible to believe there's a lot of upside in his arsenal, though I'm still a fan of him as a top ten pick.
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