Scouting Report: Garza

Matt Garza, MIN

This young stud made his major league debut tonight vs. TOR, the best hitting AL club. (Garza did hold minor leaguers to ~.175 opp. avg vs. him)
Here are a few points about him:

• 4 pitches (only saw 3 tonight: 92-96mph 4-seam fastball, 3-6 curve, 76-78mph changeup)
• good movements on fastballs, side-to-side movement off delivery, good zaps going into the strikezone
• can pich high in the strike zone, ~93mph 4-seam fastball
• only throws curve when ahead in the count (one curve with 2-2 count and one with 2-0); curves are thrown away down from right-handed hitters
• two moves when pitching from the stretch: one big leg kick and a short slide step that is used more of the time
• pitches away from left-handed hitters, mostly just fastballs, not many off-speed's
• misses fastballs high and the inside corners at times and gets hit hard
• may have a problem getting left-handed hitters when misses the outside fastballs

Garza has good stuff, which is easy to see after striking the first 2 hitters in the gm with nice curves (think Roy Oswalt-like #2's). He needs some more polishing on his off-speed's, especially his change-up's; his change-up is decent, but doesn't look like he can throw them for strikes consistently. His fastballs have good movements and can get the high strikes middle up or up inside , ~94mph. His #'s tonight vs. TOR may not look too prettty, but he's got good enough stuff to be a good SP in the big league. Welcome to the MLB!