I was watching the yankees-rangers game last night and the first place rangers (yes that's right) featured a young left handed pitcher who if you didn't watch you'd figure he's not that good, but in truth the stat line doesn't tell the whole story. Indeed, a final line of 5 innings, ten hits 6 runs (five earned) two walks and five strikeouts doesn't really scream dominance or even effective, but in truth between the lines I saw a dominant pitcher. For sure Holland is far from polished and has a long way to go before he becomes a really good starter, but the combination of his minor league numbers and the presense he has on the mound the bravado he exudes I could not help but feel like I was watching the beginning of a great careerfor this hard throwing lefty.
I had heard about the young Holland before here and there prior to yesterday and from what I heard there was little not to like. Ranked the number two pitcher in the Rangers farm system, Holland has the build at 6'2 190 pounds, and the stuff scouts love, throwing in the mid 90s and great secondary stuff (he even has a great pitchers name, come on tell me Derek Holland doesn't sound like a guy who's a nasty pitcher). But probably more importantly he has the pedigree in the minors to back up his rep. In only two years and change Holland shot through the system through 221.12 innings he dominated with a 2.68 ERA sriking out 245 while only walking an insanely low 64 and a tidy WHIP of 1.064, and he's not even their best pitching prospect! Of course he's playing in Texas and not a big market like New York or Boston so he came up to the majors a few weeks ago without more much a notice from a few fantasy baseball addicts so nobody really took notice, that is until he played the yankees.
After spending a few weeks in the bullpen where he pitched fairly well and a first start against the lowly Houston Astros where he pitched okay, 5 2/3 innings three earned his second start came up against the red-hot yankees where he decided to get pretty ballsy. I don't have the exact quote here but he basically told the press the day of his start well I haven't thrown a curveball since high school but I've been working on it here and there and I'm going to start throwing it tonight, I'm confident in it, and I was a little shocked to hear it. Here he is a kid up from the minors, one start in the majors and he's just telling the new york yankees I've never thrown this pitch before in professional ball but I'm going to tonight and I dare you to hit it. I mean there's a fine line between being ballsy and just being stupid and its very possible he crossed it, but to hear a young kid go up against the yankees and not even bat an eye is quite impressive.
Unfortunately for Holland his uncomprising bravado did not exactly translate to the field of play against the hard hitting yankees. Indeed, as his line will show you he was at times tattooed leaving his stuff over the plate too much, but at least for me I was impressed by the little moments. The way he stood confidently on the mound his demeanor and the stuff that he tossed so effortlessly past guys. I think in perticular of Hideki Matusi's first at-bat against the lefty which perticularly impressed me in the second inning. Matsui, a left handed hitter which would make you think the odds are against him actually crushes lefties and despite his slowing down recently he still can turn on the inside fastball with an incredible ferocity, but against Holland he just looked plain silly. He gave it his best hack on the high and tight gas but Matsui couldn't catch up to it, it was remarkable. Of course the next time he was up Holland left that same pitch over the middle and Matsui crushed it, when he was hitting his spots he was nasty and unrelenting.
Of course this is just my perception of the performance and I'm sure that there are lot of fans out there who saw him and would say the exact opposite. After all, he got crushed at times, Matsui's homer, Texiera crushed one into deep left, even the incomprable fourth catcher Kevin Cash got a big double off of him, but he never let it get to him. Holland knew his stuff was good he knew he was good, it just wasn't his day and even as he left the mound he did not appear to be defeated. For me that combination of great makeup and stuff and a healthy amount of confidence is the recipe for success for a pitcher. At 22 he's young enough where he'll have time to work out these difficulties locate better and trust his secondary stuff that he didn't need to use in the minors and become every bit the pitcher I see in him. All he needs to do now is do it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment