Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Joel Roza on Lyles

The Caller-Times' Joel Roza (a buddy of Astros County) has a new article up on Jordan Lyles, and it's well-worth your time, given Roza's proximity to Lyles through much of 2010.

Your money quote:
Lyles typically reached the 80 pitch mark by late in the 4th or early in the 5th inning, depending on how many hits he’d given up. While these concerns are all fixable (much like Castro’s throwing to second base, which in person, concerned me, but was quickly quailed upon his arrival in Houston), they remain concerns for the time being.

Can Lyles hang back in certain situations, sacrificing the strikeout for a quick groundball, thus saving his pitch count? Can his changeup become more deceptive and eventually serve as an effective out pitch? Can he add a little more loop to his breaking ball? Lyles’ underlying advantage is his expert-to-basic grasp of five pitches. If he can turn four of them into effective major league-caliber pitches, the sky is the limit.

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