Wade Davis August 23, 2009

I decided to go to Syracuse to catch the Durham Bulls vs. the Syracuse Chiefs. I wanted to see how good Jennings, Hellickson, and Davis were. In this entry I am going to write about Wade Davis start. He was fair in this outing. I am not sure but I think a hour rain delay may have hampered him in this outing. In this outing Davis sat at 92-93, threw his curveball in the high 70's to low 80's, and threw a hard changeup/2 seamer at 85-87.

1st inning: Davis struggled with his command greatly and threw 26 pitches in the inning. He sat at 92-93 and hit 94 a handful of times. He threw 3 curveballs in the inning and none of them looked like a plus pitch. He only thew a couple of high 80's changeups.
2nd inning: Davis lost a touch of velocity this inning and sat at 91-92 hitting 93 twice including getting a strikeout on a high 93 MPH fastball, but his curveball was from plus to an average pitch and he threw four of them in the inning ranging from 78-83 MPH. He threw two changeups 84 and 87 MPH.
3rd inning: This was a very quick inning for Davis as the chiefs were aggressive going after his fastball which was down to 90-91. He threw four pitches the whole inning all fastballs.
4th inning: Davis velocity was up and down this inning as he threw a fastball anywhere from 88 to 94 MPH, the 88 MPH fastball could have been his cutter or two seamer. Davis only threw one curveball in the inning and it was an above average pitch at 81 MPH. He threw one changeup according to me and that was at 83 MPH.
5th inning: Davis lost his top end velocity in this inning and ranged from 88-92 MPH mostly in the 88-89 range, while throwing two curveballs 78 and 79 MPH, and one change up at 85 MPH.
6th inning: Davis upped his velocity in this inning hitting 93 and 94 MPH at times and hit 95 MPH. He also mixed in some curveballs but threw an absolute hanger at 81 MPH that got crushed for a HR. He also threw some fastballs in the 88-89 range, and didn't throw a single changeup this inning.

From what I based on this start was that Davis doesn't have one plus pitch currently, but possibly has two above average pitches right now in his fastball and curveball. Davis didn't show much of a third pitch in this outing which made me think he has a ceiling of a 3rd starter, but could be a good guy to have in the bullpen if he incorporates more velocity on his fastball and refines his curveball a bit more.