Abundance of quality young lefties exciting to see
By J.P. Ricciardi
ESPN
Archive
Have you ever paid attention to how many quality left-handed pitchers there are in baseball? They are all young and developing at the same time. The game has gone quite awhile without this many good left-handers, and you have to admit it's pretty exciting to watch them in action. I know organizations are excited, too.
If you look at the Orioles' Brian Matusz, the Blue Jays' Ricky Romero, the Rays' David Price and John Danks of the White Sox, they all bring vital things to the table. Most of them have power arms with excellent fastballs. In the case of Matusz and Romero, they both have command of three pitches: the fastball, curveball and changeup. Price has the big fastball and developing breaking ball.
It's important to mention Toronto's Brett Cecil and Texas' Derek Holland as lefties with the potential to be great. As they continue to develop, they are likely to enjoy a lot of success.
Take a look at Romero. Last year he won 13 games as a rookie, and with Roy Halladay gone, he'll need to assume more responsibility as a front-line starter. It is pretty clear that the expectations on him are a little higher. To win that many games as a rookie in the AL East says a lot about who he is and who is he capable of becoming.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/baseballtonight (April 30th)
I don't post much here anymore, but I thought that this would be appreciated here.
