Power Pros Forum

The scouting report on Bruce Chen: Throws a four-seam fastball that moves well, with a big curve. Oddly, there's no mention of his change-up, which as we soon learn is his bread-and-butter pitch. The report also notes that he "must travel light," given this is his ninth different organization in pro ball. Aside from the question of whether or not that's a scout's call, Chen comes into this game looking like a new pitcher. In 59 innings pitched, he's got a strikeout-to-walk ratio rate of about 2.5 to 1, his best figure in five years, with a 3.51 ERA. Though he's still a flyball-to-neutral pitcher susceptible to home runs--his career-long bugaboo--Chen has learned to change speeds and locations effectively, keeping hitters off balance better than he has in the past. It's almost as if, five years after leaving the Braves, the tutelage of Leo Mazzone and the example of Tom Glavine, he's just now having his delayed reaction, going away, away, away with his change and befuddling hitters, like Glavine in his prime.

You can see the new Chen from the get-go. Working to Inge, he throws a sinker at 81 mph taken for strike one, then a high fastball at 84 to even the count. He works the outside corner with another fastball at 84, inducing a very late swing by Inge, who seems to be looking off-speed given the new junk-balling scouting report on Chen. On 1-2, Chen takes a few miles off a curve for the punchout. He starts Martinez with a change-up called for a strike at the belt. Chen then moves the hitter's eyes, throwing a big, bending curve that drops for strike two. He moves the plane again with high, inside fastball fouled off for strike two. Chen then snaps off an even bigger curve--a 73-mph yakker that makes the Camden Yards faithful go "ooooh...aahhh" mid-pitch--for called strike three. Against Dmitri Young, Chen throws all change-ups, except for one fastball at 88 where Chen visibly has to exert himself just to get that high.

Fat pitch would probably be one attribute I would give him