Orioles @ Blue Jays, Sunday 8/9

If you can, tune in at 1:00 PM to watch an amazing pitching match up between the Orioles and Jays, as Brian Matusz makes his second major league start against Roy Halladay.

Matusz, for those who don't know (and that's probably a lot of you considering how irrelevant the O's have been) is arguably the best LHP yet to achieve rookie status in pro baseball. He throws four different pitches (fastball, changeup, slider, curve) and locates them all for strikes. His fastball is about 92-93, but what makes him so good is his breaking stuff. His slider down and in against RHPs is his out pitch, and his curve is plus-plus. He throws two types of changeups: The circle change and a straight change. While his change is his weakest pitch, he can still get guys out on it, as he did in when he recorded his first big league strikeout against Miguel Cabrera off a circle change. He truly attacks hitters, winning with deception: Players have a very hard time picking up his pitches out of his hand.

Against the Tigers in his first start, Matusz faced a lineup comprised entirely of right-handed hitters (welcome to the bigs, kid). He went five, giving up one earned run and striking out five. He should be facing a less potent lineup today in the Jays.

Matusz has top-of-the-rotation stuff and command, and he could honestly be one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball as soon as next year. He's young, sure, but he's enormously polished and has a lot of experience. Between the ages of 18 and 22 he's thrown about 500 innings between college, the US National team, and the minors, and he's dominated every level he's pitched at. I don't mean "had success", I mean dominated.

Last night, Brian Roberts fouled a ball off of his leg; he's day-to-day, and so the Orioles have really had to shake up their lineup. Lineup courtesy of Roch Kubatko:

1 - Felix Pie LF
2 - Caesar Izturis SS
3 - Adam Jones CF
4 - Nick Markakis RF
5 - Aubrey Huff 1B
6 - Melvin Mora 3B
7 - Luke Scott DH
8 - Matt Wieters C
9 - Robert Andino

Yikes. That lineup is, uh, impotent. Manager Dave Trembley is pretty clearly going with defense, especially by starting Pie over Reimold in left. I understand that you want the kid to build confidence, but it's going to be hard for him to win when you can't score runs, and it's going to be hard to score runs when you bat Izturis second against Roy Halladay. I guess the objective is to try and run against the Jays.

Personally, I would have had Reimold DH and had him bat second (and, for the record, batting Reimold second is the best managerial decision Trembley's made all year); I would have had Izturis and Andino bat eight and ninth, respectively; I would have batted Markakis third and Jones fourth to create a righty-lefty-righty 2-3-4. I don't really have a problem with Mora starting over Wigginton, since 1.) It's not like Wigginton is that great a hitter anyways and 2.) If you've got the strategy of "Put a great defense behind Matusz", that's fine and you should stick to it. Don't expect Wieters to see many pitches to hit. If he's patient I think he can work some walks.

Brian Matusz is only getting his shot now because Brad Bergesen took a line drive off his shin about a week ago; Matusz should be shut down after maybe another four or five starts. If you want to get a glimpse of the future, tune in today.