As promised, from Keith Law, Director of Scouting for ESPN.

Thanks again to Keith for helping me out with scouting reports. Keith is one of the best at his job, and you should be reading his work over at ESPN. Here they are:

Hughes: Before he pulled a hamstring back in May, Hughes would typically work at 90-94 mph with an above-average curveball with a sharp downward break. Wednesday night (his return from the injury), however, his stuff was average at best. His fastball was 88-93, mostly 89-91, and it only had some life when he threw it up in the zone. He threw two breaking balls – a soft, slow roller curveball in the low 70s, and a shorter slider around 80 mph that he worked to bury down in the zone or below it – and flashed a changeup, but none of those pitches were plus, and the curveball was absolutely below-average.

Unfortunately, Hughes doesn’t seem to have the feel for pitching to alter his approach to match his diminished stuff, although it would be unusual for a pitcher his age to have that. He spent much of the night aiming his fastball at the corners of the strike zone, missing more often than not, and he kept popping his curveball rather than junking it in favor of the slider, which was the better pitch on this particular night.

Why is Hughes’ stuff down? One possibility is that his left leg is still causing him trouble, since both the hamstring injury that landed him on the DL and the ankle injury that kept him there were to his left leg. His landing is now very soft, and it looked like he was babying that leg rather than landing firmly and pushing off that leg as he drives through his delivery. If the leg is indeed still bothering him, it would explain both the loss of velocity and the lack of sharpness on his curveball.
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Gallardo: Good-sized kid with 90-93 fastball and a hard 12-to-6 curve in the upper 70s, as well as good control. Three-pitch pitcher with no single knockout pitch but everything slightly above-average.
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Bailey His performances weren’t good. He’s a thrower more than a pitcher, although that’s probably an extreme statement since he has some feel for pitching - he’s just not advanced like the other two guys. Big velocity, touches 97 and works 93-95, with a breaking ball that’s a bit inconsistent but when it’s on it’s wicked, with a very sharp downward break.
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Generally, these reports tend to confirm my initial impression that Gallardo has the most promise of them all. I must say I am surprised at the pessimistic scouting report on Hughes. Perhaps it is because of his injury, but the fact that Keith believes his grasp of overall pitching feel is weak is worrisome. It will be interesting to watch how Hughes does in the spring, and I will try to remember to follow up with Keith next year.

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