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Q.  Soooooo ... what does scouting tell us?  What kind of pitcher is he?

A.  SSI's defining comp-attributes are:

• Hot 92+ fastball
• Four pitches used 10% or more each (bewildering offspeed game) ...
• ... therefore no more than 55% fastballs 
• Good command and mechanics
• NO signature wipeout pitch

Maybe it's just me, but I consider this the Cuban template, pitching based on confusion.  Not junkball pitching, because the dude hits 96 mph.  Confusion pitching.

Yes, yes, am aware that Noesi is not from Cuba.

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Q.  Which right hand ML pitchers are in this "Confusion" template?

A.  Right now you've got Matt Garza, Jason Hammel, and Felix.  Justin Verlander is getting close; he's using a slider more and more.

Cubans in this template included Luis Tiant and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez.  Gil Meche was in it.  Pedro loosely fit in this template, because he used so many arm angles on all his pitches.  John Lackey might have been in it, but he had too good a curve ball; I consider him to be in the 12-6 template with Mussina and Blyleven.

You have lousy pitchers in it, too; Solomon Torres threw five pitches, none of them well.  Ryan Franklin threw tons of pitches, though he couldn't have hit 96 mph with a .253 Weatherby.

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Q.  Any remarks about this template?

A.  I never expect pitchers in this template to become great.  They tend to become quality, respected MLB(TM) veterans.  

I don't know what it is.  They seem to top out at where Matt Garza is now.  Maybe their lack of a wipeout pitch just leads to lots of trench warfare type, 7 IP, 3 ER sort of battles.  You old salts remember Brian Holman?

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