..............

(Usually Ruffin throws a tight-spin, 82 mph slider that breaks considerably harder than other ML sliders.  Oddly, on Monday, Ruffin busted out a 77 mph curve ball that broke like Tom Gordon's.

No wonder they talked about this guy as a starting pitcher.  That's three KO weapons.

I wonder if he deliberately throws EITHER all sliders OR all curve balls off his fastball in any given outing.  If so, it would impress the stuffing out of me.  A pitcher's feel for two pitches is much easier to maintain, especially in a 15-pitch burst out of the bullpen.)

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=== The Ugly ===

1.  The pretzel that his lead foot draws in the air.

2.  The lack of lower-body power that one gets, when one thinks that one's front foot (?) is super cool.

3.  The Tigers claim that he's got a hard-sinking fastball and is like Huston Street.  He's actually got a sailing fastball, doesn't throw grounders, and doesn't have anything like Street's command in the zone.  However, both people do play baseball.

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=== The Good ===

1.  The slider is a legit dominator.  It is a whopping -12 mph off his fastball, good arm action, crackling break.  The slider has a Bedard-type run value so far.

2.  Ruffin has a lot of "life" on his fastball.

3.  His makeup and competitiveness.  He loves to throw strikes.  His first 6.2 IP in the bigs, he has walked zero.  Would you?  In a triple-deck stadium for the first time?

4.  He loves to throw his slider -- he's got the good sense to throw it 30% or more of the time.  He throws it on 0-0 and on 1-0.  He thinks during competition.  He throws some sliders on 1-1 and some fastballs on 1-2.

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=== The Bad ===

1.  His swinging-strike rate is lousy right now.  Mostly because he's wild with his fastball.

2.  He's running a sky-high fly ball rate (although that's because his motion causes him to leave the ball up).

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=== Dr's Prognosis ===

The talent -- and the guile -- is there to get 8th-inning outs for a contending baseball team.  

There is no way to chart the Z-axis movement on his slider -- but the typical ML reliever throws his slider -8 mph off his fastball and Ruffin's is -12 mph.  That's 18 inches of Z-axis "movement" along the string that Ruffin pulls, and there's a nasty break on it into the bargain.

If he starts locating his fastball, he's going to strike out a boatload of pesky rodent enemy hitters, no doubts there.  He's already fanning 8 per game.

***

Ron Shandler's recipe for "closing" is TOG -- talent, opportunity, and guile.  Guile being makeup.  Ruffin seems to have that.

Apparently, Ruffin needs to iron out the mechanics, and that's all that stands between him and big league glory. Let's hope they get on it.

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BABVA,

Dr D