Scouting Reports on Hughes, Bailey and Gallardo

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.