A couple notes from last night’s game before I post the Porcello scouting report in a few minutes…

Inside: what really happened with Mark Melancon last night, how each pitcher looked, and a few interesting Tiger relievers, after the jump…

- Mark Melancon is not hurt. He didn’t enter the game after throwing warmup pitches (that I took video of and analyzed like the Zapruder film), because T-Yanks Manager Luis Sojo forgot to put him on the roster. Just a simple brain fart. Don’t feel bad for freaking out though Yankee fans, until the game ended and this was figured out, Yankee brass in the stands were in a state of panic as well.

- A few interesting relievers pitchers followed Porcello for the Tigers. First was righty Angel Castro who threw a flat four-seamer at 92-94 and a slow, lazy slider at 81-82. He has a bowling-ball style body and a violent finish with a fall off to 1B and a borderline comical amount of recoil. The other interesting arm for Lakeland was righty Freddy Dolsi who sat at 93-94 and consistently fell off to the 3B (very uncommon for RHP) with some balance problems in his finish and lacking command as a result. Didn’t even see a breaking ball from him, but these are the types of guys that get thrown in trades last minute, hard-throwers without much value as-is but some upside with a good pitching coach—which every team thinks they have.

- Indy league find RHP Stephen Artz came in to close out the 9th for the T-Yanks and pitched 87-89, but has been in the low 90’s in the past. He has a deceptive delivery that doesn’t show his arm in the back of his motion and hides the ball until the last second. This makes the ball jump on hitters, and his 73 mph 12-to-6 curve is a nice change of pace.

- For those keeping track at home, the other three pitchers in the game were Yanks starter Eric Hacker (89-92, fringy off-speed stuff, best I’ve seen him throw before), Wilkins Arias (I’ve seen him up to 91 in the past, but he was 85-88 with an average slurve), and Tigers reliever Gabriel Benitez (who I’ve seen up to 95 in the past but was 88-89 with an average change on opening day)

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