Brent Leach has joined the Dodgers from AA. He's 26 and probably never going to be a control pitcher, but he throws hard, is left-handed and isn't on the disabled list. Hong-Chih Kuo, on the other hand, is on the DL, and that gives Leach a job in the majors.
After a scoreless inning on May 6, Leach came out for a second straight night of work against the Nationals. Leach failed to retire a single batter, and was charged with two runs. Washington sandwiched a pair of line-drives around an intentional walk, quickly chasing the Dodger rookie.
Brett Cecil's call-up for the Blue Jays may not have made a lot of headlines, but 14 innings, 12 strikeouts and just two walks later, the headlines are being made. Along with the pair of free passes, Cecil has hit three batters and give up 11 hits and just one earned run (two total).
Leach throws hard, with a four-seamer consistently around 94 mph. His change-up sinks and tails off the path of his fastball, and with 9 less mph. It looks like Leach is a typical lefty, only showing the change to righties and switching to a slider against lefties. In Leach's case, the slider is 80 mph with decent movement. Not much more to say after just over a half-dozen batters faced.
Cecil came out throwing 95 in his debut, but quickly settled down into the 92/93 range. Against the A's the next time out, it was just a notch slower, That's, in part, due to the differences between the PITCHf/x data coming out of Toronto and Oakland. He features a four-seam fastball and a two-seamer with tailing action. Cecil throws all of his pitches to both left- and right-handed hitters, although his change-up is almost exclusively reserved for the righties.
Cecil throws an average looking slider with decent velocity. It's a pitch that sits near 85, although, while pumped up, he threw one close to 90. He rounds out his arsenal with a curveball that isn't much slower than some of his sliders, checking in around 81 mph.
Leach will be a stop-gap option, but if he performs well he could stick around somewhere, someday. Cecil, meanwhile, looks to be the real deal. Two starts certainly don't tell a full story, but he's off to a great start. We'll see how he fares against some better stocked offenses, though.