Wade Davis' second big league start, which came in a 9-1 loss Saturday against the Red Sox, didn't go as smoothly as the first, but in his two-plus innings of work he still showed why he's one of the top pitching prospects in the game and why the Rays felt they could trade Scott Kazmir for more prospect depth.
Davis is a big, physical kid, listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, with some room left to fill out, giving him plenty of workhorse potential. His arm works well, he gets on top of the ball from a three-quarters slot, and he repeated his delivery.
He showed four pitches on Tuesday -- two- and four-seam fastballs, a curve and a show-me slider. The four-seamer was 92-95 mph with good downhill plane but lacked lateral movement, while the two-seamer was 90-92 with sharp tailing action down and away from left-handed hitters. His curveball is an out pitch right now, 79-82 mph with great depth and two-plane action, and he showed tremendous confidence in it, doubling it up, throwing it to left-handers and (a little late) flipping one in for a first-pitch strike in his final inning. The slider was his worst pitch and he didn't throw many -- 86-87 mph with long break that puts it out of the strike zone; he also falls off harder when trying to throw the slider away to right-handed hitters.