Richard Durrett liked Derek Holland’s debut. The Rangers brought him in with the bases loaded:
Credit manager Ron Washington and pitching coach Mike Maddux for putting him in the game despite a difficult situation. You want to ease a guy into his debut, but at the same time if you warm him up and a lefty-iefty matchup presents itself, show some confidence by going to him anyway. Good for them.
Holland gave up three hits in 2 1/3 innings without allowing a run. He struck out two and walked none, throwing more than two-thirds of his pitches for strikes.
Holland has a nice slider that he made some hitters look bad with. The fastball isn’t blazing but it’s decent enough. He may have to work on the off-speed pitches, though, to make it big as a starter.
Sooner or later the Rangers have to see if their young pitchers are as good as Baseball America keeps saying they are. The current staff is stinking as bad as ever with a few exceptions like Millwood and Francisco.