I'm going to be at Friday night's game between Missouri and #21 K-State.

The pitching match-up is supposed to be national wins leader A.J. Morris against first round draft prospect Kyle Gibson... I'll be sure to take some pics and report any first hand observations. Should be good.

A few observations from tonight's K-State v. Mizzou game:

1) I was sitting two rows behind home plate; tons of scouts there. Most wearing just street clothes, but there was definitely representation from the Mets and Reds.

2) After the 1st inning, I asked a scout behind me for the readings on Gibson and Morris' fastball... he had them both at 90-91, which is on the low end of the spectrum for Gibson, but just about where you'd expect Morris to be.

3) Kyle Gibson pitched a complete game, battling through what was probably a 30+ pitch ninth inning. K-State had a few EBH's but none hit all that hard and Mizzou's defense was pretty shaky. Gibson has a really smooth delivery, with very little wasted motion. In addition to his fastball, he throws a really tight slider that was his primary strikeout pitch tonight. He also threw a few change-ups. Physically, he's every bit the 6'6" he's listed as... during warm-ups you could see he was about a head taller than anyone else on the field for Mizzou.

4) A.J. Morris actually outpitched Gibson for the first eight innings, taking a four-hit shutout into the 9th. He gave up back to back hits and was pulled, at which point the K-State bullpen proceeded to blow the game. It's a little hard to describe his delivery... as he pushes off, he almost kinks up (with his elbow coming in towards his knee) before he uncoils and releases from a 3/4 arm slot. Morris worked exclusively off a fastball/slider combo, which kept Missouri hitters off-balance the whole night. His fastball looked pretty straight, but he kept it low and induced a lot of groundball outs. His slider was slower and looser than Gibson's, almost like a slurve.

5) Both pitcher's had excellent command... no walks, one hit batsmen all night.

Not sure if this provides any relevant information to anyone, but I figured it would be worth posting. I have a video of each pitcher, which I will try and post along with a scouting report of Morris in the draft scouting reports thread tomorrow.

Edit: Final Pitching Lines
Gibson: 9 IP, 11 H, 9 K/0 BB, 136 pitches
Morris: 8+ IP, 6 H, 5 K/0 BB, 104 pitches