I'm not sure if this is the best way to instill confidence in your young starter who is getting ready for the biggest game of his career, but the ever honest Ron Washington gives Jeff Caplan his candid assessment of where Derek Holland is in his development:
Right now he's not a total thoroughbred. He's just a little pony, but he'll develop into a thoroughbred.
He does continue to speak positively of his development:
Early in the year when things went wrong, he didn't know how to put a stop to it. Now we understand that when things go wrong, the one thing that every pitcher wants to do in those situations is minimize the damage. He's done a good job for quite a while now of minimizing the damage. What goes with that is maturity. He's matured. He's turning into a quality pitcher.
I think I'd prefer to go the Swingers speech route, but to each his own.