Oswalt pitches in Round Rock (Updated)-Off the Radar

The Rangers signed Roy Oswalt to a 5-6 million dollar deal for the rest of the season. Reports are that he will be “ready” to pitch in the Majors in about a month. Oswalt has had some back problems over the past couple of years, and those injuries are what scared many teams away from a high asking number. However he didn’t have any shoulder or arm injuries, so the question is probably not “can he still pitch?” In 2011 with the Phillies, Oswalt had a 3.44 FIP, 2.5 WAR, and 2.82 K/BB ratio. He could still pitch. So when I went to see his first start of 2012 in AAA Round Rock, the question wasn’t so much “can he still pitch” (like the question was with Manny, “can he still hit”?)?, it was more “how does he look?” or “how ready is he?”. He was scheduled to throw either 2 or 3 innings (similar to a first Spring Training start), and he ended up throwing 2 innings.

Here was his first inning velocity numbers: 83 MPH, 87, 68, 86, 83, 85, 86, 78, 83, 77, 85, 91, 92, 69, 68, 94, 92.

The big one is obviously the 94 MPH, which he threw for a swinging strikeout with the bases loaded in the first. He started the game by getting ahead 0-2 before bouncing a curveball. He then pumped a pitch down the middle for a line drive hit. He fell behind the next hitter 3-1 before walking him. He wasn’t getting a lot of swings and misses, but he threw a lot of breaking balls. His inconsistent slider looked kind of flat. A weak grounder up the middle turned into a hit thanks to a poor fielding play before he blew a hitter away with a fastball. A grounder was turned into a double play to end the first. He was getting lots of weak contact (other than a line drive right at 3rd base for an out). Nothing really got to where the outfielders were standing, if balls went to the outfield, it was to the very shallow part. As the velocity readings show, he started sort of backwards, throwing a bunch of breaking balls early before throwing mainly fastballs. He was mostly 91 MPH on his fastball, and he got some good downward movement on it. Last year with the Phillies, he was throwing 91.2-91.5 on his sinker/fastball. Obviously he still has the slow curve, and he was throwing both of his breaking balls for strikes.

Here is a video of him pitching (click on link)

There is obviously still a lot of work to be done by Oswalt to get ready to throw 6-7 innings consistently, but the velocity is there. The time off didn’t hurt his velocity, but we will see where it sits as he continues to pile up some innings. The big question for Oswalt will be his health. The stuff is still there, along with the command to be a very good starting pitcher just like he has been his whole career. Whether his back is able to withstand 100 innings is the only question with Oswalt.

UPDATE:

I went and saw Oswalt pitch in Frisco (the Rangers AA affiliate) to get another look on Tuesday June the 12th. He was pitching against the Midland Rockhounds, the AA affiliate of the Athletics. Oswalt was in AA only because Round Rock (AAA) was on the road in Albuquerque.

He was about 90-92 MPH on his fastball, but hit 93 MPH in the 2nd. In the 1st at-bat, he gave up 3 fouls before walking the batter. He gave up a lot of fouls early on. A lot of his fouls came on hitters swinging late on the fastball. He hung a high slider but it was taken and then he bounced one. He got a strikeout with a 69 MPH curve, but he was having control problems with the pitch and he couldn’t really get it to the plate. He jammed Michael Choice on a fastball and ended up kind of ditching the slider in the 2nd. It certainly didn’t look good in the first. He then came back with it to Michael Spina to get a ball and a strike on it. He then gave up a hard double to Spina on a 92 MPH fastball. He then blew a couple of fastballs by exceptionally poor hitter Ryan Ortiz for 2 swinging strikes. Oswalt then tried putting him away with breaking balls and it turned into a 7 pitch at-bat before Ortiz flew out. One slider registered at 85 MPH, way off the usual, this usually means he was struggling with the pitch. It was just a dreadful pitch and he insisted on continuing to throw it. Oswalt hit 93 MPH again after giving up an RBI double. The next hitter also had a hard RBI hit. He was still getting whiffs on his fastball though, even at 91 MPH. A bad luck single off a slider was followed by an infield fly-ball before he was taken out.