Casey Fossum is a soft-tossing lefty with the usual unusual release. They'll have to make this guy throw strikes if they are going to score a whole bunch of runs. The Pirates drew seven walks last night so maybe there's hope for them solving their struggles with soft-tossing lefties. If you missed it, make sure you go back and read Rob Mackowiak's analysis of the situation.
John Van Benschoten is our big right-handed starter from Kent State University. He was great in Spring Training and suffered a bit of a letdown when sent to Nashville on the last day of camp. After a few rough starts, he got right and flew pretty straight. Like all young guys, he's still learning. Nate Silver's PECOTA projections system finds these guys with similar stats, height, and weight at the same age: Charlie Lea, Willie Banks, Jim Clancy, A.J. Burnett, Jack Morris, Jason Schmidt, Pete Vuckovich. Kip Wells also shows up in that list. It's an encouraging list.
In this recent piece by John Manual for Baseball America, Mickey White, the scouting director in 2001 who drafted JVB as a pitcher - most thought he projected as a big-league hitter - tells how he let JVB hit in A ball and then decided he was right to draft him as a pitcher. He saw a guy "with long, lean arms" who reminded him "of Michael Jordan when he played baseball." Curious analogy. What if Michael Jordan had tried to make it as a pitcher?
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