Was that the confirmation (the hat and the statement about leaving) or did he also say something more direct? I think we can reasonably conclude that he's almost definitely a Met just by those things but was wondering if there was more to it.
He retweeted something about being rich after graduating HS and he keeps mentioning the Mets. He's almost certainly signing.
Ok good. I hope he considers $100,000 rich. I know I certainly did at that age!
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:57 pm Posts: 57870 Location: New York, NY
Quote:
Like Teddy Stankiewicz in the second round, projection is a big part of what the Mets like about Oswalt. He's listed at 6-4, 200 pounds, and he has a tall, lanky frame that you can picture adding muscle in time. Right now he's throwing 88-90 or so, bumping 92, so it's possible that the righty can add a couple miles-per-hour to get regularly in the low-90s, for roughly average velocity. The fastball also has a little bit of sink down in the zone. His breaking ball--and honestly, I can only call it that, though I think he's trying to throw a curve--is a hard pitch and it'll sometimes show some hard drop to it. It can be at least an above average offering. Other times it looks like a slider or he spins it so much it bounces way in front of the plate. He really has no idea what the pitch is going to do once it leaves his hand. Command over both pitches is really more an idea at this point than a reality. I have not seen a changeup, but Baseball America says he is working on one.
Mechanically, there's a lot to work on. His arm action is too long and has some late pronation. He doesn't stride in line to the plate. He sometimes has trouble finding his release point and arm slot. These things are excusable and even expected because he's so new to pitching. It's going to take time for him to figure these things out. You never know how a kid will take to a new way of pitching, so there's definitely some uncertainty, and he's not young for a prep prospect (I'm not sure I would classify him as old, either, but a month or two older and I certainly would).
The upside here is as a fourth starter or so, maybe a third if more than the average goes his way. Nothing to sneeze at when you're talking about a seventh-round pick, but he has an awful lot of work to do before that happens.
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