Brandon Webb, the former Cy Young award winner who is now under contract with the Texas Rangers and hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since Opening Day in 2009, pitched 2 shut out innings in an extended spring training start the other day. Webb’s first pitch was a 78 mph fastball. He topped out at 84. Throughout the start his fastball averaged about 81 while his change up was in the low 70’s and his curve was in the mid 60’s. Woah. That’s high school velocity. That sounds like a pretty typical Division 3 college pitcher. That is not professional velocity yet Webb still got all 6 batters he faced out.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this, to be honest. Clearly, Webb’s velocity isn’t very good. Even though he was never a very hard thrower, he was considerably higher than the high 70’s when he was winning Cy Youngs. That said, reports are that he still as good sink on his fastball, good movement on the change, and late bite on the curve. Webb thinks he can find a few more miles more an hour but isn’t too worried, he thinks he can be successful as he is. I guess I’m inclined to agree. On the one hand, I can’t really see how a guy with a 78 mph fastball can be really successful in the Majors, let alone as a starter but on the other hand, Brandon Webb has always been really good. If his sinker moves as much as it did a few years ago, he’ll still be really tough to hit. Otherwise, it really is a bp fastball coming in to big league hitter. I think that if and when Brandon Webb returns to the pros, he’ll either be really successful with the stuff he has, or get hit around the park. I also think that we’ll find out real quick.
-Max Frankel
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