A Pseudo Roy Oswalt Scouting Report

I had noble intentions of doing a front-page Roy Oswalt predictions post earlier, but, well, you know how that gets torpedoed sometimes. Since I had already cut these heat maps, though, and since I didn't want them to go waste, here's a pseudo Roy Oswalt scouting report that should give you at least some idea of the velocity on his offerings, how often he throws them, and where he likes to throw them. 

This data is all from the 2011 season; I didn't include 2009-10, as I felt going exclusively with 2011 would better reflect the kind of pitcher that we would see in 2012. All data is courtesy of the excellent ESPN Stats & Info database.

Fastball: 91.3 mph average, 95.0 mph max, 61.9% to LHB, 59.9% to RHB

Change-up: 82.2 mph average, 19.6% to LHB, 19.8% to RHB * (I wonder if some of these alleged change-ups to right-handed batters are being misclassified and are actually a different type of pitch, as you don't typically see pitchers throwing change-ups very much -- or at all -- to same-handed batters. Just to illustrate my point by pulling a name out of thin air, Colby Lewis has thrown 143 change-ups this season -- and according to the pitch classification data, only five of them have been thrown to right-handed batters.)

Curveball: 70.6 mph average, 10.5% to LHB, 8.8% to RHB

Slider: 84.0 mph average, 8.0% to LHB, 11.6% to RHB

Roy Oswalt records a whiff on 6/17 at Round Rock:

Roy Oswalt induces a GIDP on 6/2 at Round Rock:

Personal views: I saw Oswalt pitch on 6/12 at Frisco, and had this to say based on my personal observations:

I was in attendance up at last night's Double-A Frisco/Midland tilt for Roy Oswalt's latest tune-up start, and I pretty much concur with Gil LeBreton's account of Oswalt's performance -- okayish, but not all there yet. He never established any perceptible feel or command for the curveball, which he often buried so far into the dirt that Midland's hitters were given no reason to swing, and the fastball (consistently in the 91-92 mph range on the Frisco gun) was cracked with authority when he missed up in the zone. Oswalt declared that it was his worst effort stuff-wise this year, and I concur with that sentiment from my perspective behind the first base dugout; he did make it to the 85-pitch mark, so he's almost at that point where he'll be stretched out enough to pitch in the majors, but he won't be ready in four days, and he may even require one more minor league start on top of that.

Scott Lucas and Jason Cole have had some good stuff on Oswalt as well. Cole dropped some free video (via Ted Price) and a few scouting tidbits on Oswalt earlier this month.