Phillies Pitching Prospect: Out Man!

The Phillies have four starters set for this season: Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer. After that, though, it’s anybody’s best guess. So the Daily News asks who this year’s surprise pitcher will be. (What if there isn’t one?)

The Phillies, though, do have a Pitcher named Josh Outman. The 23-year-old had a 2.45 ERA at Clearwater last year and a 4.50 ERA at Reading. He’s only been pitching conventionally three years, having previously used an unconventional style his father taught him.

The Fritz Outman Pitching Style is way too complicated to explain:

The delivery, awkward in its appearance, begins with the pitcher raising his arm vertically with the ball, then bending it behind his head — seemingly touching his opposite shoulder. The pitcher then pivots his front foot, beginning his follow-through with a “walking step” forward. There is no leg kick as with conventional mechanics.

Fritz learned from about homokinetics and biomechanics from a former major leaguer and coach, and spent 20 years researching how to best throw a baseball. But his son stopped using the technique, fearing it would hurt him with scouts. His dad called it “the best way to exploit the physics and physiology of pitching a baseball.”

If Josh comes to the big leagues, maybe he can pitch with his weird style for a throw or two. Then Disney can make a movie about it where his father asks for him to pitch like that just once. (”Just one pitch,” Fritz — played by Dennis Quaid — could tell his son. $34 million opening weekend, easy.)

Gators starter dazzles with unusual pitching mechanics [Outman Genealogy]
Phillies looking for this year’s pitching longshot [Daily News]