Jose de Jesus Ortiz asked Keuchel if he was suffering from dead arm. Keuchel said he felt good.
"For sure, for sure," Keuchel said when I asked if there was a steep drop in velocity today.
— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) March 18, 2014
"Obviously I could tell throwing the fastball and (for) the guys it was just like a beach ball coming up there today," he said.
— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) March 18, 2014
So how bad are we talking? His fastball was sitting at 84mph today.
Given that his fastball averaged 89.5mph last season, and he didn't have a month in which his fastball averaged under 89mph in 2013...? It's a concern, and something to keep an eye on.
UPDATE: Apparently I missed the boat on this, and I've heard from a few SOURCES that it's not uncommon for this type of velocity drop to happen around this time in Spring Training. Whatever. There's not enough to write about, anyway, so we might as well trump up some potentially useless piece of information.
