Athletes - Casey Fossum

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	Athletes - Casey Fossum

Casey Paul Fossum (born January 6, 1978 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey) is a pitcher in Major League Baseball who plays with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays since 2005. Previously, Fossum played for the Boston Red Sox (2001-03) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2004). He bats and throws left handed.

Fossum attended Texas A&M University, leading the Aggies to the 1999 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. He earned All-Big 12 honors in both 1998 and 1999, highlighted by a 12-7 record and 3.64 ERA during his junior campaign, establishing a single-season school mark with 162 strikeouts. Fossum also won the C.E."Pat" Olsen Outstanding Pitcher Award in 1999 and was a second team All-American in 1998. Selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 1999 June draft as the third pick in the first round (48th overall), Fossum started his major league career in 2001.

During three years with Boston, Fossum moved between the bullpen and the rotation, compiling 14 victories with two saves in 75 games. After a recurrence of tendinitis in his pitching shoulder, he went surgery in September 2003. Two months later, he was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the same trade that brought Curt Schilling to the Red Sox.

In 2004, and for the first time in his career, Fossum was used exclusively as a starter, finishing third on the Diamondbacks staff in starts (27), innings pitched (142.0) and strikeouts (117), despite missing the first 5 1/2 weeks to recover from surgery.

Fossum was traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for outfielder José Cruz, Jr. before the 2005 season.

Scouting

Fossum throws three different overhand curveballs. The first curveball is a tight-rotating 1-7 curveball that has a velocity in the low to mid 70's, but a pitch that Fossum struggles to throw effectively over the plate for strikes and at times remains too flat. The second curveball is also a 1-7 pitch, has a moderate break while clocking in between 65-70 MPH, and can effectively throw for strikes. The third curveball is a 12-6 curveball with an enormous break, making it nearly unhittable, and has been clocked as low as 43MPH in an MLB game. While the pitch has been a very effective pitch for him to use, often landing for strikes or causing popouts, he regulates the pitch as a change-of-pace pitch to prevent batters from becoming used to it. Fossum dubbed this pitch the "Fossum Flip", and it is essentially a form of the Eephus pitch. He also has a decent fastball in the 88-92 MPH range and a changeup that while effective, does not drop as well as most other pitcher's. Fossum is also a good fielder and has an above-average pickoff move.

Fossum's biggest knock is his stamina. Weighing in at 160lbs, Fossum has a somewhat violent throwing style and has been injured a few times in his career. In 2004 he missed the first five weeks of the season with a sore elbow, and near the end of the 2005 season his effectiveness was reduced to what he and Lou Pinella attributed to lower back pain. Fossum is also very bad at holding runners on base. In 2004, baserunners managed to steal 15 bases out of 23 attempts, and in 2005, only 4 basestealers out of 14 attempts were caught.

Facts

In 2004, Fossum was the only major league pitcher to throw 6 shutout innings in the rarified air of Coors Field.
Article about the aforementioned "Fossum Flip".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Casey Fossum ]

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Athletes - Casey Fossum

Scouting

Facts

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