Yesterday we saw Cincinnati Reds right handed pitcher Michael Lorenzen scratched from his start with some elbow tenderness. That’s never good to hear, but the team doesn’t seem to be worried. His elbow was looked at via ultrasound by Dr. Kremchek and nothing was found. Manager Bryan Price says that everything checked out fine and that they will just give him a few days rest. That, of course, is good.

Within that first paragraph is some good and some bad. While you never want to hear about an arm issue popping up with a pitcher, things seem to check out fine at this point. Hidden a little bit in the bad news that Lorenzen was scratched though, is in the linked article above where Lorenzen says this:

My velocity is up. I was 97-99 mph the last start. My velo is good, everything is good.

Say what?! 97-99 MPH? That’s not a starting pitchers velocity, that’s elite reliever velocity. Last season Lorenzen averaged 94 MPH with his fastball, good for 27th best out of 141 pitchers with at least 100 innings thrown. He was already among the hardest throwers among starting pitchers and while he’s not throwing six innings at a time right now, it’s also spring training and guys aren’t at their top end velocity. But here we are and Lorenzen is reaching big time, top end velocity.

In the 2015 season, Lorenzen threw 48 pitches of 97 MPH or higher. Let’s take a look at the results of those pitches:

Foul/Foul Tip (16)

Ball (14)

In Play – Out (7)

Called Strike (6)

Swinging Strike (3)

Hit (2)

Generally speaking, the results were good. Being able to find that kind of velocity more often would be huge if the results were along a similar path. The harder you throw, the more likely you are to find good results. If this kind of velocity is something we can see Lorenzen visit more frequently that’s going to bode well regardless of whether it comes from the rotation or from the bullpen. For now, let’s just hope his elbow is healthy. After that, let’s hope this uptick in velocity is something that’s more than just a blip on the radar of short outings.