26) Robert Mosebach, 9/14/84 - RH RP, AA and AAA
4 wins, 2 losses. 66.2 IP, 1.49 ERA, 47 K/27 BB. +24 runs saved
Ranking in a Nutshell: Great fastball. He doesn't have the ‘power arm' rep yet, but since moving to the bullpen he's consistently dialed up the heater to 96 mph with arm-side run and sink. His ceiling isn't tremendous due to a weak offspeed arsenal, but that MLB-quality fastball should give him a high performance floor.
Track Record: The Halos took Mosebach in the 9th round of the 2005 draft. He toiled for four seasons as a starter, going 35 and 30 with a 4.18 ERA and never dominating anywhere. The Halos sent him to the AFL following 2008, working him as a reliever to keep his pitch count down. His velocity jumped, and within a month he was wearing a Phillies uniform due to the Rule 5 Draft. He failed to crack the Phillies bullpen in the spring of 2009, so returned to the Angels organization, coasted through the upper minors, and made his major league debut in July. Mosebach's 2009 success derived primarily from his 56% groundball rate, since he managed only 6.84 K's per nine innings. He was lights-out in Arkansas, yielding just one run over 26.1 IP while giving up 12 hits. He hardly missed a beat upon advancing to AAA Salt Lake, though his July trial in the majors was bumpy due to command issues. He further improved his track record with a good winter in the DR, yielding a 2.38 ERA in 13.1 innings of work while striking out 10.
Win-the-Lottery-Ceiling: Mosebach's weed-killing tendencies make him a great double-play-inducing option out of the pen, and should allow him to rack up outs in the middle innings. However, his pitch-to-contact style leaves him vulnerable to bad luck on balls in play, leading to those endless innings when grounders have eyes and pop-ups drop in front of Juan Rivera. More K's would raise his ceiling considerably, but he has yet to develop a plus secondary offering to go with the sinker, making him Scot Shields without the power curveball. In other words, Shields without all of those swings and misses.
Scouting Report: (beneath the jump)
Mosebach's first major league pitch was a wicked 94 mph two-seamer that sank and tailed low in the zone for strike one. His second was a 96 mph four-seam fastball at the letters - and those would be Joe Mauer's letters - that the MVP swung under. Mosebach completed the sequence with an 87 mph slider that, while showing very little break, drew Mauer out on his front foot. The resulting pop-up failed to clear the infield.
Mosebach's promising debut encapsulates his upside as a reliever - he packs a power arm with a plus 91-95 mph sinker, a hard, straight four-seamer that touches 96 mph, and a slider notable more for its mid 80's velocity than for its break. When his command is on, that makes him an above-average reliever capable of getting the best MLB hitters out in high leverage situations. When his command is off, as it was in much of the rest of his mlb debut, well...you get sent back to AAA. His minor league track record suggests that his command should be more consistent next time around.