BRADENTON, Fla. — There was no radar gun at McKechnie Field, but the sound Phillies right-hander Vince Velasquez's fastball made in Cameron Rupp's glove at the Pirates' spring training home told you as much as a two-digit number could.
Velasquez was impressive Monday afternoon in his second spring training appearance, pitching three scoreless innings with three strikeouts and two double-play groundouts against the Bucs. His four-seam fastball missed bats, and the two-seamer he worked on over the offseason generated one of the twin-killings that nullified his allowing singles to start each inning.
It's just March 7, but Velasquez needs to continue to pitch like this to earn a spot in the Phillies' season-opening rotation. He and lefty Brett Oberholtzer (see story) — two of five pitchers acquired from the Astros in the Ken Giles trade — appear to be the top two candidates for the fifth-starter's job.
But Velasquez has more than fifth-starter upside.
"That's not really in my mind," Velasquez said of the rotation battle. "My mindset is to just go out and pitch just as any other pitcher. As far as competing for a spot, I'm not really too concerned because that's not my priority. I can't control that. … Today I was pretty overwhelmed and pretty excited."
Strikeouts and swings-and-misses are exciting, but they're nothing new for Velasquez, who last season struck out 58 batters in 55⅔ innings as a rookie with Houston. Groundballs are new for him, though. Velasquez, like many pitchers who throw in the mid-to-high 90s, had a high flyball rate last season — 46.7 percent, compared to 31.3 percent groundballs. Altering that distribution was a focus of his heading into 2016.
"That's actually a big thing for me right now," he said Monday. "I've never really been a groundball pitcher, but I've been utilizing my two-seamer a lot, adjusting to apply my fastball and my two-seam as much as possible, utilizing it early in the zone. I learned last year going deep into counts, I was throwing a lot of pitches, having short-inning games because I threw a lot of straight fastballs. But now I'm utilizing my two-seam, trying to get as many groundballs as possible. It's shown pretty well.
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"It's one of the things that'd really help you in early counts, help you get that groundball whenever you need it."
Velasquez threw his two-seam fastball sparingly last season.
"I didn't have full control," he said, "but now it's one of the things added to my arsenal."
And oh by the way, he wants to go by Vince, not Vincent. He said ever since the trade, his friends have teased him and called him "Vinny from Philly."
That's the kind of nickname Phillies fans could get on board with. And the repertoire Velasquez showed Monday is one they'd welcome, too.