The most encouraging thing is he has his velocity back. Recall when he first came up in August 2004, he had a nasty mix of a 96 MPH four seamer, a 90 MPH slider and a 75 MPH curve ball. And he dominated through the 2005 season. Then Anderson taught him the sinker, and all of the sudden his velocity went down to 92 on the four seamer, 89 on the sinker and 86 on the slider, and he became much more hittable.

At the time, I attributed his loss in velocity to learning the sinker. But now it sees more likely it was his shoulder injuries, which he pitched through in much of 2006 and part of 2007. When they finally did surgery on him, they said the injuries had been there for “quite some time”. So apparently he had been pitching with them for a while.

The most amazing thing is the speed with which he returned to his old velocity. Nathan had similar surgery in 2000 and he didn’t make it back to the majors for good until 2003. In the interim, he couldn’t break glass with his fastball. Nathan’s recovery is more typical than Crain’s, that’s for sure.

One thing I’ve noticed, though. He’s not all the way back. Some days, he’s just touching 93, other days he hits 96, on the same guns. So he probably won’t hit 96 consistently until next year. Until then, he’ll be second in line behind Guerrier to set up Nathan.