ROSS OHLENDORF

8/8/82; '04 4th (Arizona); Princeton Univ.
R/R; 6-4, 235

Level

W-L-Sv

BB/9

K/9

WHIP

OAVG

ERA

2004 A- (Ari)

2-3-0

29.0

5.9

8.7

1.41

.210

2.79

2005 A (Ari)

11-10-0

157.0

181

144

2.8

8.3

1.46

.286

4.53

2006 AAA (Ari)

0-0-0

5.0

0.0

7.2

1.20

.300

1.80

2006 AA (Ari)

10-8-0

177.2

180

124

1.5

6.3

1.18

.271

3.29

2007 AL (NYY)

0-0-0

6.1

2.8

12.8

1.11

.208

2.84

2007 AAA (NYY)

3-3-0

66.1

3.3

6.5

1.66

.320

5.02

2007 R (NYY)

1-1-0

16.0

0.6

9.6

0.88

.206

3.94

2008 AL (NYY)

1-1-0

40.0

4.3

8.1

1.73

.299

6.53

2008 NL

0-3-0

22.2

4.8

5.2

2.12

.364

6.35

2008 AAA (NYY)

1-1-0

22.1

2.0

10.1

1.48

.301

4.03

2008 AAA

4-3-0

46.2

1.5

7.7

1.16

.261

3.47

2009 NL

11-10-0

176.2

165

109

2.7

5.6

1.23

.255

3.92

Ohlendorf got on the prospect map with a strong 2006 season. The Diamondbacks sent him to the Yankees in exchange for Randy Johnson, but he struggled with back problems and pitched poorly in AAA in 2007. When he returned after missing part of the season, he threw better out of the bullpen. As a starter, he threw in the upper 80s to low 90s, relying on a sinker and slider to produce grounders. Once he started pitching in relief, his velocity improved to 94 and occasionally better. He's always struggled with LH hitters due to the lack of a useful changeup. He pitched well enough after moving to relief to make the Yankees' playoff roster, but he struggled in their bullpen in 2008 and they sent him to AAA.

Pirates' GM Neal Huntington seemingly was after Ohlendorf from the time he took over the job. He got what he was after when he shipped Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to the Yankees for Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen. The Pirates have made it clear they consider Ohlendorf a potential starter and they sent him to AAA to get "stretched out" after the trade.  He put up good numbers there, including outstanding BB and K numbers, but he had some trouble with gopher balls. Once the team thought he was ready, he joined the major league rotation. Unfortunately, he pitched very poorly, allowing lots of hits and walks. His velocity could be cause for concern. According to the Pirates, he was throwing in the mid-90s, sometimes harder, in AAA, and was maintaining his velocity late into games. In the majors, depending on which radar readings you were looking at, his velocity was somewhere between the high 80s and 92-93. His stuff did not look particularly good. Ohlendorf said after his last start that he was tired, so that could have been a factor.

The Pirates remained very high on Ohlendorf and he won a rotation spot for 2009 with a good spring.  Their faith was justified as he produced a breakout season, finishing 24th in the league in ERA and making especially large strides late in the year. His ERA from the beginning of August through the end of the season was 2.73, compared to 4.43 the rest of the year. He also made progress with his ability to produce swings and misses:  his K rate after August 1 was 7.0, compared to 4.0 previously. These improvements were probably the result of improvements in his stuff. His fastball was generally in the 89-92 range for much of the season, but during the last couple months he was consistently in the mid-90s. It's possible he just needed to build up his strength as a starter. The Pirates were careful with Ohlendorf all year, seldom letting him reach 100 pitches until August. Even when he was pitching so well in the last two months, he reached 100 pitches in only half his eight starts and topped 109 only in one early season game. The Pirates shut him down the last two weeks because he was already well over his previous high innings total. This approach is clearly preferable to some of the foolishness they engaged in under Jim Tracy, such as bringing Paul Maholm back from an injury for a last couple disastrous starts when he clearly wasn't 100%, or sending an obviously gassed Tom Gorzelanny out for a couple chances at a 15th win.

For the season, Ohlendorf showed very good command, although being around the plate a lot probably resulted in the high gopher ball total.  If he maintains the good WHIP, though, he should be able to survive the occasional longball. He still struggles against LH batters, who posted an OPS of .828 against him, compared to .696 by RH batters. It's also encouraging that Ohlendorf made all his starts until he was shut down and had no injury issues. He has a very good move; he picked off six runners and had a CS% of 40%. Even on a good staff Ohlendorf would be a solid #3 starter. With the Pirates, either he or Zach Duke should be the 2010 opening day starter.

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