Obermueller has relief risk because he’s smaller, he throws just two pitches, and he doesn’t have great command of either of them. But he’s a special athlete with a beautiful delivery, which arguably allows for mold-breaking command and changeup projection. Obermueller is an incredibly loose, explosive athlete with bendy, whippy limbs and a powerful lower body. His delivery adds deception to his stuff in basically every way. He’s able to hide the ball for a long time because of how far back his arm lays before release. He takes a cross-bodied stride and has a lower arm slot, but he still manages to power down the mound and generate plus extension despite an indirect line to the plate. Plus, Obermueller gets to a more vertical hand position on release than is typical of someone with his arm slot. All of this creates huge uphill angle on his fastball, which averages 91-95 mph. That’s up a tick from his sophomore year, and he’ll peak in the 97-98 mph range.
