Finally got a chance to watch Olsen pitch last night, against the Orioles.  After hearing how well his last 4 starts went, plus his very solid peripherals so far this year, I expected to be excited about his stuff (full disclosure:  I just picked him up for my re-draft fantasy league).  However, although his results were outstanding (until he got tired in the 8th), I didn't come away too impressed with his stuff.  Low to mid 90s fastball, with decent movement.  Good command for a 22 y.o., though he seemed to struggle with it out of the stretch, excellent breaking ball (slider? curveball?) in the mid-80s.

Is this a case where the eye does not do the pitcher justice?  It's unlikely he had an off night, as his numbers were pretty well in line with his previous outings.  I have an untrained eye, so it's quite possible I'm missing some nuances that explain how he was keeping guys off balance on basically two pitches, even the second and third times through the lineup.

One other thought.  The Orioles announcers kept calling his 81-84 mph breaking pitch different things, some times a change-up, usually a slider (which I've heard is his best pitch, and on some of those pitches I could see why), and even a few times a curveball (which I didn't think he threw).  Is it just that he throws the slider/change-up at the same basic speed?  Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I had a lot of trouble picking up what was what with his secondary pitches.  It all seemed to be breaking stuff, maybe it's more of a slurve.

Would love to hear people's thoughts/comments, either on Olsen's outing last inght or other outings they've seen him pitch.