Casey Fossum

Casey Fossum is currently retired from playing Big League baseball and resides in his hometown, Waco, Texas. Casey is married to Kadette Cooper Fossum, a '97 Midway graduate and an '01 Texas Tech Alumna. Casey is involved in his community in helping youth baseball players through the Little League and Select Baseball teams. He lives in Waco, TX, with his wife and their indoor mini horses Duey, Houdini, and Lieuy. He also helps his wife, Kadette, rescue and retrain retired thoroughbred racehorses.

Fossum was born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He attended Midway High School in Waco, Texas, where he was a two time Central Texas Player of the Year, 1st team all state in '95 and '96, Baseball America High School second team All American in '96 with 210 strikeouts in 105 innings. Casey then attended Texas A&M University where he was also a Freshman All American and still holds the all-time career strikeout record in a single season and career. He also helped lead the Aggies to the 1999 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. He earned All-Big 12 honors in both 1998 and 1999, highlighted by a 12–7 record and 3.64 earned run average (ERA) during his junior campaign, establishing a single-season school mark with 162 strikeouts. Fossum also won the C. E. "Pat" Olsen Outstanding Pitcher Award in 1999 and was a second team All-American in 1998.

Fossum throws three different overhand curveballs. The first curveball is a tight-rotating 1–7 curveball that has a velocity in the low to mid 70s, but a pitch that Fossum struggles to throw effectively over the plate for strikes and at times remains too flat. The second curveball is also a 1–7 pitch, has a moderate break while clocking in between 65 and 70 MPH, and can effectively throw for strikes. The third curveball is a 12–6 curveball with a large break, making it difficult to hit. While the pitch has been a very effective pitch for him to use, often landing for strikes or causing popouts, he regulates the pitch as a change-of-pace pitch to prevent batters from becoming used to it. Fossum dubbed this pitch the "Fossum flip", and it is essentially a form of the eephus pitch.[13] He also has a decent fastball in the 88–92 mph range and a changeup that while effective, does not drop as well as the average changeup. Fossum is also a good fielder and has an above-average pickoff move.

Fossum's biggest knock is his stamina. Weighing in at 160 lbs, Fossum has a somewhat violent throwing style and has been injured a few times in his career. In 2004, he missed the first five weeks of the season with a sore elbow, and near the end of the 2005 season his effectiveness was reduced to what he and Lou Piniella attributed to lower back pain. For a relief pitcher, Fossum is also very good at holding runners on base. In 2004, baserunners managed to steal 15 bases out of 23 attempts (a 65.2% success rate), and in 2005, only 10 basestealers out of 14 attempts were successful (a 71.4% rate). The league averages in those seasons were 69% and 70% respectively,[14] but relievers tend to allow higher rates than starters.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs