I had a quick chat with Mike Nickeas this morning about Jason Isringhausen’s bullpen session yesterday. Nickeas, as mentioned, seemed a lot more excited about Isringhausen’s curveballs than the more stoic Isringhausen did.

“Well, he’s been doing this a long time,” Nickeas said. “It’s fun for me to catch guys of that talent level.”

Nickeas said Isringhausen threw about 40 pitches, and threw 11 of his 13 curveballs for strikes. I asked him if they looked hittable. “Not for me,” he laughed.

Nickeas said that it’s not easy to judge velocity from behind the plate and that catchers are often surprised by radar-gun readings. But he said Isringhausen’s fastball seemed to have more life on it than it did when Nickeas caught him last week.