Alex Belth changes his mind about Joba Chamberlain.

At this point, the writers seemed to have gotten the Joba Chamberlain story wrong this spring. He came in heavy, and initial conclusion was that he was fat. In reality, he seems to have put on a layer of muscle, and he’s throwing hard again. I actually like the way Brian Cashman played this as well.

“He’s heavier, we’ll just leave it at that,” Cashman said.

Told that Chamberlain said he packed on muscle, Cashman said: “He’s obviously heavier. That’s as much as I’ll say.”

Asked if he expected Chamberlain to be lighter by camp’s end, Cashman declined comment.

“He’s heavier,” Cashman said.

Brian’s job is know if his players are fat or muscular. Cashman was perfectly fine letting the media think something was wrong here, so Joba could surprise people. Here’s his fastball velocity from yesterday:

Joba Chamberlain fastballs, March 31, 2011

Those look pretty close to 95 MPH to me. Whatever he did over the winter, whether he was lifting Twinkies or weights, seems to have worked.

Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the heat map.