Alan Schwarz, a contributor to ESPN The Magazine, is filing regular Pulsecards from spring training. Today he scouts a particularly well-paid individual.

Can A-Rod pitch?

This is one of this spring's most burning questions, up there with "Hey Sheff, can you spell C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T?" With a Rangers' rotation that includes the likes of Darren Oliver, Ryan Glynn and Doug Davis, Texas will need all the mound help it can get. And for a quarter-bil, Senior Smile should be able to eat some innings.

I decided to stop by the Peoria Sports Complex, home of A-Rod's old friends the Seattle Mariners, to get an exclusive Alex Rodriguez Pitching Scouting Report. Results were inconclusive.

"I think he'd do pretty good," says John Olerud. (Olerud would know, having been an All-America pitcher himself at Washington State.) "He'd have real good control. He throws a pretty straight ball, so he'd have to really hit his spots well. But I don't know how good his offspeed stuff is."

Al Martin sees A-Rod as a three-inning setup man. Aaron Sele thinks he'd be a starter because of his craftiness and subpar heater. Bret Boone doesn't buy any of it. "He'd be okay for an inning, because hitters would be wondering what the hell was going on. But at shortstop you have to pump it up for what, maybe four throws a day? His arm would fall off."

But Sele begs to differ. He sees A-Rod as a pure fastball-slider-change guy. Why a slider and not a curveball? Because of his lower arm slot, of course. And his fastball would probably sneak up on hitters because of his fluid body motion. "He'd be an upper-80s guy," Sele says deadpan. "That's where most of the good pitchers are at."