This is a new one to the Bill James Handbook -- a year-by-year listing of the average fastball velocity of each pitcher.
This is probably most interesting for veterans. For example, Yu Darvish, the free-agent right-hander the Twins have made a display of coveting. Darvish just finished his fifth season of actual pitching in the majors (he missed 2015 with to Tommy John surgery) and had his highest FB velocity, 94 mph.
Ervin Santana, over the eight seasons shown in the chart, has been rather remarkably consistent -- 93 or 92 every season, with 93 for 2017.
One other Twins pitcher I'll take note of: Tyler Duffey was at 90 in 2015 and 2016, when he was a starter. Out of the bullpen in 2017, 92. I guess I would have expected a bit larger uptick.
You said velocity by age but you didn't mention ages.
ReplyDeleteThat's the title of the section. It lists the pitcher's age and his year-by-year average velocity. What I was interested in is how the velocity has changed, not what it was at a specific age.
ReplyDelete