Why Velocity is Still King
During the mid 2010’s through a few years back, everyone agreed that in terms of creating value in a pitcher, velocity was king. Lately, we have learned a ton more in terms of creating spin and movement and how valuable that can be.
We recently entered and exited a span where players with raw velocity were being overshadowed because of new outlier pitch shapes that were easier to create excess value. While it can be for good reason as a deadzone fastball at 97 is very hittable, there are other reasons as to why even with the worst fastball shape it is still more valuable to have pure velocity on your side.
Velocity opens doors, and it also makes hitters respect the fastball even if you don't have a very good one. I know there are a lot of people who think “flat fastball = bad”, but there are a plethora of other factors that having an outlier fastball velocity can help you with.
Velocity Opens Shapes
When you throw 97, you have the ability to throw pitches that are not impressive or good from a movement perspective. These pitches that don't move a lot rely truly on velocity in order for them to be successful. The pitcher who is able to throw a 0/0 movement gyro slider at 88 is going to be leaps and bounds above the gyro slider thrown at 85.
Neither of these pitches are particularly impressive from a movement basis, but pitchers who throw a gryo at 84-85 likely shouldn't throw that gyro a lot and should instead opt to try and create some horizontal movement at a lower velocity. Being able to create horizontal movement, especially when you need to create a lot of it takes a whole different skill set and physical capacity. Lots of pitchers are not capable of doing this.
Creating the 15 inches of horizontal break necessary to have a “sweeping slider” is something that only a subset of pitchers can do. However, almost all of them can create a gyro shape slider. Throwing hard enough to have this pitch be successful guarantees that they will be able to have one very good offspeed offering.
You can change FB types
This is the most common fix, being able to throw the ball hard means that you don't have to have as good of a movement profile on it for it to be good. This means that while you might not be good with a 4s fastball, you don’t have to be “that” good with a sinker or cut fb in order to create a good shape.
In fact, you likely will be able to throw both a sinker and a cutter pretty easily. A lot of people can’t create a good enough shape at their velocity, but as we mentioned in the last section, your shapes can be less spectacular and have them still play pretty well.
Even so, if you add in a fastball variation you will likely be able to get away with your “bad” fastball if you give it proper usage.
You Don’t Have to Throw It
This is the one that people forget.
You can literally just not throw it. Your velocity allows you so many other advantages in terms of giving yourself other options, you can just choose to throw the other ones more. There is no rule in baseball where you have to throw your 4s fastball at a 50% clip.
While showing your best velocity is super important, even if it’s just to change the hitters psychology, you can easily drop your 4s FB usage to around 20%, maybe even less if you create other FB variations. This allows your fastball to be used as the weapon it should be at 97-98 rather than relying on it as your main pitch.
Throwing cutters/gyro sliders at a higher rate will give you pitches that are easier to land in the zone and get a higher swing %.
Effort
The season is long, players have to push themselves to the limit to be at their best most of the time. However, when you have the capacity to throw the ball 97-98, its easier for you to throw the ball 95 than it is for the person that tops 95-96.
My best comparison is to the new ball speed trend in golf. Many players, for example mondays’ Players Championship winner Rory Mcilroy will get up to about 200 mph ball speed in training. However, they choose to settle around 183-187 on the course when they are “letting it rip” out there. They want to build the capacity to have ridiculous speed, so that they can tone it back and still hold great outputs. They do this for a different reason, they want to keep the ball closer to the fairway.
This is the same principle as pitchers throwing 100, they want to be able to dial it back to be competitively in the zone and still showcase standout velocity.
Conclusion
The game is simply just easier when you throw hard. It just is. The more the game changes the more it stays the same.
I will leave you with this:
Whatever pitch design trend comes next, it will be easier for someone who throws 98 to take advantage than it is for someone who throws 93.
John
We offer consulting, practice plans (that literally got these people called cheaters lol), coaching education and much more to all of our paid subscribers at no extra charge. We also offer these services to everyone on a “a la carte” basis, with waiting priority to our subscribers.
I can’t wait to see who is next.
Below is the sign up link