Throw harder

A few weeks ago, I was watching a video on YouTube. It’s about hitting fastballs and it indicated that more pitchers are throwing harder and we see more pitches that hit triple digits these days. That drew my attention and I would like to know if there are huge changes in pitch velocity in today’s games. So, I went to check on the statcast website to see whether pitches are faster these days.

In 2008, there were 54209 pitches that hit at least 95 mph. So, 7.6% of the time, pitchers threw a pitch with a velocity of 95 mph or faster. The next season, more than 60000 pitches were at least 95 mph. Hence, 8.6% of pitches in the 2009 season hit at least 95 mph. Things didn’t change much between 2010 and 2012. However, in 2013, there were 69356 pitches that were at least 95 mph. In 2014, the number went up. 10.4% of pitches in the MLB hit at least 95 mile-per-hour and that means 70000 pitches were at least 95 mph. And, MLB pitchers keep throwing harder. In 2015, more than 90000 pitches were at least 95 mph. Since then, we have seen that more than 12% of pitches hit at 95 mile-per-hour each year. This season, we have seen more 95+ mph pitches.

In 2008, it was rare to see a pitcher throw a pitch that hit triple-digits. Joel Zumaya threw 64 triple-digit fastballs and in total, 214 pitches were at least 100 mph. And in the next season, more than 600 pitches reached 100 mph. In 2010, the number went up, but it dropped in 2011. In 2012 and 2013, there were more than 900 pitches with a velocity of at least 100 mile-per-hour each season. In 2014, more than 1000 pitches were at least 100 mph. In 2016, we had seen many times that a pitch hit triple digits, nearly 2000 pitches were at least 100 mph. We only saw 311 pitches to hit 100 mph in the shortened 2020 season. By far this season, we already saw more than 1000 triple-digit pitches. It might not be difficult to understand that pitchers in the MLB are throwing harder. 7.6% of pitches were at least 95 mph in 2008 and in this season, it’s nearly 15%. In 2008, it was not easy to see a pitcher throw a 100-mph pitch. However, a 100-mph pitch is not so rare today. A pitcher indicated that people could easily see a pitcher with jersey number over 70 throw 100-mph pitches in the spring training. In 2008, only 20 pitchers in the majors could throw baseballs that hit triple digits. So far this season, there are more than 40 pitchers, who already threw a pitch with a velocity of at 100 mph. Emmanuel Clase throws a cutter that can hit triple digits and there are more than 200 times that his cutter reaches 100 mph. Jacob deGrom might win the NL Cy Young award again and he throws really hard this season. He already threw triple-digit fastballs 185 times in 2021. In addition, Jose Alvarado’s sinker reaches 100 mph more than 100 times. And, never forget Aroldis Chapman. He made his MLB debut in 2010, since then he has thrown pitches that hit triple digits more than 3000 times.