Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tracking Phil Hughes' fastball velocity vs. Tigers via MLB Gameday

Since a lot of Yankee fans are pretty obsessed with Phil Hughes fastball velocity, we figured it would be worth keeping an eye on. I love the data available to the average fan using MLB Gameday. Here's what we are seeing for Hughes velocity on his fastballs:

FIRST INNING:
6 fastballs @ 94 MPH
4 fastballs @ 93 MPH
3 fastballs @ 92 MPH or lower

SECOND INNING
3 fastballs @ 93 MPH
1 fastball @ 92 MPH
1 fastball @ 91 MPH
Gotta say, Hughes looks pretty good through two. 3 K's, 0 BB. He's throwing pretty hard, too.

THIRD INNING
3 fastballs @ 93 MPH
6 fastballs @ 92 MPH
2 fastballs @ 91 MPH

FOURTH INNING
1 fastball @ 93 MPH
6 fastballs @ 91 MPH
1 fastball @ 89 MPH
There were a few pitches that gameday has read as his fastball thrown at 87-88, but to my eye, they were really Hughes' cutter, so I'm not listing those.

FIFTH INNING
3 fastballs @ 93 MPH
2 fastballs @ 92 MPH
Just got a funny text from my buddy Brendan who blogs for Smoking With Hank: "Hughes is becoming a man tonight." Is he right?

SIXTH INNING
3 fastballs @ 93 MPH
4 fastballs @ 92 MPH
4 fastballs @ 91 MPH
After the Yankees batted for a half hour, the Yankees took Hughes out. He threw 99 pitches and only gave up 2 hits in 6 innings. Pretty good 2009 debut, no?

Comments (4)

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Ballyard73's avatar

Ballyard73 · 819 weeks ago

I hope things turn out well for him. Of all the young pitchers, I like him the most, even more than Joba
Cone has pointed out that he is not as predictable, no longer limiting his pitches to just the "four seamer and hook" that we (and opposing hitters) saw too much of last year. Cone also mentioned a 3rd velocity pitch.
His curves and knuckle curves are dropping off the table -great stuff.
A few of their batters are jumping back and flinching away at the breaking balls,
great to see the ump calls these pitches strikes !
The fastball is very sharp.
Just a little concerned about those walks.
Come on Phil...We need you !
1 reply · active 819 weeks ago
I think Hughes could very well have a better career than Joba... It's very possible

Great to watch, the Tigers just aren't making good contact with anything against Hughes, and Hughes has gotten a lot of swings and misses. That's exciting!
YESSS!!! I got a shout out!
Hughes' Hair is longer than last year....I attribute his success to that
If Hughes has now established himself as a bona fide big league starter, still a big if, and if Wang returns to form, another big if, then the Yankees would really need to think seriously about returning Joba to the bullpen. Joba , Bruney, and Melancon (yep, another if) could form a pretty nice group out of the bullpen. As I said, there are a lot of "ifs" in all this, but Cashman should at least be thinking about such a scenario.

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