How Connor Fennell’s Funky Fastball Could Make Him Vanderbilt’s 2026 Ace

Connor Fennell must have gotten lucky last year, right?

There’s no way that an 88 mph fastball could produce the results that Fennell’s produced as a weekend starter for Vanderbilt baseball in 2025.

At least, that’s what some people might think.

The Londonderry, New Hampshire, native was largely under-recruited out of high school due to his lack of velocity and pure stuff. He always had good command of his offerings, but that alone wasn’t enough to draw the attention of many top programs.

But Jayson King, the then-Dayton manager who has since returned to the Flyers after a short stint as Vanderbilt’s hitting coach last season, took a shot on Fennell. When King arrived on West End a year ago, Fennell followed — and even then, Tim Corbin and Scott Brown likely didn’t know what they were getting in the 6-foot-1, 180-pound right-hander.

“In the fall [of 2024], I don't think we really had a role for [Fennell],” Corbin said on Tuesday, speaking to reporters outside the home bullpen of Hawkins Field. “And then he just gained momentum and confidence.”

Fennell posted a 2.53 ERA across 17 games and 7 starts in 2025, striking out 84 batters in 53 and 1/3 innings of work. Those aren’t just good numbers — they’re extraordinary.

If you ask someone what kind of player they’d expect to be putting up those numbers against SEC competition, you might hear the name Paul Skenes. Liam Doyle. David Price. But no. It was the right-hander who can barely reach 90 mph on his four-seam fastball that went out there and shoved in 2025. Still, many people think Fennell’s season might have been a fluke.

But his success wasn’t a fluke. And here’s why.

There’s an undervalued aspect in today’s world of pitching evaluation that’s hard to quantify. It’s — for lack of a better term — funkiness.

Just look at Trey Yesavage of the Toronto Blue Jays, who made his MLB debut Monday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. Yesavage is funky for the opposite reason of Fennell — he has the highest arm angle in the league, sitting at roughly 80 degrees.

Yesavage struck out nine Rays in his debut, allowing just one run in five innings. Yesavage might have better stuff than Fennell, but the reason he works isn’t because he’s breaking radar guns. Hitters simply aren’t used to seeing pitches from that slot and at those angles. It’s hard to quantify, which is why it’s rarely discussed, but it certainly pays dividends when looking at results.

Fennell has one of the funkier deliveries in college baseball, getting extremely low to the ground with a very low arm angle that likely sits somewhere in the 5-to-15-degree range. He’s not quite a submarine thrower, but he’s just about as close as you can get without entering that territory.

Vanderbilt pitcher Connor Fennell's Low Arm Slot | Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Despite this, Fennell’s fastball generates a significant amount of induced vertical break, or what is colloquially known as “ride.” While the exact numbers aren’t public, a source told Vanderbilt OnSI that it’s somewhere around 14 inches — well above average for his arm slot.

But it’s not just the ride that makes Fennell’s fastball great. His low release allows for an “upshoot” fastball which, when located well at the top of the zone, creates a very level vertical approach angle (VAA). In other words, the angle at which Fennell’s fastball crosses the plate is very flat, which causes hitters to frequently swing under the pitch. The right-hander has always had great command of his offering, so the flatness of the pitch, combined with its precision, creates an explanation for why so many SEC hitters are swinging through an 88-mph heater.

Pitching coach Scott Brown and Vanderbilt’ analytics team have helped Fennell understand the intricacies of his unicorn fastball.

“My metrics aren’t special when it comes to my fastball,” Fennell said on Tuesday. “But since it’s coming out of that slot, it makes it play a lot faster than it actually is.”

In addition to the heater, Fennell spins a big, looping slider that has become an effective weapon against right-handers. He also throws a slow changeup that he commands well and is effective against lefties. Fennell is confident that his secondaries will continue to improve as he develops more as a pitcher.

“My changeup has always been my go-to pitch, but I think it took another leap from where it was at Dayton,” Fennell said. “And my slider [also] definitely got a lot better.”

Fennell is an efficient spinner of the baseball which — from his arm slot — will make it hard to expand his arsenal much more than he already has. He’s effectively a two-pitch pitcher to either handedness of hitter, which limits his ceiling to a certain degree. But the truth is, his upshoot fastball combined with stellar command is more than enough to be a great pitcher in this league. He might not have the pure stuff that most other weekend starters have, but he’s found his own way to get outs.

“Obviously I’d love to throw 100, that would be really cool,” Fennell joked. “But I like the way I pitch.”

Vanderbilt baseball and its fans like it too.