The Pirates’ ‘Gas Company’ Is the Hardest-Throwing Pitching Staff Ever

Pitchers who throw 100 mph have tripled over the last seven years in the majors, and Pittsburgh has gathered the most impressive collection of flamethrowers.

Pirates starting pitchers Bubba Chandler (left), Jared Jones (middle) and Paul Skenes (right) shag flies in the outfield during batting practice. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

This article was originally published as part of Verducci’s View, a new weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more.

Remember The Lumber Company, the famed hard-hitting Pirates teams of the 1970s? Pittsburgh is now home to The Gas Company. The Pirates have the hardest throwing pitching staff in history.

Since pitch tracking metrics began in 2008, no staff has thrown fastballs at a higher average velocity than the Pirates (95.6 mph). Velocity has increased so dramatically that the four hardest throwing staffs over the past 19 measured seasons are all from this year.

But the Pirates’ historic heat likely holds up beyond 2008. You can’t convince me any staff before 2008 threw harder than these Pirates. Yes, you always had elite throwers. But there simply was not the same depth of them even 10 years ago, never mind 50 or 100 years ago. Things have changed so fast that the softest throwing teams this year—the Nationals, Cubs, Blue Jays and Red Sox, tied for last in fastball velocity at 92.8 mph—would have led the majors in 2008.

Here are the hardest throwing staffs over the past 19 seasons:

Team	Fastball Velocity (mph)
2026 Pirates	95.6
2026 Dodgers	95.3
2026 Marlins	95.0
2026 Mariners	95.0
2025 Mariners	94.8
2024 Mariners	94.8

But wait. Those numbers include all fastballs: four-seamers, sinkers and cutters. What if we stick with good old fashioned country hardball and isolate four-seamers? The Pirates are still the hardest throwing staff ever (96.2 mph), just over this year’s Brewers and Marlins (96.0).

But wait again. Those numbers include late-inning bullpen guys. To isolate the power in the Pittsburgh rotation, what if we measured four-seam velocity only in innings one through five? The Pirates have the hardest throwing rotation—likely of all time— at 96.6 mph, just above this year’s Brewers (96.0), Marlins, Dodgers and Rangers (95.8 each).

There are 59 pitchers in MLB who average 97 mph or faster on their four-seamer (min. 100 fastballs). The Pirates have six of them—all are between 23 and 26 years old, with four of them are in their rotation: Jared Jones, 24, (99.0), Bubba Chandler, 23, (98.4), Wilbur Dotel, 23, (98.3), Mason Montgomery, 25 (98.3), Paul Skenes, 24, (97.1), and Braxton Ashcraft, 26, (97.0).

The return of Jones from Tommy John surgery added more jet fuel to the fire. Jones’s stuff is electric. He is averaging 99 mph on his heater. Last week against Houston he threw a changeup (for a strikeout) at 95.6 mph. A changeup! Only three other pitchers this year have thrown a changeup that hard: Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski and two late-inning relievers, Mason Miller of the Padres and Camilo Doval of the Yankees.

Jones’s return is a huge boost for Pittsburgh, and not just because it pushes Carmen Mlodzinski into the role of multiple-inning reliever to fortify the bullpen. Jones has ace stuff. Not only is Jones throwing hard, but he also is showing better command than he did before the injury, according to data from Infinite Sky, an artificial intelligence and sports analytics company that deploys computer vision and physics simulations to convert video into data. It can track ball movement and catcher targets to give a metric to command. In Jones’s case, he is the rare pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgery whose command quickly is even better post-surgery. The return of command often takes a half season or more.

Jones Command Index by Pitch Type

Year	Fastball	Slider	All
2024	79	83	80
2026	84	83	83

Camilo Doval possesses a miniscule 4% walk rate despite his prodigious velocity. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The Century Club

Yankees reliever Camilo Doval last week threw the fastest pitch of his life: a 102.5-mph sinker. He became only the 11th pitcher to throw a sinker that hard since pitch tracking began in 2008. He hit at least 102 mph three times in the game against Cleveland after doing so just once in his career before that.

Most pitchers who throw a sinker that hard are prone to injury breakdowns (Brusdar Graterol, Noah Syndergaard, Jordan Hicks, Joel Zumaya, Felix Bautista, etc.). But the universe of elite throwers continues to expand at such a rapid rate that teams have a ready supply of replacements.

Look at enrollment in The Century Club through the first two months of this season:

Pitchers to Throw 100 MPH Through May

Year	MLB	Minors
2026	54	44
2025	43	36
2024	37	28
2023	40	31
2022	33	10
2021	32	4
2019	18	N/A

Here are the takeaways from those numbers:

• 100-mph arms in MLB have tripled in seven years.
• More minor league pitchers hit 100 in the first two months of this season than major league pitchers did in the same window just last year.
• Minor leaguers who throw 100 mph have increased 1,000% in just five years.

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