SI

Rays and Padres Rotations Show the Fastball Is No Longer the Dominant Pitch in Baseball

SI's Tom Verducci highlights two teams with star pitchers to show that the fastball is not as valued as it used to be.
Tom Verducci|

Pitchers may be getting faster and faster, however - the fastball, as SI's Tom Verducci points out, is no longer the dominant pitch in baseball today. Verducci shares the numbers of four of MLB's top-tier pitchers to illustrate the devaluation of the fastball in the game today. 

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Tom Verducci
TOM VERDUCCI

Tom Verducci is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who has covered Major League Baseball since 1981. He also serves as an analyst for FOX Sports and the MLB Network; is a New York Times best-selling author; and cohosts The Book of Joe podcast with Joe Maddon. A five-time Emmy Award winner across three categories (studio analyst, reporter, short form writing) and nominated in a fourth (game analyst), he is a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, two-time National Magazine Award finalist, and a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient. Verducci is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame, Baseball Writers Association of America (including past New York chapter chairman) and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 1993. He also is the only writer to be a game analyst for World Series telecasts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, with whom he has two children.

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