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Fastballs Rise and Fall Over Course of Season

by Rob Neyer

From Baseball Prospectus analyst Mike Fast’s comprehensive look at what happens to fastball speeds over the course of the season:

↵↵Fastball speed for an average major-league pitcher starts at its lowest point in early April, rises by about 1.0-1.5 mph to a peak in the month of July, and declines gradually thereafter. These trends apply similarly to starting pitchers and relief pitchers. However, the fastball speed curve looks suspiciously like a graph of temperature.

↵↵Plenty to chew on in there, including a scad of graphs.

↵

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