Baseball's hardest throwers on grand stage
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Yordano Ventura, just 23 years old and blessed with one of baseball's most potent arms, admits he sneaks a peek at radar gun readings after unleashing one of his devastating fastballs.
And he acknowledges the rush he feels when the scoreboard lets him know he's reached triple digits.
"Of course!" Ventura tells Paste BN Sports through an interpreter. "I work hard to see my fastball reach 100. I love it. I look at it and I know when I'm throwing 100, 99 and I have it, it's going to be a long day for who's hitting."
The Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles can attest to that. Ventura dominated the Angels in an American League Division Series start, and then beat the Orioles in the AL Championship Series, helping the Kansas City Royals reach the World Series against the San Francisco Giants.
And for those who love the hiss of a blazing fastball, this matchup is for you.
Five of the game's 15 hardest throwers in 2014 pitch for the Royals and Giants, according to average fastball velocities compiled by FanGraphs. Wednesday night, Ventura will start Game 2 for the Royals, hoping to build upon a rookie year in which he won 14 games and followed that with a seven-inning, five-hit masterpiece against the Angels.
Ventura's average fastball comes in at 96 mph, second among major league starting pitchers to the Angels' Garrett Richards, who averaged 96.4. But he and the other flamethrowers in this World Series exemplify the concept that high heat is only effective when properly harnessed, both from the standpoint of effectiveness and viability.
Look no further than the Royals' bullpen, which proved the difference in their first two playoff conquests. The dominant trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland achieved a first this year: No team has ever had two relievers with at least 60 innings pitched and an ERA below 1.50.
All three of these Royals achieved that mark, boosted, of course, by dominant fastballs. Herrera, like Ventura, averaged 96.4 mph, seventh among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched. Holland and Davis checked in at 95.7.
But their sublime statistics were as much about the less-sexy notion of command than their ability to light up a radar gun.
Holland attests to as much, citing a trip to winter ball in Venezuela after the 2010 season that turned his career around.
"I was wild," he said. "I had control issues. I knew if I wanted to improve and be an everyday reliever at the big league level, I had to get better. I had to throw strikes."
It was a process. Holland's walks per nine innings spiked to a career-high 4.6 in 2012, when he still produced 16 saves and a 2.96 ERA. But he cut the rate to 2.4 and 2.9 respectively the past two seasons. The payoff was significant: 93 saves in 98 opportunities, a 1.32 ERA and a 13-4 strikeout-walk ratio.
"You'll see Greg sit there and paint six or seven pitches in a row on the outside corner," says Davis, who struck out 109 in 72 innings this year. "Kelvin's throwing inside to right-handers at 100 mph with late movement. That can't be fun. They've been doing it every night, and they've been really good."
The Giants can only hope their livest arm evolves in a similar fashion. Hunter Strickland made his major league debut on Sept. 1, but the Giants found his fastball – average velocity: 97.5 mph – so tantalizing they added him to the postseason roster.
Strickland has yielded four postseason home runs, all coming in key late-inning situations, all on fastballs. But he threw a perfect ninth with two strikeouts to preserve the Giants' Game 1 win.
Strickland, even at 26, is very much a work in progress. This is his first full year as a reliever, and he's not far removed from Tommy John surgery in May 2013.
For now, he's as raw as his credentials.
"I've been blessed," he says of his ability to touch 100 mph. "I just go out and compete. I don't think about trying to manipulate the pitches or make it go exactly where I need it to go. Obviously I have an idea of inside, outside, up or down. It's more or less just going out and competing."
The Giants may eye Strickland as a closer next year but for now, they're impressed by his emotional response to the playoff long balls.
"Mentally, I thought he handled it pretty well, because he's throwing strikes," says Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti. "After all these so-called big homers, the guy's doing nothing but throwing strikes and getting the next guys out. Just trying to tweak him and help him."
Adds reliever Tim Lincecum: "It's not easy to spot up 97, 98. Right now is a very heightened expectation time, and you have to hand it to him. It's tough to make big outs on this stage, and it's tough to handle what he's gone through on this stage. At the same time, he's still here, he's still positive and he's still being a good teammate."
Ventura is three years Strickland's junior, but his journey seems complete. At 14, he was pitching against 30-year-olds in the Dominican Republic. At 17, he still weighed just 100 pounds. Four years ago, he hit 100 mph for the first time, in an Arizona Fall League stint.
Not that that's why he's getting the ball in Game 2 of the World Series.
"His baseball aptitude is off the charts," says Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland. "He wants to be the best pitcher in all of baseball. He told me he wants to be the Felix Hernandez of Kansas City. This kid is very motivated, very driven, a fierce competitor."
And above all, he's harnessed his gift.
"I learned how to do this with time," he says, "knowing that from the first inning, you can't throw 100. I learned to spot up my pitches.
"But I always know I have 100 in my back pocket."
PHOTOS: Best of the 2014 World Series