Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Excerpt: "The Demon"

"In that same time frame, 18 starters have averaged 95.0 to 95.9 mph in a single season. Four of them are already part of the 96-mph class. Of the other 14, three (Felipe Paulino, Matt Harvey and Jose Fernandez), went on to have Tommy John surgery. Three others, A.J. Burnett, Wily Peralta and Josh Johnson, had Tommy John surgery prior to posting these velocity numbers. Two pitchers in this group are on track for the Hall of Fame in Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez. The other seven include some of the remaining good and healthy starters of 2014 -- among them Jeff Samardzija, Garret Richards and Chris Archer. The raw data includes a lot of wait-and-see guys."