Comments on: Bumgarner’s Major League Debut

By: Alireza

Alireza — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:58:29 +0000

Haren can dial it up if he needs to. I don’t know if this guy can. That said, lefties are a different animal and guys like Tom Glavine were able to strike guys out without an overpowering heater. Even right handed Greg Maddux was able to do it without huge velocity. Orel Hershiser is another example.

By: Brooksy Boy

Brooksy Boy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:35:48 +0000

joseph, you make a cogent point, concisely stated and brilliantly argued. Bravo joseph, way to stand up and say what needed to be said!

By: SharksRog

SharksRog — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:10:40 +0000

At San Jose, Tim Alderson was throwing 89-91 while topping out at 92 when he pitched San Jose’s Cal League playoff opener.

In Madison Bumgarner’s April 10th debut at San Jose this season, he sat at 91-93 and topped out at 94. Last night Mad Bum was sitting at 87-89, bottoming out at 86 and topping out at 90.

Naturally there can be small differences in guns and perhaps in the same gun at a different time.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:35:20 +0000

maybe bumgarner is past his prime.. maybe he will loose more velocity..

By: B

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:14:05 +0000

I didn’t see reports he sits there, either. The reports were, like you said, he throws in the 90′s. I read stuff from plenty of people who saw him pitch, including normal fans that had him sitting in the 90′s. Around the end of July or so it was noted he lost some velocity. Here’s an example:
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2009/7/28/967189/goldstein-on-madbum-panic-time

Giants fans have been discussing this issue for over a month now. Something has quite clearly happened to his velocity. It really was higher than that before. I think it’ll come back somewhat next year, though.

By: cody

cody — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:38:52 +0000

Maybe Bumgarner will pick up velocity like Lester.

By: Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:55:06 +0000

I know that Porcello’s a sinker baller and he can hit 95. However, the reports were out of high school that he sits in the mid-90′s back then which he even said wasn’t the case. I’ll have to do some digging to find the interview, but he had said in a Lakeland newspaper I believe it was, that he has always preferred the 2-seam over the 4-seam and getting ground balls. I’m sure that he didn’t just start doing that in pro ball and that it was there in high school. But, the public only gets the scouting reporting maximum velocity rather than where a pitcher normally sits.

By: Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:53:02 +0000

It’s hard to know pitch counts of anything below Triple-A, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a larger pitch count limitation than he did last year. That would make his 130+ innings this year more than his 145 IP last year.

By: Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:51:47 +0000

I didn’t see reports that noted he sits in the 88-92 range. Everything I had read essentially just quoted Baseball America which seems to just take someone one person (in this case, Ben Badler) says and uses it as their scouting report for the duration of the player’s prospect years. It’s always been “mid-90′s heat” and sitting 93-94.

By: obsessivegiantscompulsive

obsessivegiantscompulsive — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:44:52 +0000

Very good rundown about Bumgarner in Baseball America: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=6374

Goes over the velocity issue and observations by a scout who has seen him in a variety of games.