00:00I saw the stat the other day, I believe it's still true, 30th in fastball velocity this year
00:07at the big league level. And I know that, I believe the big league club has not been higher
00:14than 26th since 2018. So at this point, is it an organizational philosophy? Is it the happenstance
00:23of development? What is it that has kept the club from being able to measure up in terms
00:32of velocity at the big league level?
00:35Yeah, I think you can, for lack of a better term, pick and choose different traits, whether
00:42it be fastball velocity, breaking ball depth, command, etc. And you get in a little bit
00:48of a trouble if you start to chase that thing versus just outs. The first principle of pitching
00:53is how do I get outs? So that said, pitching velocity is good, right? In and of itself,
01:00the vacuum is good. Now I'll take 17 Kyle Hendricks's all day. And so I think the guys
01:06that we found that fit within our different disability to acquire them, whether that's
01:11in trade or whether that's in free agency, those guys weren't necessarily the guys that
01:15are going 97, 98. The guys that we acquired that throw 100 this year, some of them have
01:20gotten hurt. So there's just some happenstance there too. But I think it's not a philosophy
01:26not to get guys that throw hard. But I do believe it's just the guys that have lined up in
01:32terms
01:32of we think that they can get outs and what it took to acquire them. Those guys ended up
01:36being guys that aren't flashing hundreds that often. But that doesn't mean we're not trying
01:41to increase velocity with guys and just trying to increase the ability for them to get outs
01:45at the major league level.
01:47Does it have anything to do with the unbelievable rash of injuries around the game? Because it
01:53feels like the toothpaste is out of the tube. Everybody's chasing velocity and it doesn't
01:58necessarily keep you from injuries if you don't. Like they just seem to happen.
02:03Yeah. I mean, the one thing we know for sure is that we don't know much for sure around injuries,
02:08but guys that throw harder are at increased risk of injury. And the more you throw, the
02:12more you throw hard, the better chance you are of getting hurt. The unfortunate part is
02:17there is some correlation between velocity and getting outs too. So guys are going to chase
02:23stuff. They're going to chase whether that's in their velocity or whether the way the ball
02:27is breaking. So yeah, I mean, it's not as much of a surprise that some of our harder
02:33throwers are some of the guys that are currently on the IL. So look, but like Justin Steele,
02:38we're going to try to get him back before the end of this year. Justin's one of our best
02:41starters. He doesn't throw 99. So, you know, at the same time, we're solving for guys that
02:47get outs, but we certainly are not looking to get guys that throw not hard in that process.
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