Jeff Sullivan wrote earlier today about the excellence of Madison Bumgarner’s relief performance last night in Game Seven of the World Series — and over the course of the playoffs, generally. What follows is a similar document to Sullivan’s, except designed for a person for whom reading and thinking are burdensome.

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1. Bumgarner’s Fastball Velocity Was Higher in the Postseason
According to Brooks Baseball, Bumgarner recorded an average fastball velocity of 92.76 mph during the regular season. In October, he threw about 1 mph higher, on average — 93.66 mph, according to Brooks.

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2. Bumgarner’s Fastball Whiff Rate Was Worse in the Postseason
Madison Bumgarner recorded about a 14% swinging-strike rate this season according both to Brooks Baseball and also the data here at FanGraphs. An excellent figure, that — roughly twice the league-average rate.

During the postseason — and despite the added velocity — his fastball whiff rate was only about 11%. Still above-average relative to the league, that, but less above average.

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3. Bumgarner’s Fastball Whiff Rate Improved Over the Postseason
Or, it mostly did. By way of illustration, regard this artisanally crafted table:

Date	Opp	#	SwStrk	SwStrk%
1-Oct	PIT	60	4	6.7%
6-Oct	WAS	51	5	9.8%
11-Oct	STL	58	5	8.6%
16-Oct	STL	56	8	14.3%
21-Oct	KCA	61	4	6.6%
26-Oct	KCA	52	8	15.4%
29-Oct	KCA	39	8	20.5%
Total	—	377	42	11.1%

And/or this graph, which documents Bumgarner’s fastball swinging-strike rate by appearance and onto which I’ve pasted an image suggesting that its 100% organic:

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4. There Wasn’t a Correlation Between Velocity and Whiff Rate
Bumgarner’s fastball swinging-strike rates weren’t higher in games during which he recorded a higher average fastball velocity. In fact, the opposite is the case, if at all: Bumgarner produced his highest fastball whiff rate on Wednesday, during which he also recorded his lowest average fastball velocity of October.

Regard:

Date	Opp	Velo	SwStrk%
1-Oct	PIT	94.0	6.7%
6-Oct	WAS	93.8	9.8%
11-Oct	STL	93.5	8.6%
16-Oct	STL	94.0	14.3%
21-Oct	KCA	93.8	6.6%
26-Oct	KCA	93.3	15.4%
29-Oct	KCA	93.0	20.5%
Total	—	93.6	11.1%

And this table, which features Bumgarner’s fastball velocity by game versus fastball swinging-strike rate by game:

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5. The Royals Offense Was Very Good at Making Contact
Kansas City batters combined to produce the third-best swinging-strike rate among all the league’s 30 clubs this season, at 8.1% — this, relative to a league-average figure of about 9.5%.

What Bumgarner did, then, was produce a ca. 20% swinging-strike rate on his fastball — itself a pitch that sits at 6-7% by that measure — against a club which had already exhibited the ability to make contact at a considerably above-average rate.