Top Arizona Fall League Velocities, According to PITCHf/x
As of today — or at least something like today — the Arizona Fall League has been underway for about a month. Two stadiums in that league, located in Peoria and Surprise, are equipped with PITCHf/x cameras, all manner of data from which is available at Daren Willman’s site MLB Farm.
What follows is a pair of leaderboards featuring the top velocities among those AFL pitchers — both overall, and also among starters only — who’ve appeared at either of the two aforementioned stadiums. Following those leaderboards are three observations of limited merit.
The pitch type FF denotes a four-seam fastball; FT, a two-seamer. Count denotes the number of the relevant pitch type to have been recorded by PITCHf/x cameras.
Top Velocities Among AFL Pitchers
Here are the top average velocities among those Arizona Fall League pitchers.
| # | Name | Org | Throws | Role | Pitch | Count | Vel. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nefi Ogando | PHI | R | RP | FF | 89 | 94.5 |
| 2 | Brian Ellington | MIA | R | RP | FF | 58 | 93.1 |
| 3 | Chad Smith | DET | R | RP | FT | 14 | 93.0 |
| 4 | Francellis Montas | CWS | R | SP | FF | 55 | 92.8 |
| 5 | Kaleb Fleck | ARI | R | RP | FF | 24 | 92.5 |
| 6 | Matt Magill | LAD | R | SP | FF | 44 | 92.3 |
| 7 | Samuel Tuivailala | STL | R | RP | FF | 52 | 92.1 |
| 8 | Kyle Haynes | NYY | R | RP | FF | 20 | 92.0 |
| 9 | Jimmie Sherfy | ARI | R | RP | FF | 34 | 91.7 |
| 10 | Tayron Guerrero | SD | R | RP | FF | 26 | 91.6 |
Top Velocities Among AFL Pitchers (Starters Only)
Here the top average velocities, among only those AFL pitchers who’ve recorded at least half their appearances in a starting capacity.
| # | Name | Org | Throws | Role | Pitch | Count | Vel. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Francellis Montas | CWS | R | SP | FF | 55 | 92.8 |
| 2 | Matt Magill | LAD | R | SP | FF | 44 | 92.3 |
| 3 | Jaime Schultz | TB | R | SP | FF | 274 | 91.4 |
| 4 | Dylan Baker | CLE | R | SP | FF | 62 | 91.3 |
| 5 | Vincent Velasquez | HOU | R | SP | FF | 36 | 90.6 |
| 6 | Mark Appel | HOU | R | SP | FF | 54 | 90.5 |
| 7 | Felipe Rivero | WSH | L | SP | FF | 38 | 90.1 |
| 8 | Archie Bradley | ARI | R | SP | FF | 62 | 89.8 |
| 9 | Stephen Landazuri | SEA | R | SP | FF | 24 | 89.7 |
| 10 | Miguel Almonte | KC | R | SP | FF | 97 | 89.5 |
Observations of Limited Merit
• A number of the figures within the PITCHf/x leaderboards at MLB Farm appear to be on the low side. On Monday, for example, the author saw Miami right-hander Anthony DeSclafani sitting comfortably at 91-94 mph with his fastball over four of five innings. The PITCHf/x report, meanwhile, lists his average fastball velocity at 88.6 mph. In other words: one should probably concern himself more with the order in which the pitchers appear on those same leaderboards than on the precise figures themselves.
• Philadelphia right-hander Nefi Ogando was signed originally out of the Dominican by Boston as a 21-year-old — which is to say, at an older age than most Latin American prospects are signed. Traded to Philadelphia (for infielder John McDonald) in 2013, Ogando was only topping out at 94 mph at that time. He recorded strikeout and walk rates of 21.8% and 10.7%, respectively, as a 25-year-old this season with Double-A Reading — and has produced almost identical rates (20.9% K, 9.3% BB) over about 10 AFL innings.
• Discussed at some length by both the author and Kiley McDaniel in a post that appeared here yesterday, White Sox right-hander Francellis Montas has recorded the highest average fastball velocity among starting pitchers in the AFL. That, in tandem with an above-average slider, allowed him to produced strikeout and walk rates of 23.1% and 5.8%, respectively, over 62.0 innings this year as just a 21-year-old at High-A Winston-Salem.
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Unless there were some really bizarre conditions, the pitch fx machine Is probably off because I highly doubt that tiivalala and sherfy were throwing in the low 90s
As noted, it probably makes more sense to regard merely the order in which the pitchers are listed rather than the specific velocity figures themselves.