Finally: staff that acknowledges velocity being down

[interloper]

This has been an absolute pet peeve of mine for years under Buck. I've also thrown more than my share of criticism Roch's way for failing to report on it during ST. When he does, he tends to throw shade at the fans, as he did re: Pop the other day:

I cannot roll my eyes harder.

Then, in Roch's very next post later that day:

Quote

 

Hyde noticed the pronounced drop in reliever Zach Pop’s velocity yesterday, the prospect’s fastball climbing only into the upper 80s. The club will act accordingly by adjusting his work schedule.

“I think we’re going to be careful with him,” Hyde said. “His velo was down a little bit yesterday and we recognized that right away and I think we’re going to slow-play him a little bit, make sure he’s feeling 100 percent next time he comes out.

“If anything is going to happen, you want it to happen now for sure. I think that Zach was just a young kid that was probably just trying to do maybe a little too much early on, maybe had a little bit of fatigue, so we’re just going to back off him. But you want anything to happen now instead of the middle of the season for sure.”

The Orioles will continue to monitor the situation to make certain that the issue isn’t related to Pop’s shoulder.

 

Look, in most cases it's probably nothing. I get it. But it needs to be acknowledged, and thankfully, it was by Hyde, and Roch must then in turn write about it. I for one welcome this newfound influx of transparency. Buck would often cop to not noticing very obvious velocity drops. Fans aren't stupid. We know not to give Jake Fox's 10 ST home runs much weight, but a lack of velocity is something to at least take note of. It could be dead arm, it could be injury. It should be acknowledged because it's plainly there for all to see. Let's not play dumb just to play dumb. I'm encouraged by this and what it means in regards to Elias/Hyde's free flow of information in which fans aren't treated like idiots.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

I didn't get to see the game. Was Pop throwing with his full effort and the velocity was lacking, or was he "going through the motions" to not exert himself right from the start in Spring Training?

[interloper]

3 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

I didn't get to see the game. Was Pop throwing with his full effort and the velocity was lacking, or was he "going through the motions" to not exert himself right from the start in Spring Training?

I don't know the guy well enough to know if he was going full effort. Pop himself said he was not. So hopefully it's nothing. He was like 86-89. It looked to me like he was shrugging his pitching shoulder a lot, but that could just be a quirk and again, I've not seen him on the mound a lot.

[Moose Milligan]

Biggest.  Overreaction.  Ever.  

Maybe not ever, but sheesh.

[interloper]

20 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Biggest.  Overreaction.  Ever.  

Maybe not ever, but sheesh.

Haha, well ok then. You sound a little like Roch here, tbh. I dunno man, I'm just glad Hyde will say "yes, I saw that 10 mph drop in velocity from the young pitching prospect. You are not insane and I'm not going to shame you for bringing it up." It's nice, is all.

It's the same in the way Elias will actually provide legitimate answers to interview questions without feeding you some straight word salad. It's nice! 

[justcompete]

Time will tell.

One of the benefits of all the technology is the ability to determine variances in real time.

If the data shows a velo drop outside of his normal ranges it allows the staff to explore why.  

Athletes are used to working through discomfort, soreness, inflammation, minor injuries, etc.

So with these insights the coaches can step in and get things on track and prevent further risks. 

[Moose Milligan]

18 minutes ago, interloper said:

Haha, well ok then. You sound a little like Roch here, tbh. I dunno man, I'm just glad Hyde will say "yes, I saw that 10 mph drop in velocity from the young pitching prospect. You are not insane and I'm not going to shame you for bringing it up." It's nice, is all.

It's the same in the way Elias will actually provide legitimate answers to interview questions without feeding you some straight word salad. It's nice! 

I dunno, I just don't expect all the pitchers to air it out their first time out.  I'm glad for transparency, don't get me wrong but...man, 10 mph off in their first appearance, I just don't get the fuss.

[interloper]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I dunno, I just don't expect all the pitchers to air it out their first time out.  I'm glad for transparency, don't get me wrong but...man, 10 mph off in their first appearance, I just don't get the fuss.

That's a lot of mph! I would expect "not airing it out" to be like 2-5 mph off. I'm not too worried based on the guy's quotes, but anyway. Just wanted to  give Hyde credit more than anything.

And an excuse to roll my eyes at Roch without the threat of him rage-banning me from his comment section.  

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

That's a lot of mph! I would expect "not airing it out" to be like 2-5 mph off. I'm not too worried based on the guy's quotes, but anyway. Just wanted to  give Hyde credit more than anything.

And an excuse to roll my eyes at Roch without the threat of him rage-banning me from his comment section.  

Roch does rage ban a bit too much, I don't get what thats all about.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

43 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Biggest.  Overreaction.  Ever.  

Maybe not ever, but sheesh.

This.  

But what about Pop’s spin rate? That’s what we really should be overreacting about.  

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

Roch does rage ban a bit too much, I don't get what thats all about.

Can’t accept his role as being an Orioles shill.  Just accept it Roch you’ve got a sweet gig.  I would love to cover baseball for a living.

[bobmc]

31 minutes ago, interloper said:

Haha, well ok then. You sound a little like Roch here, tbh. I dunno man, I'm just glad Hyde will say "yes, I saw that 10 mph drop in velocity from the young pitching prospect. You are not insane and I'm not going to shame you for bringing it up." It's nice, is all.

It's the same in the way Elias will actually provide legitimate answers to interview questions without feeding you some straight word salad. It's nice! 

@Luke-OH made a slight correction on the velo (DRAMA ALERT

 

[interloper]

Just now, bobmc said:

@Luke-OH made a slight correction on the velo:

 

Yeah I quoted this tweet in my OP lol. 

Again, I point folks to the title of the thread. This is less about Pop and more about Hyde.

[interloper]

Perhaps I could have worded it better. I'm not saying "they're finally acknowledging Pop's velocity being down", I'm saying "finally we have a coaching staff that WILL acknowledge it, it seems". 

[Luke-OH]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Biggest.  Overreaction.  Ever.  

Maybe not ever, but sheesh.

Yeah, hopefully, but what happens in spring training that has more predictive value than a pitcher’s velocity?

I’d argue nothing other than getting injured.

So if we are going to talk about someone hitting a home run or making some errors, you better believe we should be discussing velocity deltas. 

This isn’t a scientific article, but still a good piece and links Mike Fast’s more scientific study of spring training velocity. Fast’s finding was that pitchers maintain 41% of their spring training delta from the previous season average velocity. That’s pretty significant whether or not it’s injury related.