{"id":246734,"date":"2025-10-28T16:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246734\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:48:12","slug":"2025-mlb-postseason-continues-to-set-velocity-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246734\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 MLB Postseason Continues To Set Velocity Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\t\tImage credit:
\n\tEdgardo Henriquez (Photo by Keith Birmingham\/MediaNews Group\/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In Game 3 of the World Series Monday, the Dodgers found themselves in desperate straits as the game ticked deeper and deeper into extra innings.<\/p>\n

After Clayton Kershaw<\/a> got the Dodgers out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 12th inning, Los Angeles was forced to turn to the two relievers who had not even been on the NLCS roster. Edgardo Henriquez<\/a> had not pitched since he threw an inning in the Wild Card round on Sept. 30. Will Klein\u2019s<\/a> last outing came in the regular season on Sept. 26.<\/p>\n

The two righthanders proceeded to dominate the Blue Jays lineup for a combined six scoreless innings. Henriquez sat at 100-101 mph, while Klein hovered around 97-98 and touched 99. Two relievers who were only on the roster for dire emergencies like this stepped onto the mound throwing harder than 99.99% of all MLB pitchers who have ever pitched in a game.<\/p>\n

It was a fitting development for this year. Because even with four potential games left to be played, this has already been the postseason with the most velocity the game has ever seen.<\/p>\n

Yes, pitch-tracking data only goes back to 2008. But considering the trends, we can comfortably say that never before has there been a postseason with anything like the top-tier velocity we\u2019re seeing in 2025.<\/p>\n

Teams have thrown 269 pitches at 100-plus mph this postseason, which is 2.1% of all postseason pitches this year. That\u2019s more 100-plus mph pitches than were seen in 2008-2013 postseasons combined. The 1,163 pitches at 98-plus mph are more than were thrown in the 2008-2012 postseasons combined.<\/p>\n

This postseason has seen the most 95-plus mph pitches of any postseason in the pitch tracking era. It\u2019s also seen the most 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103 and 104-plus mph.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Aroldis Chapman\u2019s 40 102+ mph pitches in the 2016 postseason, this year\u2019s 30 pitches in that range remain in second place. Unless Henriquez becomes a much bigger part of the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen over the remainder of the World Series, that may be one mark that stays safe this year.<\/p>\n

But in every other way, this is a year in which hitters have faced more velocity than ever before. We\u2019ve now reached the point where facing an array of 95-plus mph pitches is part of nearly every hitter\u2019s nightly routine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And 98+ mph is no longer an aberration, either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s most shocking to see how triple digits, which used to be an exceptional rarity, has become almost commonplace. We have seen 18 pitchers throw 100-plus mph in this postseason. Only 18 different pitchers touched 100 mph in a postseason game in the six postseasons from 2008-2013 combined.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The ever-increasing velocity of pitchers across the board combined with the decline in usage of fourth starters<\/a> (who have often been replaced by bullpen games) has made hitters\u2019 lives hell.<\/p>\n

In 2008, hitters saw 758 sub-90 mph fastballs in the postseason, which accounted for 7.9% of all pitches thrown that year. They hit .289\/.359\/.463 against those \u201cheaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, hitters have faced 54 sub-90 mph fastballs in the postseason, which is 0.4% of all pitches thrown. They\u2019ve hit .273\/.273\/.273 against them, but they are so rare that they barely register. There were 54 hits against sub-90 mph fastballs in 2008. There have been three this postseason.<\/p>\n

What have those so-called heaters been replaced by? Breaking balls that are thrown harder than the fastballs of just a generation ago. This year has seen 264 breaking balls thrown at 92 mph or above. That\u2019s more than were thrown in the 2008-2021 postseasons combined.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, even the emergency relievers throw with the stuff of elite closers from just a generation ago. As this year\u2019s postseason is showing, it\u2019s never been more challenging to be a hitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image credit: Edgardo Henriquez (Photo by Keith Birmingham\/MediaNews Group\/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) In Game 3 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-246734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}