Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com penned an article about high velocity pitchers and of course the first picture that pops up is Joel Zumaya. There’s a listing of the highest velocity pitch thrown by team and Zumaya tops them all at 104 miles per hour. Nobody else touched 103 and only Brad Lidge and a trio of Blue Jays pitchers (Jeremy Accardo, A.J. Burnett and Brandon League) touched 102 miles per hour. Former Tiger Kyle Farnsworth was the top Yankee a few teams had tops only 98 mph (I know, only).Â
They also get into how some relievers learn they can get away with dialing it down and former Tiger Frank Tanana was used as an example. For those of you not familiar with Tanana, he was a fireballer who actually threw on the Angels with Nolan Ryan. Near the end of his career, and after a major injury (can’t remember what he hurt) he became a very effective pitcher even though his fast ball usually didn’t break 90 mph. His slow curve was a site to see.