Tommy Hunter? Really?

Two years ago I stumbled across an article by Tom Verducci on the use of Doppler radar in baseball stadiums. As Verducci put it they wanted to answer, “Why does David Robertson's fastball appear to have mysterious "hop" to it? Why is Justin Verlander's curveball so hard to hit? And why are even the most accurate radar guns fooling scouts and they don't even know it?”

A Danish company that had already used their technology to track golf shots and improve swing planes installed Doppler radar in a few stadiums to answer the questions above. What they were using it for was to measure the flight time of a ball on its way to the plate. The shorter the flight time, the less time a batter has to adjust. Simple. To do this they measured the speed of the pitch and the distance the ball travelled from the pitcher’s hand which will vary from pitcher to pitcher.

This was purely a baseball article with nothing focused on fantasy but reading baseball articles with an eye to fantasy is extremely important to gain knowledge that your competitors might miss by simply reading Rotoworld for example.

The findings in the article were that David Robertson had the longest stretch of any pitcher at 7 feet. Basically he was 7 feet closer to home plate than the rubber when he released his fastball. This meant that his 93 mph fastball delivered from 53’ 6” was effectively 95 mph.  You can see how this would be tougher on a hitter as his reaction time would be reduced by the extension he gets. Major League average was 5’ 10” so Robertson had over a foot more extension than average. Basically, he gets to pitch closer to home plate than other pitchers because he extends so much. Knowing this, I went out and bought Robertson in my fantasy league and he ended up the season with 100 strikeouts in only 66 2/3 innings with an ERA of 1.08. In my earlier fantasy baseball manifesto I touched on the importance of high K middle relievers and this is the perfect example. Guys like this help win championships but they are generally undervalued commodities.

For curveballs the major league average number of rotations per minute is 2,450. Players below this level generated swinging strikes between 8-10% of the time. Players above that line generated swinging strikes between 12-15% of the time. At the high end that’s almost twice the number of players on the low end. Unsurprisingly Justin Verlander is at the top of this list followed by Gio Gonzalez who has a devastating curveball.

The most interesting stat came from the only guy to appear on both lists. Tommy Hunter had an extension of 6’ 7” and ball rotation of 2,720 rotations per minute. He gained 9” more towards the plate than the average pitcher and had 11% more spin. His RPM on his curveball puts him in the category of guys getting a 15% swinging strike percentage. This was baffling to me as I’ve generally regarded Hunter as a terrible pitcher. He has had his moments but they are few and far between. He is not someone I’d ever roster in my league. This year when the O’s made the playoffs they moved Hunter to the bullpen. I’d always kept that Doppler piece in mind when looking at his mediocre stats and couldn’t understand it. Obviously pitching is more than throwing but with that stuff how could you be so bad? I only watched one inning of Hunter from the bullpen but it was enough to make me want him next year. He completely dominated the Yankees hitting 98 mph out of the pen whereas he was generally at 91 mph when starting. Think about how effective a guy like that could be throwing 98. The Yankees looked silly up there. Well to be fair they looked silly against everyone in the post-season but this illustrates why reading baseball articles and not just fantasy can help you win.

Tommy Hunter may not be in a bullpen next year but if he is then he should be rostered in almost every league. The numbers he puts up could surprise.