Every baseball game every night includes pitch sorcery like nothing we have seen before. The average major league pitcher throws harder than ever (an average of 94.0 mph on two- and four-seam fastballs, matching the record of last year) but throws fewer fastballs than ever. The rate of fastballs is down to 47.3%. Just 10 years ago a hitter could expect to see 56.8% fastballs.
All those lost fastballs have been replaced with a confounding web of lab-grown pitches that dart every which way. Shaping and sequencing, not velocity, is the coin of the realm. The typical starter throws three versions of a fastball that cut, run and ride, and two or three off-speed pitches that sink or veer or do both.
