Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon grew hot when asked about his heater.
He is among the game’s nastiest fireballers, regular unleashing a fang- toothed fastball that pops the catcher’s mitt at 98 miles per hour. So it was a bit of a surprise that the 26-year-old reacted with anger when asked if he ever tries to hit 100 mph on the radar-gun reading. After all, seeing how fast a pitcher throws is as much a part of the ballpark experience for fans these days as hot dogs and peanuts.
“I think it’s a gauge for hitters. I hate it,” Papelbon said, his voice rising as he spoke. “I don’t see how it’s fair that they know one day that my arm is hanging a little bit and I am only hitting 92 miles per hour. When they come up to the plate, the scoreboard doesn’t flash that he swings at changeups 72 percent of the time on the first pitch.”
While Papelbon was quick with an objection, Major League Baseball is no hurry to remove speeds posted by radar. Once only a scouting tool, the sport found a fast-and-curious audience that enjoys seeing how hard a pitcher throws.
“It’s there for the fans. It’s why reality TV shows are so popular,” Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “It’s something that kind of takes them behind the scenes.”
Hitters enjoy the extra information. It’s particularly helpful, they said, to check the difference between a pitcher’s fastball and breaking pitches and see if it lines up with the scouting report.
“Any hitter that says he doesn’t look up at the board is lying,” Rockies slugger Matt Holliday said.
Radar-gun readings have grown in popularity as more pitchers hit higher numbers. Last October, one of the postseason’s biggest story lines centered on Detroit’s Joel Zumaya, he of the flame- tattooed right arm, after he struck out the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez on a fastball clocked at 104 mph. Zumaya confessed afterward that he pitches to the radar gun and checks his reading.
“I try to find out where it’s posted in each stadium,” he said.
But rising numbers seem to be blurring the line between fact and fiction.
Zumaya throws gas, but is he really that fast? There’s some healthy skepticism among scouts whose radar-gun readings don’t always match those popping up on the scoreboard to oohs and aahs.
In San Francisco, the Rockies’ Josh Fogg hit 94 mph. He usually throws his fastball at about 87 mph. And in San Diego, as Nationals reliever Ray King noted, the Petco Park board screams that closer Trevor Hoffman is reaching 89 miles per hour, a velocity most figure he hasn’t tickled in years.
“I think posting the readings in the stadium is pretty weak. When I played you didn’t need a radar gun to tell you how hard a guy was throwing,” said one-time Toronto manager and current Baltimore broadcaster Buck Martinez. “After a guy gets his signing bonus, that’s the last time he should be worried about his velocity.”
The prevalence of radar guns, multiple GMs said, can sometimes have an negative impact on young pitchers who have grown up in a culture of harder, faster, better. When the Rockies’ Jorge Julio was with the Orioles, Baltimore began turning the gun off when he pitched, feeling he had become too preoccupied trying to throw hard.
Julio disputes that idea, but admitted it’s tempting to peek.
“I did sometimes. And there are guys who like to look, like Daniel Cabrera,” Julio said.
While Curt Schilling and Bartolo Colon are notorious radar readers – the Los Angeles Angels turn off the gun when Colon is pitching – all baseball people questioned for this story said John Rocker was the worst. Former teammate Walt Weiss joked that Rocker would “practically get whiplash” looking for his reading after he let go of the ball.
“As long as it’s accurate, I don’t have a problem with it,” former Arizona Diamondbacks GM Joe Garagiola Jr. said. “A fan watching on TV sees it, so you’d like the fan in the ballpark to have the same experience.”
It’s not always identical. That’s because not all TV broadcasts use the stadium radar gun. The Rockies, however, are calibrated and are one of the few teams that post both the pitch and the velocity. They have a Jugs gun set up behind home plate that records the speed. An intern from either the baseball operations or video department identifies the pitch based on a scouting report given to him by Rockies advance scout Chris Warren.
When Daniels interned with the Rockies in 2001, one of his duties was naming the pitches that appeared on the scoreboard.
“I watched from the video room and then selected the pitch based on pitch recognition,” Daniels explained. “The hardest guy to get consistently right was Kevin Brown.”
Gandhi said there’s more to life than simply increasing its speed. It’s safe to assume he wasn’t holding a radar gun.
“If I get close to 100, I will go for it,” Tigers starter Justin Verlander said. “I am not afraid to admit it.”
Radar love
Along with hot dogs and peanuts, radar-gun readings have become staples at big-league ballparks. Rockies slugger Matt Holliday believes every hitter looks at them. Plenty of pitchers do as well. Troy E. Renck looks at the notorious radar-gun peekers:
* Curt Schilling, Red Sox
* Joel Zumaya, Tigers
* Justin Verlander, Tigers
* Eric Gagne, Rangers
* Troy Percival, Cardinals
* Bartolo Colon, Angels
Zip
Fastest pitches of 2006
Joel Zumaya, Tigers: 104 mph
Brad Lidge, Astros: 102 mph
Jeremy Accardo, Blue Jays: 102 mph
Francisco Cordero, Brewers: 101 mph
– Nine tied at 101 mph. Fastest Rockie: Ubaldo Jimenez at 99 mph
(SOURCE: BASEBALL INFO SOLUTIONS)
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
