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Brad Hand has struggled in 2020. Why? Pretty simple, really. Let's walk through everything in graphs.
Hand's fastball velocity has been tailing off since July 2019 (over 93mph then) & offseason + Covid-break didn't help. Under 91mph now.
Hand's fastball velocity has been tailing off since July 2019 (over 93mph then) & offseason + Covid-break didn't help. Under 91mph now.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Not only did his fourseam velo drop, but his slider velo has fallen off a cliff too:
Not only did his fourseam velo drop, but his slider velo has fallen off a cliff too:
Hand has maintained his horizontal movement as before... and the vertical movement on his fastball has remained within his normal range too.
But, with a slower fastball & slider combo... he better get not good but great vertical slider action; spoiler alert, he is NOT:
But, with a slower fastball & slider combo... he better get not good but great vertical slider action; spoiler alert, he is NOT:
And, if the slider isn't as fast and not getting great action, well then you need to throw it less often. And, Hand has thrown it less often:
Oh, and you probably guessed already, but yeah, Hand is getting far less swing-n-miss (whiffs) on that slider too:
OK, so we arrived at the main event... what happens when you put all of the above together?
Hitters are absolutely CRUSHING Hand's slider. He might as well walk up to the plate, put a tee out, and have them take BIG DADDY HACKS.
Hitters are absolutely CRUSHING Hand's slider. He might as well walk up to the plate, put a tee out, and have them take BIG DADDY HACKS.
So, while y'all are focused on that fastball velo... try to remember if Hand doesn't fix the slider, then it really doesn't matter.
Normal caveats of small sample size and I think it was @GageEHC who mentioned Hawkeye might have slight downtick on velo numbers. Caveat especially applies to results... the "stuff" seems at least to be part of bigger trend for Hand.
