Started like any baseball fan just curious about pitchers, you know? Saw this guy Jordan Walden’s name pop up in a Braves game recap. Everybody kept yelling about his fastball, so I figured, why not dig into his stats myself? Totally went down the rabbit hole.
The Clunky Stat Hunt
First things first, grabbed my laptop and punched his name into the baseball stats site. Felt like walking into a maze honestly. Page loads, boom! – numbers everywhere. ERA, WHIP, Ks… looked like alphabet soup. Had to squint real hard to find what I actually wanted: that darn fastball speed.
Scrolled past way too many tables. Found his player page finally. Okay, now where’s the speed hiding? They bury this stuff! Noticed a tiny link saying “Pitch Type.” Clicked that… waited… loading spinner made me wanna toss my coffee cup. Finally saw it:
- Four-Seam Fastball
- Two-Seam Fastball
- Slider
- Changeup
Alright! Clicked “Four-Seam.” More loading. Annoying. Saw a number staring back at me: 97.8 mph. Said “average speed.” That’s seriously moving! But was this just one season? Or his whole career? Had to backtrack like three times.
Frustration & Finding Patterns
Wanted to see if he always threw this fire. Clicked year-by-year data. Stuff jumped all over:
- 2010: 96.2 mph
- 2011: 97.8 mph (peak?!)
- 2012: 96.5 mph
What?! Why did it bounce around? Annoyed me big time. Felt like the stats were playing hide-and-seek. Checked his injury history – bingo! Heard elbow trouble in 2012. Figures. Probably why the dip. Stats don’t tell you that part upfront; gotta connect the dots yourself like a detective.
Okay, So What Did We Learn?
Sat back after like an hour hunting numbers. So yeah, dude’s fastball was legit gas when he was 100%. Saw 97-98 mph regularly in his best years. But watching those stats tumble later? Felt kinda sad.
Realized baseball stats are like reading ancient scrolls sometimes. Need patience. Need coffee. Probably need aspirin too. Makes you respect the guys who even throw that hard while trying to aim it into a tiny glove across home plate.
Ended up wondering… do these numbers actually help anyone besides geeks like me wasting a Saturday afternoon? Maybe not. But tell you what – seeing that 98 pop up on screen? Yeah, that was cool.
