What the heck is going on with Glen Perkins?
I'm usually skeptical of radar gun readings at ballparks. On Thursday, Glen Perkins entered the game in the eighth inning. I was busy working on my story for the first edition so I didn't see every pitch. I did see Perkins srike out Adam Dunn.
I looked up at scoreboard and the radar gun had his last pitch at 97 miles an hour. ``This gun is fast!" I yelled at Phil Mackey, who was indulging in Mackeyness at the time.
I walked past Perkins after the game and said to him, ``You hit 97 on the stadium gun here. Ninety seven!" Perkins nodded and chuckled.
Back up in the pressbox, I went to www.mlb.com and checked the pitch-by-pitch from the game. That website uses Pitch F/X, which is pretty accurate. It had Perkins hitting 96 mph twice - and 97 to Dunn.
Wow.
I went to www.fangraphs.com. It has Perkins' average fastball this year at 92.9 miles an hour. That includes four-seam (straighter) and two-seam ( sinking, a little less speed) fastballs.
MLB.com's Rhett Boillinger overheard my mini-meltdown and sent me this link to BrooksBaseball.net that tracks this stuff and posts it pretty quickly.
Perkins' four-seam fastball on Thursday averaged 97.2 mph, His two-seamer was 95.8.
Wow,
Part of me still can't believe this, But one thing that can't be argued is that Perkins has become nasty.
