In late October, just a couple of days before the first game of the 2024 World Series, Fernando Valenzuela passed away. It’s certainly a huge loss for baseball. He’s a baseball legend and has a huge impact in the world of baseball.
About Fernando Valenzuela, there are a lot of reports and stories that we could easily find on the media. He had a great career and had a great screwball. I read some articles about his screwball. However, it seems that nowadays, there are fewer pitchers who throw screwballs. And I’m just wondering who are those screwballers.
To understand a little bit more, I just checked on the statcast website.
After checking the stats from 2008 to 2024, there are only 6 pitchers who throw screwballs.
Firstly, Daniel Herrera played in the majors from 2008 to 2011. During those 4 seasons, he made 131 relief appearances and tossed 101.2 innings. He owned a 3.72 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. He used his screwball 423 times in those 4 seasons. Opponents hit .215 against his screwballs and average pitch velocity of his screwballs was 67 mph.
In addition, Hector Santiago spent 10 seasons in the majors. He made 130 relief appearances and 140 starts. Santiago posted a 4.12 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP over 947 innings. That last game he played was in 2021. Nonetheless, later in his career, he didn’t throw screwballs anymore. According to the statcast data, the last time that he threw screwballs was in 2018. From 2011 to 2018, he used his screwball 339 times and opponents hit .222 against his screwballs. Average pitch velocity of his screwballs was 76.7 mph. From 2015 to 2018, the average spin rate of his screwballs was 1963 rpm.
Thirdly, Brent Honeywell made his MLB debut in 2021. He didn’t pitch in the majors in 2022. So far in his career, he used his screwball 217 times. However, the results of using screwballs weren’t great. Opponents batted .271 against his screwballs. Average spin rate of his screwballs was 2110 rpm and average velocity of his screwballs was 80.4 mph. In 2024, Honeywell used his screwball 23.9% of the time and opponents hit .321 against his screwballs. In the 2024 playoffs, he threw 24 screwballs.
Finally, Yoshinori Tateyama pitched for the Rangers in 2011 and 2012 posting a 5.75 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP over 61 innings. He used his screwball 68 times and opponents only hit .167. Average velocity of his screwballs was 69.4 mph. Moreover, Noah Davis threw 16 screwballs in 2024.
Looking at these 17 seasons, it’s not common to see a pitcher throw screwballs. In the 2024 season, only 2 pitchers throw screwballs. Noah Davis only threw his screwball 16 times this season. Brent Honeywell might be the only screwballer in the generation and from 2008 to 2024, he’s the only pitcher that throws screwballs in the postseason. Nonetheless, his screwball hasn’t been so effective and it will be worthwhile to see if he will still throw screwballs frequently in the next season.
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