Do pitchers velocities vary during the season?

[Otis11]

I was using Wandy Rodriguez and noticed his 2 seam fastball was running about 89 to 91 mph. The third game I used him though it had dropped to 77 mph, even in the 1st inning. His change up is faster at 84mph. All other pitches of his were the same. I checked the edit function and it had nothing in the bars below that pitch.

I'm wondering if it's part of the game and is a way to indicate fatigue or injury or did the game screw up. I did not use the edit feature on him in the past.

Thanks.

[snuty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Otis11

I was using Wandy Rodriguez and noticed his 2 seam fastball was running about 89 to 91 mph. The third game I used him though it had dropped to 77 mph, even in the 1st inning. His change up is faster at 84mph. All other pitches of his were the same. I checked the edit function and it had nothing in the bars below that pitch. I'm wondering if it's part of the game and is a way to indicate fatigue or injury or did the game screw up. I did not use the edit feature on him in the past. Thanks.

really? 77 mph fastball

[Heroesandvillains]

The OP said that the pitch had no ratings. Here's what I'm thinking:

Any time a pitch is added to the repitiore, or even shuffled to a different pitch number in the editor (making a pitch the number 3 instead of 4, for example), the pitch itself defaults without ratings. Hence, a 77 MPH fastball.

This can occur even if the pitch type itself is changed and immediately changed back to the original. By chance, is this what's going on here? Did you enter the editor for Wandy at all for any reason?

[Otis11]

No. I had never entered editor for Wandy.

I was going to enter it because he had been throwing his 2 seamer at 89mph when Fangraphs has, in it's pitch fx section, him throwing it a 91 this year. Before I remembered to do it I started the game and felt I had to finish the game first. That's when I saw 77mph 2 seamer. It has always been his 1st pitch and remained so throughout.

I can easily adjust it but was wondering if the sudden loss of velocity was part of the game.

[Heroesandvillains]

Quote: Originally Posted by Otis11

No. I had never entered editor for Wandy. I was going to enter it because he had been throwing his 2 seamer at 89mph when Fangraphs has, in it's pitch fx section, him throwing it a 91 this year. Before I remembered to do it I started the game and felt I had to finish the game first. That's when I saw 77mph 2 seamer. It has always been his 1st pitch and remained so throughout. I can easily adjust it but was wondering if the sudden loss of velocity was part of the game.

It is NOT.

This is highly unusual...wish I could be of more help.

Unless you used a different roster when you noticed the change, my post above lays out the only possible causes to this that I'm aware of. Otherwise, it's most definitely a glitch (not to mention, a glitch I've NEVER heard of).

I think there's a rational explanation here, but you may never figure it out. I'd recommend just changing his ratings back. Individual pitch ratings are stagnant and do not progress or regress over time. It's the /9 attributes and such that do.

Good luck.

[nomo17k]

Yeah, looks like a bug in which for some unidentified reason the pitcher ratings for non-pitcher is used for Wandy... When you let a non-pitcher pitch in a game (due to not handling lineup properly), that's the kind of pitches you have... mid 70s fastball with slightly faster changeup. Looks like a legit bug.

[Otis11]

Thanks. I'll readjust.

[Jimbo614]

Hold on one dang second!
With all due respect, I coulda sworn one of these same guys said something about a fatigue factor built into the game earlier in the season. If your pitcher starts on less than five days rest, Or if a relief pitcher pitches too many consecutive days.
Didnt somebody at the beginning of the season ask this very question? And wasnt the answer Fatigue???

What kind of innings did Wandy pitch the last two starts? Complete games? I've noticed in my game that if a pitcher throws a complete game or over 120 pitches, he tends to do horribly the game after. I don't know what their velocity was, but I just know they usually get shelled the next start.