MLB.com’s Mike Petriello crunched some numbers and found that the Royals have struggled against high-velocity fastballs. The Royals hitters’ collective strikeout rate against fastballs in the 91-96 MPH range sat just above 10 percent, but rose to near 25 percent against 97-99 MPH fastballs and nearly 35 percent against 100+ MPH fastballs.
According to MLB.com’s Statcast, Mets starter Noah Syndergaard has already thrown 16 pitches during the post-season that registered at 100 MPH or faster. His fastball has averaged 98.5 MPH. Teammate Jacob deGrom’s fastball has averaged 96.3 MPH and Matt Harvey’s has come in at 95.7 MPH. Closer Jeurys Familia is no slouch either, averaging 96.3 MPH.
As this post-season has shown, things rarely go as they’re predicted. The trends show that the Royals could have their hands full with the Mets’ pitchers, but they have made a habit out of proving everyone wrong for going on two seasons.