Homer Bailey broke out last year. It was the first time he had posted an ERA under 4.00 in the Majors and at times he was flat out dominant.
Someone, and I wish I could find the article now, posted during late spring training that Homer Bailey was among the top 5 starters who had higher velocity in spring than they had in 2012 and that in the past, that had been a good sign for performance.
Well here we are three starts in and that extra velocity is still there. I went out and grabbed the Pitch F/X data for Bailey from 2012 and 2013 thus far and charted his pitches.
What is interesting to me is that not only is Bailey throwing his fastball and sinker harder, but they are both moving more than they did last year too. His four seamer rises and runs a little bit more, while his sinker has 2 more inches of run on it.
His splitter is actually moving slightly less, but is 1.7 MPH faster than last year.
His slider is coming in on a right hander about 2 inches more than it was last year and is a MPH faster.
His curveball is both faster (by 2.2 MPH) and has a tighter break than the one he was throwing last year.
Small sample size of course, as he only has what, 300 pitches this season? Still, encouraging signs.