Nate Lavender’s Deceptive Fireball | New York Mets News

0:00It's September 6th. This is New York Met's News to Day Team News powered by AI. Yo, let's talk about Nate Lavender. This Met's reliever who's been straight fire since he got called up. His fastball, averaging just over 92 miles per hour, is messing with hitters something serious. They see the numbers, they know what's coming, but when his game time, they're just frozen. His catcher, Luis Torrance, says hitters are literally saying, OFK, that's the fastball, because it's on them before they can even react. Since day viewing August 4th, Lavender has been one of the most dominant relievers in all of baseball. He's got a zero earned run average, and he's pitched 12 consecutive scoreless innings to start his career, which is the second longest streak in. Met's history, he's faced 44 batters and only allowed 8 to reach base, striking out 14. Now, this dude wasn't always this polished. He was a prospect, but injuries kept setting him back.

1:00He even got sent back by another team because of those injuries. But his delivery, man, is just naturally deceptive. His dad wanted him to throw fastballs as a kid to avoid injury, and that natural motion, combined with a short and arm path to stay healthy, ended up creating this super quick release point. The crazy part is, his fastball isn't even that fast by major league standards, but it plays like it's much quicker. That deception and his incredible extension down the mound, getting him closer to the plate, make that 92-mile per hour pitch feel like. 97. It's a combination of things he hasn't necessarily worked on, but just came naturally from his mechanics and trying to stay healthy. So, this guy, who was a 14-round pick back in 2021, is now one of the best relievers in the game. Hitters are baffled by his fastball, and he's using that natural deception to his advantage. It's a testament to how sometimes the things we do to stay healthy, or just how we naturally throw, can become our biggest weapons.