I’m not all that worried yet. It really is common for the fastball velocity of young pitchers to fluctuate. If he regains his velocity, I’ll be glad he had this stretch, since it gave him some good experience pitching with lackluster stuff.

The thing with Alderson, though, is that not only did his velocity drop, he struggled a bit too. Bumgarner was still very good even with the lessened velocity—sure his k/9 dropped, but that doesn’t mean he struggled. ERA was still sparkling, FIP decent, and a number other peripheral stats good to very good. Alderson never should an ability to pitch off his fastball, and ‘pitching backwards’ approach may not have played well at higher levels, especially with a fastball that never developed much. I still wish they wouldn’t have given him up, for Freddie Sanzhez though!