How Cristian Javier’s fastball became the best pitch this postseason
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Jeff PassanESPN
PHILADELPHIA — Late last week, before Cristian Javier etched his name into baseball history, his Houston Astros teammates attempted to describe his fastball. By velocity alone, it is a milquetoast effort, flung from his right arm at 94 mph. And yet one teammate called the pitch “obscene” and another said “it looks 100” and a third deemed it “invisible.” On Wednesday night, after Javier started Game 4 of the World Series, one more teammate chimed in with the most apt descriptor of all.
“Clearly unhittable,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly said.
Certain pitches in baseball are so good they anger hitters, aggravate and frustrate and confound. Javier’s fastball tops the list. He threw invisiball after invisiball Wednesday, carving through a Philadelphia Phillies lineup with six no-hit innings that set the stage for Pressly to close out the first ever combined no-hitter in the World Series; the Fall Classic’s first hitless effort since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. Houston’s 5-0 victory evened the World Series at two games apiece and continued the 25-year-old Javier’s meteoric rise from sometimes-starter, sometimes-reliever to the most dominant pitcher this postseason.
It’s a reputation that Javier solidified over 11⅓ innings in the playoffs’ last two rounds, with Javier allowing one hit and no runs and racking up 14 strikeouts against the potent offenses of the New York Yankees and Phillies. In a World Series that has featured starts by Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, Javier has twirled the best game of the bunch.
Javier finds himself here because of that fastball, a pitch that combines a number of important attributes to make it a wholly unique pitch — “a unicorn,” said one scout, who called Javier’s fastball the best in all of baseball, an assessment with which others concur.
The secret sauce for Javier’s fastball starts with something called vertical approach angle (VAA). It is essentially the pitcher’s equivalent of launch angle, measuring the angle at which a fastball goes toward the plate. Pitchers with extremely high arm slots have high VAAs, and ones like Javier, with lower arm angles, come with low VAAs.
What’s exceptional about Javier isn’t just a VAA that is third lowest among starters, behind Freddy Peralta and Joe Ryan, two other pitchers whose fastballs play way above their velocities. His high front side adds some funk and deception to the delivery. His spin rate and spin efficiency are well above average. VAA is an important factor — “a big component of it [with Javier] is the approach angle, we think,” Astros pitching coach Josh Miller said — but the other elements help give the pitch what looks like a rising effect.
Physics, of course, prevent a fastball from actually rising. With Javier’s VAA and spin characteristics, his fastball simply drops less than the average one. And because nobody else throws like him, hitters trying to track the pitch struggle because of how it carries through the strike zone and looks as if it’s hopping as it crosses the plate.
“That’s just an absolute kangaroo of a fastball coming from his hip,” Astros reliever Ryne Stanek said. “And he’s got some of the longest arms I’ve ever seen. His fastball is obscene.”
“Doesn’t matter what the radar gun’s saying,” fellow reliever Hector Neris said. “It may say he’s 94, but the heater looks 100. It’s gas.”
That deception explains why, one day after hitting five home runs off Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. amid concerns that he might have tipped his pitches, the Phillies couldn’t see anything against Javier — or the three relievers that followed him, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Pressly. Ten days after his last start, against the Yankees, Javier threw 97 pitches, 70 of which were fastballs. He struck out nine, including a five-batter stretch in which he got J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos swinging before catching Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott looking, all on fastballs.
“His nickname is El Reptil because he’s just cold-blooded,” Stanek said. “Nothing fazes him. He could give up a pump, same face. Punch the side three innings in a row, same face. He’s just that guy. What he does is special.”
The Astros knew that already. They’d seen Javier sashay into Yankee Stadium on June 25 and throw seven no-hit innings with 13 strikeouts, paving the way for Neris and Pressly to finish what wound up as only their first combined no-hitter of the season. This one was bigger, better, far more important in ensuring the Astros would return home for a Game 6 and have a chance to clinch a championship at Minute Maid Park.
Pitching in Game 4 in front of his father, Cecilio, who had never seen Javier pitch in the big leagues before, only added to the majesty of the night. Javier was already an unlikely success story: A failed outfielder who converted to pitcher, signed at 18 years old out of the Dominican Republic for $10,000, figured out how to harness his unicorn and rode it not just to the big leagues but to the sort of praise that hitters lavish infrequently.
“It’s electric,” said Christian Vazquez, who caught the no-hitter. “It’s like playing PlayStation with him. You don’t care if it’s going down and away. It’s going to finish up.”
Astros players brave enough to step into the batter’s box against Javier understand how he finished this season with a 2.54 ERA and remains unscored upon as a starter since Sept. 7. In his final four starts of the regular season, Javier threw 23 scoreless innings, allowed six hits and struck out 29.
“I did play catch with him a couple spring trainings ago, and it just really gets on you,” said Hunter Brown, another member of the Astros’ dynamic bullpen. “It’s just kind of invisible. I remember the first couple — you always wanna catch it in the seat. First couple hit me kind of in the pink area. I’m like, OK, I better figure that one out.”
In 2020, Javier’s rookie season, third baseman Alex Bregman faced Javier in a live at-bat on a shadowy day at Minute Maid Park during MLB’s accelerated spring camp. Bregman stared at strike one, strike two, strike three, not even lifting the bat off his shoulder. He walked back to the dugout, put his lumber in the bat rack and said: “I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Opponents wish the same. They’ll say so to Bregman at third base — if they can get there — and wonder how a pitch sitting 94 can look triple digits or how from his low slot he can generate such true spin or how they keep swinging over that stupid fastball.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Wow, it’s just insane stuff,'” Bregman said. “And they’ll say it’s insane how the ball looks coming out of his hand.”
So, OK, this magic pitch, this miracle fastball, this World Series no-hitter-causing bit of sorcery: What does it look like coming out of his hand?
“I don’t know,” Bregman said. “I didn’t see it.”
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors on Monday proposed deleting 153 longstanding rules from its handbook, a move that will allow schools to share financial benefits directly with players — an expected step towards a new era of amateurism in college athletics, but one that remains contingent upon the approval of the House settlement.
NCAA board members met for about four hours on Monday and emerged with nine major proposed legislative changes, including permission for schools to provide direct financial payments to players, including for use of their NIL. NCAA leaders are aiming to reshape the organization’s role and are poised to effectuate sweeping changes by July 1 if the settlement is approved. Schools have until June 15 to decide whether to opt to provide benefits that would be permissible under the settlement for the coming academic year.
Proposed legislation also includes sport-specific roster limits and allowing full scholarships to all student-athletes on a declared roster — a move the NCAA said will double the scholarships available in women’s sports.
The proposed changes would also align with the expected House settlement in that it would allow Power 4 schools and others who choose to offer settlement-related benefits to provide up to $20.5 million in direct financial benefits to players. (Not all Division I schools will choose to operate in the new system enabled by the settlement, as the Ivy League has chosen to opt out and continue to operate under the current structure.)
The new NIL clearinghouse and enforcement arm that aims to coexist with expected settlement terms was also included, along with rules “intended to bring clarity and stability to the NIL environment for all Division I schools.” To prevent schools from trying to circumvent the $20.5 million cap, the NCAA has proposed rules to help add stability and accountability. All players will be required to disclose their NIL agreements if they are greater or equal to $600. Agreements between the player and a third party outside of their school will be reviewed.
The board also approved new rules that would create technology platforms for the schools to monitor their payments to players and for the athletes to report their third-party NIL agreements. There are also steps the players can take if an NIL agreement is considered “outside of the range of compensation” developed by the external, independent clearinghouse.
An enforcement group that will be created and operated by the defendant conferences will aim to “provide oversight for rules relating to the terms of the settlement, including third-party NIL and the annual benefits cap,” according to the NCAA.
Players will still be allowed to hire agents for NIL purposes, but the NCAA will still use certain eligibility rules that have been used to “distinguish Division I athletics from professional sports,” according to a document that summarizes the legislative changes. For the athletes to receive these benefits, the NCAA will require them to be enrolled full-time, meet Division I progress-toward-degree requirements and earn the benefits during their five-year eligibility period.
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Ryan S. Clark
The Seattle Kraken are making a series of sweeping changes, starting with Monday’s announcement of coach Dan Bylsma’s firing after just one season.
“We thank Dan for his commitment and the energy he brought to our organization over the past four years at the NHL and AHL levels,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said in a statement. “After a thorough review of the season and our expectations for next year and beyond, we’ve made the difficult decision to move in a different direction behind the bench.”
Other expected changes include Francis being named team president and assistant general manager Jason Botterill being promoted to general manager, a source confirmed to ESPN amid multiple media reports.
In addition, assistant coach Jessica Campbell, who is the first woman to be behind a bench in NHL history, is being retained, a source told ESPN. She signed a two-year contract with the club last season.
Seattle’s restructuring comes at a time in which the franchise is attempting to find cohesion that has been elusive since the NHL’s 32nd team made its debut in the 2021-22 season.
The Kraken, who fired Dave Hakstol last season, will be searching for their third head coach in as many seasons.
Bylsma, who previously coached the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, had coached the Kraken’s AHL affiliate — where Campbell was also an assistant — for two seasons. They would lead the Coachella Valley Firebirds to consecutive AHL championship game appearances before being promoted to the NHL.
Hiring Bylsma came with the belief that he could parlay his AHL success into the Kraken either returning to the playoffs or being a team that challenged for a postseason berth for most of the season.
It was more of the same, however. After winning 34 games in Hakstol’s final season, the Kraken won 35 games while finishing 20 points adrift of the final Western Conference wild-card spot in what ultimately became Bylsma’s lone campaign.
With the playoffs out of the picture, the Kraken were active ahead of the NHL trade deadline. They received 2026 and 2027 first-round picks from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde while receiving additional draft capital in separate deals for Brandon Tanev and Daniel Sprong.
While they have a three-player restricted free agent class that’s led by Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 pick of the 2019 NHL draft who was acquired in a trade this season, the Kraken have most of their team under contract next season.
They also have more than $21.7 million in projected available cap space that could be used to strengthen a roster that’s trying to challenge in a Western Conference landscape that saw 11 teams finish with more than 89 points.
Francis is slated to speak with reporters Tuesday afternoon, when he will likely address the Kraken’s future and his role going forward. The Hall of Famer had previously served as the Carolina Hurricanes‘ GM before he was hired to take over the Kraken.
His time in charge has seen the franchise seek to build from within using the draft while also dipping into free agency. It has led to the Kraken building what is one of the stronger farm systems in the NHL. But after again missing the playoffs and having mixed results in free agency, questions have emerged about what direction the franchise would be taking and if Francis would be involved.
Botterill, who has been with the Kraken since the 2020-21 season, was the Sabres’ GM for three seasons. Under his stead, Buffalo drafted talents such as Casey Mittelstadt, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson and Dylan Cozens as the team sought to insulate then-star center and captain Jack Eichel.
Now, Botterill will be faced with trying to make the Kraken competitive in a market where the team has struggled to gain traction while also being one of the most expensive to watch, according to the Fan Cost Index.
He’ll be charged with trying to find a new coach in what’s expected to be an active market. The Kraken now join the Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers as teams seeking a new bench boss.
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