Jeff Luhnow hires “Fastballs”

Astros GM, Juff Luhnow, recently did a Sports Sloan chat online. In that chat, he mentioned that he had hired Mike Fast, who is also know to his twitter followers as “Fastballs”. Fast writes for Baseball Prospectus and is based out of Austin, Tx.

Per Fast’s tweet this afternoon, it appears that he will be joining the Astros’ front office in some capacity. The Houston Chronicle’s own Zachary Levine, had this to say about Mike Fast:

“Fast, one of the foremost experts on pitch trajectory (PITCHf/x) data, has also written on HITf/x data for BP. Some of his latest writings have been on hit-and-run success, quantifying how much control pitchers have over batted balls, and an analysis of hot and cold zones for hitters.”

It appears that Jeff Luhnow has hired another fellow “dork” as Fast seems to have similar views as our new General Manager. I have never heard of Fast but I do support Jeff Luhnow and if he believes this to be a good move, then so do I.