This soft-tossing Angels starter's fastball surprisingly ranks among the game's best

When you think of starting pitchers with elite fastballs, certain names come to mind. Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal rank first and second in the league in average fastball velocity, coming in at 98.4 and 98.0 miles per hour, respectively. Angels' righty Jose Soriano is right there with Skubal at 98.0 miles per hour as well. But it's not Soriano who has the most effective fastball on the team, it's soft-tossing lefty Tyler Anderson.

Yes, that Tyler Anderson. The one who, when he first joined the Angels back in 2023, posted an average fastball velocity of 90.2 miles per hour, which then dropped to 89.7 miles per hour in 2024, and this season has plummeted to 89.1 miles per hour. Yes, that guy, whose fastball is slower than some changeups, has been one of the best fastball pitchers in 2025.

To be clear, while Anderson isn't an ace-level pitcher like the aforementioned Skenes and Skubal, he's no scrub with All-Star selections in 2022 and 2024. Anderson also got off to a hot start in 2025, and while he's cooled down a bit since April, he's still been a steady and reliable presence on the mound.

One would think the crafty lefty would only use his inappropriately named fastball seldomly as a change of pace offering, but nothing could be further from the truth. The 35-year-old southpaw "fires" fastballs 40% of the time, and plays his changeup and cutter off of his sub-90 mile per hour "heater."

Angels starter Tyler Anderson has gotten elite results off of his sub-90 miles per hour fastball

Anderson's average fastball velocity ranks in just the third percentile in the majors, making it somewhat surprising that its run value of 5 ranks in the 85th percentile, making it one of the most effective fastballs among all big league starters.

So far on the year, his four-seamer has yielded a batting average against of just .214, the lowest in Anderson's repertoire, and his slugging percentage allowed of fastballs, .393, is also the lowest in his arsenal.

The pitch doesn't generate much in terms of swing and miss for Anderson, with a whiff rate of just 15.3%, but it serves well to set up his other pitches. He regularly peppers the top of the zone with his four-seamer, which helps it play up and appear faster than it is and gives it the appearance of rising within the zone.

He then plays the changeup and cutter of the pitch by repeating a consistent arm slot for all three offerings, creating a tunneling effect where they all appear to be coming in on the same plane before darting in different directions. The effect is particularly stunning on his changeup, which boasts a 40.9% whiff rate on the season.

All of this has come together to make Anderson a valuable mid-rotation starter in 2025. He limits hard contact with a 35.5% hard hit rate that ranks in the 77th percentile. While he doesn't strike out a ton of batters with an 18.1% K-rate that is below average, the way he plays his pitches off each other leads to a lot of chases out of the zone, coming in with a 30% chase rate that is in the 69th percentile.

Anderson was a popular name in trade rumors at last year's deadline, and barring an incredible Angels run over the next few weeks, will likely be the most sought-after Angel at this year's deadline.

Through June 2, he's posted a 3.86 ERA over 12 starts and 65.1 innings pitched, more than enough to shore up any hopeful contender's rotation. That success starts with his fastball, a pitch that the radar gun says should get crushed, but has actually been one of the most effective in the game.

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