Research Platform

Fastball Deceptiveness Index

How deceptive a fastball actually plays. Not how hard it's thrown.

2026 to Present·R · Shiny · Statcast·Live Shiny app
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The Fastball Deceptiveness Index (FDI) scores how much a four-seam fastball plays above its raw Stuff+. Hitters swing from patterns learned over thousands of looks: for a given arm slot and release height, the ball is supposed to arrive on a certain path. The deceptive heater bends that expectation, riding flatter or staying up longer than the familiar pattern predicts. FDI quantifies that deviation with HAVAA and AA, then multiplies it onto FanGraphs Stuff+.

The formula
FDI=FG Stuff+× ( 1 +0.15 · HAVAA+0.10 · AA)

Tap an input. The deception pieces (HAVAA, AA) are also the stickier ones. They carry more signal into next year than raw Stuff+ does.

Associations

2025 FDI vs. 2026 results. Stable year to year, and it forecasts swing-and-miss before the surface stats catch up.

0.868YoY stability
2025 → 2026 FDI
0.520→ 2026 K%
strikeout rate
0.506→ 2026 whiff%
fastball whiffs
−0.378→ 2026 xwOBA
lower is better
−0.435→ 2026 SIERA
lower is better
2026 leaderboard
PitcherFDIStuff+HAVAAAAERASIERA
Jacob Misiorowski176.99126.72.070.861.622.20
Didier Fuentes159.90113.22.200.832.523.10
Joe Ryan146.77107.92.120.422.853.19
Bryan Woo146.76109.21.740.834.233.63
Payton Tolle146.02113.91.230.973.143.93
Aaron Nola141.75105.71.491.185.873.95
Kyle Harrison141.54105.92.120.183.013.11
Bryce Miller139.79110.41.111.012.182.86

Min. 200 four-seam fastballs. FDI, Stuff+, HAVAA and AA are the model's own 2026 outputs; ERA and SIERA are surface context.

Deceptive Value Index

FDI finds the nasty heater. DVI finds the starter whose ERA still hasn't priced it in. Starting pitchers only. High DVI = breakout case. Low DVI = regression case.

DVI=0.50 · FDI %ile+0.25 · FIP under ERA+0.25 · SIERA under ERA
ERA–process boardFDIDVI
Aaron Nola141.795.1
Chase Dollander136.189.2
Bryce Miller139.887.3
Bubba Chandler125.486.9
Jack Flaherty125.083.4
Justin Wrobleski115.283.1
Cole Ragans107.781.1
Connelly Early125.080.0

Top DVI among 2026 starting pitchers (min. qualification).

ERA–process gap · DVI 95.1 (#1 SP)

Aaron Nola

ERA
5.87
SIERA
3.95
FDI
141.75

The ERA looks broken. The fastball does not. Elite FDI and a SIERA almost two runs better say the run prevention is due to catch the heater, not the other way around.

ERA–process gap · DVI 13.6

Zack Littell

ERA
5.02
SIERA
5.11
FIP
6.21
FDI
94.266.0

Deception collapsed year over year. ERA sits next to a matching SIERA and a worse FIP, so there is no quiet outperformance hiding under a soft surface line. Low DVI, falling FDI.

Live model

Qualified pitchers from the Shiny app: Pitcher Dashboard, League Explorer, Year over Year Correlation Lab, and Methodology. Slow to load? open in a new tab.

The full write-ups