Fernando Valenzuela is a former Mexican professional baseball pitcher who is known for his ability to pitch screwballs; he has played Major League Baseball (MLB) for 17 seasons and is best known for his rookie season in 1981, winning the Rookie of the Year and CY Young awards consecutively.
Valenzuela played for six teams throughout his MLB career, but his longest tenure was with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Having played for a long time, he retired from baseball after the 1997 season but soon returned to the Dodgers as a broadcaster in 2003.Valenzuela's career highlights include a win-loss record of 173 wins and 153 losses, with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.54. Valenzuela maintained his 41.5 career wins above replacement (WAR), which ended up being the highest of any Mexican MLB player, as per Baseball-Reference.
Valenzuela's Screwball
Fernando Valenzuela is known for his ability to pitch screwballs. The screwball is a breaking ball that breaks in the opposite direction of a traditional curveball, making it a tough pitch to hit and an extremely impotent tool to catch any experienced batter off guard. In fact, the screwball becomes such a difficult pitch to throw, because it puts a great deal of stress on the pitcher's arm, resulting it to be a pitch not commonly seen in baseball today.
Valenzuela learned this advanced pitching technique from Dodgers pitcher Bobby Castillo in the 1980s and quickly mastered the technique at a very young age, and during his rookie season, it came in very handy as his pitches played a significant factor in his success; his mastery over the screwball technique has helped him become one of the most feared pitchers in the league during that time.
Valenzuela's most iconic game record is his five consecutive strikeouts in the 1986 All-Star Game, where he tied the record set by Carl Hubbell in the 1934 All-Star Game and kept his postseason record of 5-1 with a 1.98 earned-run average (ERA).
From 1981 to 1987, Valenzuela won more games than any other National League starter and had the second-best ERA of any NL pitcher; his record of having played 1,000 innings and striking out the most batters during those years remained unmatched, as per sabr.org.
FAQs
A. A screwball is a type of breaking pitch that is thrown with a very high spin rate, resulting in the spin causing the ball to move in a reverse curve, or like a "screw" itself, making it very difficult for the batter to predict whether the ball breaks in.
A. Valenzuela learned to throw a screwball from Bobby Castillo.
A. Other pitchers who have thrown screwballs include Carl Hubbell and Phil Niekro.
A. Valenzuela had 180 strikeouts in his rookie season.
A. No, Fernando Valenzuela is not in the Hall of Fame. He was considered eligible for 2004 but received only 3.8% of the vote, and needed to be more to be elected.
