Mike Fast to the Team Currently Known as the Astros

[Dan Brooks]

Mike was one of the PitchFX pioneers, at least from my vantage point. I remember reading the 2007 post he made called "Magnus Papelbonus", which ultimately led me to Alan Nathan (or maybe the order was the other way around). Many of the graphs on my website were shamelessly stolen (always with permission) from seed ideas in his THT column or blog. The Spin x Speed graphs were taken directly from the above article. The site previously featured trajectory plots from the batter's point of view that had a clever coordinate transform to visualize how hitters saw pitches breaking. I now use umpire charts with parameter's from Mike's analysis. There are probably, literally, a dozen different things on the website that would not be here if not for Mike Fast. If I had to retitle my website, it would be FastBaseball.net, with the subtitle "Replotting Every Pitch Using Mike's Clever Ideas, More or Less." What I'm trying to say is, Mike wasn't directly the inspiration for BrooksBaseball, but he was close.

I hope my readers join me by wishing Mike (@fastballs on Twitter) good luck at his new job. At least I have an NL team to cheer for now!

[Mike Fast]

Thank you very much, Dan.

[pobguy]

The Astros are significantly better for their hiring of Mike. The rest of us are worse. Meaning, of course, that we will no longer benefit from his thoughtful analysis and insights.

[Dustin Kikuchi]

Congrats, Mike. Sounds like an awesome opportunity. Good luck to you and the club.

[Sven60ft6in]

Congrats to Mike. Fast + Mejdal + Luhnow = Good offseason for the Astros

[sciaastro]

As an Astros fan, I was thrilled by his hiring and am curious to say the least to see what impact he has.

[Mike Fast]

Thank you, Alan, Dustin, Sven.

am curious to say the least to see what impact he has.

Me, too!

I'm just getting started there, but everyone with the Astros has been very welcoming and interested in what I have to say. Of course, I'm interested in what I can learn from everyone else in the organization, too.

[amer]

Congratulation Mike , so happy for you guy

[runner21]

Congratulations to Mike. I think he will really do better on his new job. I just hope he still has the passion he had when he started this credit card business/line of work.