According to The Detroit News, a survey of a little less than half of the league's players says Justin Verlander harnesses the best fastball in baseball:
↵↵↵According to a survey of Major League players conducted by Sports Illustrated, it's Tiger right-hander Justin Verlander [who has the best fastball in baseball].
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Verlander was named No. 1 by 30 percent of the 339 players who responded to the survey.Jonathan Broxton of the Dodgers was a distant second at 11 percent. Broxton was followed by Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez (7 percent), Florida's Felix Hernandez (6 percent) and injured Tiger reliever Joel Zumaya (6 percent).
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This comes as really no shock considering Verlander's tailing fastball often touches the upper 90s and becomes even better as he gets deeper into a game. I may have expected a greater percentage of players to pick Joel Zumaya, though, because he averaged 99 MPH on every fastball he threw this season. However, due to the fact he's a reliever and now injured, I'm sure he hasn't faced a lot of the surveyed players (enough) to garner the votes.
↵This type of survey will be more interesting to see when Nationals' rookie phenom, Stephen Strasburg, starts facing more teams and gets firmly implanted in the minds of all MLB players. My guess is that he and Verlander will sit together closely at the top.