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Average FB velocity 86. Down 0.9 from last year, but exactly the same as it was in 2006. IR, I defer to your knowledge of pitching, and maybe he's changed his mechanics in order to sustain velocity because he's hurting. But the raw numbers alone don't give cause for concern.
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Wow. I dunno about that. A couple possibilities that may explain the discrepancy; A.) Where are they getting their data? A few weeks ago I started working with PitchFX data for the first time. I was fascinated by the possibilities, and began sinking my teeth into the enormous pontentiality before me. Until I came to the unfortunate conclusion that PitchFX data is, sadly, largely useless. B.) Maybe their source data (PitchFX or whatever) is different from the guns displaying on FSRM, because in no other season have Jeff Francis fastballs read at 83, and especially not ~a dozen times a game. C.) No matter where the data is from, it is not indexed there. As in, his FB is displaying down .9 MPH from last year, but from everything I've been lead to believe, I'd strongly guess a pitcher's August/Semptember's velocity is lower than his April/May's. So, if you indexed this and projected it forth along a standard regression, this might equal a net of 2-4 MPH or something. Just a possibility.
Btw, PitchFX quite often errs on the PitchID as well, so again, if Fangraphs is using PitchFX data, grain of salt there....
And regardless, yes; the mechanics are off.
But thanks for showing me that page; I thought I had given Fangraphs a look before, but I must have missed a lot of cool data they have displayed there. I plan to browse more. Thanks.