Given the recent discussion about Devers, and where his fastball falls on the antiawful-to-average spectrum, I thought the coaches comments were helpful. “The velocity is not going to overpower anybody." "if you just look at pure stuff, he may be on the bottom of that list". "The breaking ball is not going to get a ton of swing and miss."
It's not a direct quote from the coach, but the article says "Devers’ fast arm action creates effective deception, even without elite fastball velocity. Cougoule believes Devers, 22, still could see added velocity as his body continues to mature and get stronger."
"“He’s a pitcher in the highest sense,” Cougoule said. “The velocity is not going to overpower anybody. The breaking ball is not going to get a ton of swing and miss, but he’ll throw the changeup in any count. He’ll mix tempos, whether he’ll quick pitch out of the wind. He just has an elite feel for the strike zone.” "“He’s already pretty special,” Cougoule said. “He oozes confidence. And it’s funny because, again, when you see the starters that we send out there, if you just look at pure stuff, he may be on the bottom of that list. But I think from a confidence level and who he is and what he thinks himself, he’s probably at the top of the list. And that goes a long way to things you just can’t quantify in baseball.”
Adding a little bit more would be fun. I imagine confidence really is a big deal, and it's easier to have when you've been rolling all season. Will it stick if/when he gets hit harder in future? Who knows. Still, having "elite feel for the strike zone" is kind of great for confidence! If you can spot different pitches where and when you want, it's fun. A terrible analogy, but I think of Johnny Cueto; he had great stuff when he was young, so I'm sure no Cueto scouting reports at age 22 had any "not going to overpower anybody", "pure stuff on bottom of list", "breaking ball not going to get swing and miss" reports. But Cueto's pitched a lot of good seasons after his velocity was no longer overpowering, and I think of all of his fun quick-pitch and funky stuff. it would be fun to have somebody like that.