In the the New York Times Magazine, Pat Jordan writes about flamethrowers (registration required) like Bobby Jenks, Steve Dalkowski, Kerry Wood and Billy Wagner, beginning with this observation.
The year 2003 may go down as the year the stat geeks won over organized baseball, converting the evaluation of talent from art into science.
The author, a big fan of scouts and "stuff" who apparently hasn't seen as much of Billy Koch as we have, feels compelled to take one more swipe.
The stat geeks are officially neutral on the importance of the 100-m.p.h. pitch -- whether an out is recorded off a blazing fastball or a fluttering knuckler makes no difference to them. And they are leery of old-school scouts who tend to be overly impressed with rudimentary gifts like velocity, while overlooking the other skills that make a major-league pitcher successful.
Leery? I think it's the other way around. Somebody sounds worried about SABR-rattlers.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030914111939999