David Festa’s Shoulder Injury Could Point to Systematic Flaw in Twins Pitching Development

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of © Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins have spent much of the 2025 season waiting for good news regarding their starting rotation. Simeon Woods Richardson recently returned after undergoing surgery to address a parasite. Zebby Matthews has worked his way back from a shoulder strain. Pablo López is slated to be activated later this week. David Festa was supposed to join this group. Instead, the right-hander’s season has come to an early end.

The Twins announced earlier this week that Festa has been shut down after experiencing a recurrence of right shoulder inflammation. Festa, who last pitched in the big leagues on July 21, made a rehab start with Triple-A St. Paul last week. While the results looked promising, he felt discomfort during his next bullpen session.

He will meet with Dr. Keith Meister next week for further evaluation, but Minnesota has already ruled out a return before the season’s end. Festa finishes his second MLB campaign with 11 appearances (10 starts), going 3-4 with a 5.40 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 19 walks in 53 1/3 innings.

A Promising Start Meets a Hard Stop
The 25-year-old first reported shoulder discomfort early in the season with the Saints, but things escalated after a July start against the Dodgers. He was placed on the injured list shortly after that appearance.

At the time, imaging suggested no structural damage, and Festa hoped rest would be enough to get him back on track. He received two anti-inflammatory injections and sat for roughly five weeks before ramping up. His return, however, lasted just one start.

It’s a frustrating outcome for a pitcher who has flashed exciting potential since debuting in 2024. Last season, Festa logged 14 games (13 starts) with a 4.90 ERA but a strong 3.76 FIP, sparking optimism that he could grow into a mid-rotation fixture. Instead, his strikeout rate dipped this season (23.1 K%), his walk rate held steady (8.3 BB%), and he surrendered more home runs (4.4%). Overall, this year represents a step backward in both health and performance.

The Velocity Development Question
One of the areas where the Twins have excelled in recent years is squeezing extra velocity out of college pitchers. Festa is a prime example. He was drafted in the 13th round as a low-90s arm out of Seton Hall and developed into a mid-to-upper 90s fastball pitcher within the Twins’ system. That type of jump has transformed late-round picks into legitimate prospects, giving the organization an edge in building pitching depth without spending high draft picks on hurlers who are prone to breaking down.

But there’s another side to that coin. More velocity means more stress on the arm, and the correlation between increased fastball speed and shoulder or elbow issues isn’t new. Festa’s shoulder inflammation may not directly trace back to velocity gains, but his situation highlights the risk that comes with pushing pitchers to their max. As an organization that has leaned heavily into this developmental strategy, the Twins will need to carefully monitor whether the pursuit of velocity is costing them long-term durability.

The challenge ahead is finding the balance between developing arms that can compete in today’s velocity-driven game and keeping them on the mound often enough to make an impact. Festa’s shutdown is a reminder of just how thin that line can be. If they're unable to walk it, the team might need to consider retreating to a different model of scouting and development, wherein they target pitchers whose bodies have demonstrated an ability to withstand the forces required to throw hard already.

Looking Toward 2026
As a late-round pick, Festa’s rise to the majors was a development win for the Twins. But the shoulder troubles now cast real doubt on whether his talent will fully translate over the long term. Minnesota expected Festa to push for a rotation spot in 2026, but the organization may need to reframe expectations. Any time players go see Dr. Meister, surgery is a real option, and if Festa does require an operation, he could miss all of next season.

Festa’s shutdown also reshapes how the Twins might approach the offseason. While the organization has internal options to fill out the rotation, relying on so many pitchers coming off injury (Woods Richardson, Matthews, and even López) comes with risk. Minnesota may now feel more pressure to add a durable veteran starter through free agency or trade, to stabilize the staff.

In past years, the front office has leaned on “quantity over certainty,” stockpiling arms and hoping enough would stick. Festa’s setback is a reminder that talent alone doesn’t guarantee availability or (therefore) value. If the Twins want to avoid a repeat of 2025’s rotation rollercoaster, supplementing their homegrown arms with proven innings-eaters might be the only way forward.

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Does Festa’s injury point to a developmental problem for the Twins? Leave a comment and start the discussion. 

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[bunsen82]

You stockpile arms because pitchers will inevitable get injured. Most likely he heals over the offseason. As a middle age man whose knees hurt anytime his weight gets over 250, this may be something he has to deal with and manage in the future .

[dxpavelka]

Maybe it points to an injury to David Festa's shoulder.  Or maybe it points to a development issue with baseball pitching in general at all levels.  Pitchers used to be developed to pitch.  They are not developed for results but to not exceed innings and pitch count goals.  They are babied at all levels.  Festa tossed 53 innings this year.  Next year if he gets to 65 there will start being questions about overuse.  Pure and utter ********.  I'm reminded of when Nolan Ryan threw a complete game, gave up pinch hit home runs to Harmon Killebrew & Rod Carew in a relief appearance two days later and then throwing a 10 inning complete game three days later.  No, his arm did NOT fall off.  Neither did Bert Blylevin's.  Stop babying pitchers. Let 'em grow up to be pitchers.

[mikelink45]

It is baseball's problem. Not just the twins. Velocity does not always mean victory. But it seems as if it means injuries look at the list of pitchers the dodgers have on injured list this year and you see some of the best pitchers in the games being shut down. I prefer it when we have pitchers prepared to pitch complete games and relied on guile as well as speed.

[chpettit19]

I guess if I'm going to read an article on the Twins pitching development strategy as it relates to injuries I'd prefer to have some data on the Twins injury rates and not just have it noted that an individual (to be fair, the article did note a couple other pitchers were hurt this year) pitcher hurt his shoulder after being developed by the Twins. I'm not sure how we are supposed to draw any conclusions from this.

The Twins rotation has been well above average in terms of health the last handful of years. I don't know about their system as a whole (that's a lot more research). If you want to worry about a team's pitching health go look at the Dodgers. They haven't been able to keep a rotation healthy for years. 

Claiming SWR is "coming off injury" is pretty ridiculous. He wasn't hurt in any baseball sense. What are we doing here? We're supposed to believe that him having to have a parasite removed in August (or was it removed in July?) 2025 puts his 2026 season in jeopardy somehow? Come on.

Zebby and Pablo are pitching already. If they're hurt again before the end of the season, sure, counting on them for 2026 is a little questionable, but if they finish the season in the rotation, there's no reason at all to think they wouldn't have a normal offseason and be just fine for 2026. Pablo being traded is a far bigger concern than his shoulder at this point. 

This entire article is based around Festa's shoulder and Festa's shoulder alone. Trying to stretch SWR, Zebby, and Pablo into it is extreme. Beyond that there's no data provided to show us whether the development plan to add velo to draft picks has caused a rash of injuries in the minors. Knowing the Twins rotation has been above average in terms of health at the major league level for years, I have no reason to believe anything they're doing is causing a spike in injuries.

[Dennesey55347]

We could use the term "Systematic flaw" often to describe one area or another in the Twins org. since 1991. This year, it just happens to cover practically everything.

The overall durability difference between today's pitcher and those of past eras is still hard for me to comprehend. Same with offense. In 2000, the league was hitting .270. In 2025: .246. 

 

[Trov]

I am no doctor, but I have taken some classes years ago in college on athletic performance.  One thing that people actually do not pay much attention to, unless you work in the field, is how lower body will actually help the upper body.  

I do agree, though the increase in the velo of pitcher does lead to much more injuries.  The injuries are up not due to pitch clocks, like the union wants to argue, but due to put so much more stress on arms than normal.  The pitchers need to decide is performance better than long term health?  Yes, there are guys that are not normal humans like Nolan Ryan, he was a super human which is why he could pitch with the velo he did and the number of throws he did.  He should be the model. 

I still believe if you can locate well, have good movement, you do not need 95 plus on your fastball to win.  But teams will not want to even look at a guy that tops out at 90 anymore. 

[old nurse]

1 hour ago, dxpavelka said:

Maybe it points to an injury to David Festa's shoulder.  Or maybe it points to a development issue with baseball pitching in general at all levels.  Pitchers used to be developed to pitch.  They are not developed for results but to not exceed innings and pitch count goals.  They are babied at all levels.  Festa tossed 53 innings this year.  Next year if he gets to 65 there will start being questions about overuse.  Pure and utter ********.  I'm reminded of when Nolan Ryan threw a complete game, gave up pinch hit home runs to Harmon Killebrew & Rod Carew in a relief appearance two days later and then throwing a 10 inning complete game three days later.  No, his arm did NOT fall off.  Neither did Bert Blylevin's.  Stop babying pitchers. Let 'em grow up to be pitchers.

Yup. Steroids help recovery    Blyleven was in the low 90s, a lot less stress than in the high 90s. 

[nicksaviking]

First year in about a decade that the Twins rotation has come up significantly lame. I'm REALLY not enjoying defending anything Twins right now, but the program they've developed for the arms has worked. Every team in the league should be jealous of the Twins pitcher health. So much so, that when the Twins DO finally clean house, the only person I'd consider retaining is whomever developed this pitching plan. Please don't let that person be Derek Falvey himself.

[Nshore]

It would be interesting to get the opinion directly from an old school pitcher like Blyleven who prided himself on making the manager pry the ball out of his cold dead hand.  How was his training different and how could today's injuries be avoided?

[In My La Z boy]

6 minutes ago, Nshore said:

It would be interesting to get the opinion directly from an old school pitcher like Blyleven who prided himself on making the manager pry the ball out of his cold dead hand.  How was his training different and how could today's injuries be avoided?

🎯 This current management decided they didn't want us hearing Bert's opinions anymore. If it were up to Bert he'd still be calling 1/2 our games. I miss him. 

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

...Claiming SWR is "coming off injury" is pretty ridiculous. He wasn't hurt in any baseball sense. What are we doing here? We're supposed to believe that him having to have a parasite removed in August (or was it removed in July?) 2025 puts his 2026 season in jeopardy somehow? Come on....

Yeah, when we really know SWR's injury was from a systematic* flaw in eating too much fish throughout the organization. Even Dr. Rumack knows he should have had the chicken. Surely we can't be serious in connecting these two injuries.   

*And don't we really mean "systemic"?

[DJL44]

17 minutes ago, Nshore said:

It would be interesting to get the opinion directly from an old school pitcher like Blyleven who prided himself on making the manager pry the ball out of his cold dead hand.  How was his training different and how could today's injuries be avoided?

I imagine pitchers from that era smoked a lot more cigarettes than pitchers from this era.

29 minutes ago, Trov said:

I still believe if you can locate well, have good movement, you do not need 95 plus on your fastball to win.  But teams will not want to even look at a guy that tops out at 90 anymore. 

Someone should tell Bailey Ober that. His drop in performance this season is directly tied to a 2 MPH drop in velocity. MLB hitters will make you pay if you give them an extra millisecond to pick up spin.

Speaking just about Festa, it might be a good idea to move him to the bullpen to limit his innings going forward. I think he can be effective as a reliever, and the Twins certainly need some good arms for the bullpen.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Maybe there is a systematic problem.  OR maybe pitchers get hurt.  Not everyone's arm can handle a pitching workload of any type, let alone the major league push for more velocity.  Taking Festa's injury alone as proof of anything at all systematic is a pretty big stretch..  It is possible to dismiss small sample sizes in just about any statistical analysis. Well. . . . this is pretty much the definition of a small sample size.  

Taking this further, are the Twins responsible for Brock Stewart's difficulties? Or Randy Dobnak's?  How about Jorge Alcala's?  Each of these cases are individual, with causes that vary by individual. Not all dots connect. 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Dennesey55347 said:

We could use the term "Systematic flaw" often to describe one area or another in the Twins org. since 1991. This year, it just happens to cover practically everything.

The overall durability difference between today's pitcher and those of past eras is still hard for me to comprehend. Same with offense. In 2000, the league was hitting .270. In 2025: .246. 

 

All development today is based on power.  Throw as fast as you can for as long as you can.  If that's 5 innings 55% of your starts so be it.  Less then 5 in 35% no problem we will pretend your an innings eater when you go 6.

Hitters have to be power hitters no matter their natural swing/ability. Making contact out.  Launch angle and  pull everything in.  Witness TC trying to tweak Martin into Mickey Mantle.  It's idiotic.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, IndianaTwin said:

Yeah, when we really know SWR's injury was from a systematic* flaw in eating too much fish throughout the organization. Even Dr. Rumack knows he should have had the chicken. Surely we can't be serious in connecting these two injuries.   

*And don't we really mean "systemic"?

We all know chicken has a high correlation with winning around here 

[old nurse]

That people do not understand that pitching harder is more stressful on the body does not surprise me  That people don’t understand that human bodies are all a little different and hence some people’s tendons are not as strong as others are doesn’t surprise me.  The tendons are what they are and there is not a whole lot you can do about it.  It is what it is. There is no system problem That pitchers had to get faster with pitch’s to counteract hitters getting better should be a basic concept.  Pitching slower would not be the solution   Merril Kelly is the outlier for right handed pitchers with a mid 90s FB. 

[TwinsDr2021]

27 minutes ago, old nurse said:

That people do not understand that pitching harder is more stressful on the body does not surprise me  That people don’t understand that human bodies are all a little different and hence some people’s tendons are not as strong as others are doesn’t surprise me.  The tendons are what they are and there is not a whole lot you can do about it.  It is what it is. There is no system problem That pitchers had to get faster with pitch’s to counteract hitters getting better should be a basic concept.  Pitching slower would not be the solution   Merril Kelly is the outlier for right handed pitchers with a mid 90s FB. 

Agreed with most of these Twins pitchers without the increase in velocity would just be minor league pitchers. So I would guess they are wiling to do whatever is necessary to get to the majors. Brock Stewart basically said that last year. 

[CRNA]

Compare this article with Jim Kaat’s HOF speech.  Two different baseball worlds.  

[LA Vikes Fan]

Guys, the starter who can survive pitching without high velocity these days is a rare bird indeed. Comparing velocity to the 70s, 80s, and 90s is a fool's errand; the average pitcher in that era would get eaten alive by today's better hitters. The Twins (and all other teams) aren't saying have high velocity and we don't care about command. You have to have both. In the 70s, an 88-90 MPH fastball and good command could get you a long MLB career. In the 2020s, that gets you a AAAA label at best. Look at Ober. At 92 MPH with elite command, he's an MLB mid rotation stater - barely. At 90 MPH he's got a 5.40 ERA and is in danger of losing his job if this continues in 2026. Today's hitters see 90 MPH fastballs as glorified batting practice. They are just better than they were 10-15 years ago, much less 30-50 years ago. 

David Festa at low 90s with his stuff probably never gets out of the minors. By getting more velocity, he has had a chance in the Majors and will get more chances. You guys are right, the higher velocity puts a much heavier strain on the arm, elbow and shoulder. It also gives guys a chance they otherwise wouldn't have. Festa's body may not be able to handle the higher velocity for 100 pitches. Most guys can't. The solution for him isn't to throw slower. He'll get killed. The solution may be to put him in the bullpen so he can throw at high velocity in 20-30 pitch stints, instead of 100 pitch stints. I see Festa as a high leverage bullpen arm for the same reasons Duran went to the bullpen. 

 

[Doctor Gast]

Times have changed, and the genie is out of the bottle. The effects of extra velo & spin in generating Ks & wins, pitchers & coaches aren't going to go back to old school. So is it a developmental problem? IMO, no. Now I'm going to get a lot of thumbs down & flak, but IMO, it's a managerial problem. I have advocated for years for better management of the balance between rotation, long & short relief. Better evaluation of the limits of each SP.

The last 2 years, I have campaigned that we have a fragile rotation after we lost veteran Gray & Maeda. That we needed at least a veteran inning-eater. On paper, we probably looked pretty good with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack, SWR, Festa, Matthews & a slew of promising arms in the minors. I laughed at Falvey's blind hope that Desclavani was ever going to amount to anything for us in '24. As I predicted the 2nd half, Paddack went down with arm & forearm problems, Ryan went down, SWR, Festa & Matthews ran out of gas. Lopez & Ober weren't as good as we hoped. IMO, this was greatest factor in our cratering in the 2nd half.

In '25, we still look good on paper. But to start the season, Ober was sicker than a dog & was suffering from hip soreness (which he kept on pitching), Ryan had came back from the IL that had sidelined him the year before, Paddack, with his arm history, still young arms, SWR, Matthews & Festa (all 3 were suffering from ineffeciency & injury) plus all our promising MiLB arms weren't looking all that promising. Lopez was our greatest stability in the rotation. Yet he was our 1st big casuality. From the beginning of the 24/25 offseason, I again advocated obtaining at least 1 veteran inning-eater & establishing a core of long RPs to supplement the rotation. Festa pretty much started the season with a fatigued arm (WOW), which is a sure-fire red flag. But nothing was done. IMO, if Festa (& others) were placed on a more limited pitching regimen starting in '24 we wouldn't be in this predicament & probably would have been in this & last post-season.  

[Woof Bronzer]

32 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Guys, the starter who can survive pitching without high velocity these days is a rare bird indeed. Comparing velocity to the 70s, 80s, and 90s is a fool's errand; the average pitcher in that era would get eaten alive by today's better hitters. The Twins (and all other teams) aren't saying have high velocity and we don't care about command. You have to have both. In the 70s, an 88-90 MPH fastball and good command could get you a long MLB career.

 

I don't think this is quite right.  Pitchers are definitely chucking it harder today, but part of the velo increase is literally due to improvement in radar gun technology.  There was a really interesting study done a few years ago that showed that an 85 mph fastball clocked on a gun from the 80s would register as 93 mph with today's gun technology.  (Which makes the fact that Nolan Ryan was clocked at 100 back in the day even crazier.  He almost certainly threw harder than anyone pitching today.)  

So, in the 70s an 88-90 mph fastball would clock in the mid 90s today - pretty typical, worthy of a long career, etc.  I don't think there's as big of a difference as many people are claiming.  What I do think has changed is teams are asking guys to squeeze out another 1-2 mph by going max effort.  Back in the day teams were more focused on starters going longer - duration vs max effort.  

But again the idea that everyone throws so much faster today is a bit more complicated than people make it out to be.  

[Sjoski]

37 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Comparing velocity to the 70s, 80s, and 90s is a fool's errand; the average pitcher in that era would get eaten alive by today's better hitters.

Seems to me MLB needs to revisit the idea of a tweak. 

Back in 1969, MLB lowered the mound from 15 to 10 inches to restore balance after the ‘Year of the Pitcher.’ With today’s game dominated by strikeouts and velocity, should MLB consider another tweak, like adjusting mound distance or height, to bring the sport back to a similar sweet spot between pitchers and hitters?

[Tiantwindup]

4 hours ago, Trov said:

I am no doctor, but I have taken some classes years ago in college on athletic performance.  One thing that people actually do not pay much attention to, unless you work in the field, is how lower body will actually help the upper body.  

I do agree, though the increase in the velo of pitcher does lead to much more injuries.  The injuries are up not due to pitch clocks, like the union wants to argue, but due to put so much more stress on arms than normal.  The pitchers need to decide is performance better than long term health?  Yes, there are guys that are not normal humans like Nolan Ryan, he was a super human which is why he could pitch with the velo he did and the number of throws he did.  He should be the model. 

I still believe if you can locate well, have good movement, you do not need 95 plus on your fastball to win.  But teams will not want to even look at a guy that tops out at 90 anymore. 

Joe Ryan comes to mind...

[Dave Borton]

3 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Taking Festa's injury alone as proof of anything at all systematic is a pretty big stretch...

Good article with a question re: Twins development of arms.

Lots of criticism of the article but the implication is for all of ball. Speed kills arms. Outliers can tolerate the strain, many can't. Never know who those outliers will be. 

I would focus on pitch mix development/refinement and more use of lower body to gain torque and power/speed but can't prove it from this recliner. Do believe it would result in better long term success.

[Woof Bronzer]

5 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I guess if I'm going to read an article on the Twins pitching development strategy as it relates to injuries I'd prefer to have some data on the Twins injury rates.

I'd be really interested in a league wide study on this.  Does velo have a correlation to injury rates?  How do pitcher injuries today compare to the past?  My gut tells me pitchers get hurt more often these days but if I'm being honest I probably WANT this to be true because I think the decline of the starting pitcher and rise of openers/piggybacks/etc has hurt the game (baseball needs stars).  But I just haven't been able to find any comprehensive study/data on this topic.

[TNtwins85]

David Festa is not plagued by Twins development. Without their focus on taking a flyer on a college pitcher in the later rounds he would probably be selling cars right now without them. Add Joe Ryan, Bailey ober, Pablo Lopez, Zebby Mathew’s, Jake Odorizzi and any number of guys to that list. Believe it or not Falvey brought this Cleveland model to the Twins in his own way. Joe Ryan is a prime example and just because we don’t have 5 “Aces” doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It’s a pitching pipeline. Not an “Ace” pipeline. Yeah, the twins don’t spend money on Big pitchers because that’s not what you want to do. How much money have the Twins saved by taking lower level low signing bonus guys and turned them into #2, 3, 4, 5 type guys? Granted if the process were implemented better you could supplant expensive hitters with the money saved on not having to buy pitching. That’s where they failed but despite what Gleeman yammers on about the Twins do a good job on pitching. Go watch any other team trot out guys at the back of the rotation that can’t throw a strike to save their lives. This doesn’t even mention the bullpen success’. I think people here get too locked into the Twins to realize where other teams are pitching wise. Hard to see the forest through the trees around here. David Festa should be thankful the Twins turned him into what he is today. It’s not a failed experiment. It’s just the nature of pitchers.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Times have changed, and the genie is out of the bottle. The effects of extra velo & spin in generating Ks & wins, pitchers & coaches aren't going to go back to old school. So is it a developmental problem? IMO, no. Now I'm going to get a lot of thumbs down & flak, but IMO, it's a managerial problem. I have advocated for years for better management of the balance between rotation, long & short relief. Better evaluation of the limits of each SP.

The last 2 years, I have campaigned that we have a fragile rotation after we lost veteran Gray & Maeda. That we needed at least a veteran inning-eater. On paper, we probably looked pretty good with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack, SWR, Festa, Matthews & a slew of promising arms in the minors. I laughed at Falvey's blind hope that Desclavani was ever going to amount to anything for us in '24. As I predicted the 2nd half, Paddack went down with arm & forearm problems, Ryan went down, SWR, Festa & Matthews ran out of gas. Lopez & Ober weren't as good as we hoped. IMO, this was greatest factor in our cratering in the 2nd half.

In '25, we still look good on paper. But to start the season, Ober was sicker than a dog & was suffering from hip soreness (which he kept on pitching), Ryan had came back from the IL that had sidelined him the year before, Paddack, with his arm history, still young arms, SWR, Matthews & Festa (all 3 were suffering from ineffeciency & injury) plus all our promising MiLB arms weren't looking all that promising. Lopez was our greatest stability in the rotation. Yet he was our 1st big casuality. From the beginning of the 24/25 offseason, I again advocated obtaining at least 1 veteran inning-eater & establishing a core of long RPs to supplement the rotation. Festa pretty much started the season with a fatigued arm (WOW), which is a sure-fire red flag. But nothing was done. IMO, if Festa (& others) were placed on a more limited pitching regimen starting in '24 we wouldn't be in this predicament & probably would have been in this & last post-season.  

The craptacular "hitting" was never never getting them to the post season.

[darin617]

6 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

Maybe it points to an injury to David Festa's shoulder.  Or maybe it points to a development issue with baseball pitching in general at all levels.  Pitchers used to be developed to pitch.  They are not developed for results but to not exceed innings and pitch count goals.  They are babied at all levels.  Festa tossed 53 innings this year.  Next year if he gets to 65 there will start being questions about overuse.  Pure and utter ********.  I'm reminded of when Nolan Ryan threw a complete game, gave up pinch hit home runs to Harmon Killebrew & Rod Carew in a relief appearance two days later and then throwing a 10 inning complete game three days later.  No, his arm did NOT fall off.  Neither did Bert Blylevin's.  Stop babying pitchers. Let 'em grow up to be pitchers.

They are babied big time in the minors. For a long time starters would not throw over 65 pitches in a game.  Now how does that work when they get promoted to the Twins? They are not able to get out of the 3rd inning. 

I can see limiting pitchers to 65 pitches a start until mid May or so.

[gman]

1 hour ago, Woof Bronzer said:

I don't think this is quite right.  Pitchers are definitely chucking it harder today, but part of the velo increase is literally due to improvement in radar gun technology.  There was a really interesting study done a few years ago that showed that an 85 mph fastball clocked on a gun from the 80s would register as 93 mph with today's gun technology.  (Which makes the fact that Nolan Ryan was clocked at 100 back in the day even crazier.  He almost certainly threw harder than anyone pitching today.)  

So, in the 70s an 88-90 mph fastball would clock in the mid 90s today - pretty typical, worthy of a long career, etc.  I don't think there's as big of a difference as many people are claiming.  What I do think has changed is teams are asking guys to squeeze out another 1-2 mph by going max effort.  Back in the day teams were more focused on starters going longer - duration vs max effort.  

But again the idea that everyone throws so much faster today is a bit more complicated than people make it out to be.  

I would like to read the report if you can remember the name of it.