Watching Miami Marlins starter Nathan Eovaldi overpower the Giants on Sunday afternoon was an eye-opener on several levels. For one, I began to wonder if the team actually fines anyone who takes a first pitch in back-to-back at-bats. But mostly I had to ask myself, why don’t the Giants have guys with arms like that?

Perhaps you’ve noticed, but these days the Orange and Black are nearly devoid of pitchers, starters or otherwise, who can simply reach back and throw one by a hitter. Let me first say that I am well aware that velocity by itself is pretty useless against big league hitters, and on the list of things I would preach to pitchers it would sit comfortably behind location and the ability to change speeds effectively. That said, like home run power, velocity can be a great equalizer and overcome certain deficiencies a pitcher may have.

In the case of a guy like Eovaldi, whose calling card is not pinpoint control and command, it means he can get away with mistakes here and there and still get people out. Should he ever harness his stuff and combine the mid-to-high 90’s velocity with the ability to hit his spots consistently, look out. Worst case scenario, he never gets it all together and slips easily into a relief role where the fastball plays up and he’s only forced to face a hitter once a game at the most. Either way, that’s a valuable big league arm.

For all the accolades showered upon the Giants pitching staff over the last several years, and they have been fantastic, they do not have a single arm on their roster that even approaches Eovaldi’s. It’s a hard truth to swallow, but a truth nonetheless.

According to FanGraphs, the Giants as a team currently rank dead last in all of baseball with an average fastball velocity of 89.9 mph; the only team averaging less than 90 mph. By comparison, the Washington Nationals rank first with an average fastball velocity of 92.8 mph. The Giants were also last in 2012 (90 mph), which represented a 17-spot drop from their 2011 and 2010 performance when they ranked 13th both years (91.5 mph and 91.3 mph respectively).

You may be thinking, wait a second, they won 94 games and a World Series last year, what’s the big deal? While that is true, consider that six of the ten teams that made the playoffs last year were in the top-10 when it came to average fastball velocity, with only the Braves (28th) even close to the Giants at the bottom of that list. As I sit here and write this, half of the first place teams and half of the second place teams in baseball are in the top-10. Like I said, velocity can overcome a lot.

The lack of power arms and power stuff seems to have had something of a trickle down effect in terms of the way the Giants are forced to attack hitters. Currently, the Giants are 29th in terms of percentage of fastballs thrown as a staff (51.3%), one-tenth of a percent higher than the Cubs (51.2%). This represents a major decrease in the overall use of fastballs when compared to the 2010 Giants who finished that season 10th in baseball, throwing fastballs 60.6 percent of the time.

It has been said by many a pitching coach that the most important pitch in any at-bat is strike one and more often than not, regardless of the level of competition, that first strike arrives in the form of a fastball. Without a consistent ability to miss bats with above-average velocity, the Giants as a staff are working with something less than a full arsenal.

Back in 2010, the Giants had eight pitchers who averaged 93 mph or above with their fastball. So far this year, the only Giant hurler to crack that mark is Jean Machi at 93.1 mph. Consequently, the Giants throw a higher percentage of sliders than any team in baseball (25.3%) and are one of only four teams over 20 percent (Mariners, Rangers, Cubs). The slider can certainly be an effective pitch, but it’s also one of the most dangerous to throw for its propensity to get hit a long way when left out over the plate.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with Matt Cain who is throwing his slider a whopping 27.5 percent of the time, which is a full 13 percent more than his career average. Meanwhile, Cain is throwing his fastball only 47.6 percent of the time, which would be a career-low. The result has been 16 homeruns allowed in 101 innings pitched, six homeruns away from matching his career-high for homeruns allowed in a season.

What’s interesting about Cain is that his fastball velocity has stayed fairly consistent for three-plus seasons, hovering around 91 mph. The difference this year has been inconsistent command of the fastball which has led to more homeruns and the over-reliance on his secondary pitches. This underlines the fine line that many experts believe Cain has been walking for several years now, namely that without premium velocity he has to be sharp when it comes to hitting his spots. This year he has not been and it has cost him and the Giants big time.

The issue does not lie solely with Cain of course, as all of the Giants starting pitchers have become somewhat breaking ball-happy in lieu of the ability to miss bats with the fastball. Madison Bumgarner is only throwing his fastball 38.4 percent of the time while Tim Lincecum, the poster boy for lost velocity, is throwing his slider more than ever before (18.9%) and often times it’s the only pitch he can consistently throw for strikes.

All of this poses several questions that I simply do not have the answers to. First, has the pitch calling changed as a natural result of the overall lack of velocity across the board, or is there an organizational emphasis being put on the increased use of off-speed pitches? Second, if indeed it is part of the team’s pitching philosophy to throw more off-speed pitches, has the additional strain that sliders in particular are known to put on a pitcher’s arm resulted in a team-wide drop in velocity?

Lastly, should we be even a little worried that the Giants top pitching prospects right now, (Kyle Crick, Chris Stratton and Heath Hembree) are all primarily fastball/slider pitchers who could also suffer a loss of velocity as they move through the system? The point being that there certainly seems to be a preference given to the slider over the curveball or changeup when it comes to drafting pitchers.

As I said, I do not have the answers to these questions, but as strikeouts around the league continue to rise and teams like the Cardinals and Nationals continue to churn out power arms, it can’t help but concern me that the Giants are in danger of falling further and further behind in Major League Baseball’s arms race.