@SpeedDemon wrote, “Maybe analytics and training have advanced to give guys who’d have previously been overlooked a chance.”
Bingo! To your point I will cite an example that I have seen firsthand. One of the freshmen pitchers at our West Texas JuCo (Carlos) stands about 5’-9”. He only threw 84 mph at our summer camp but he showed enough offspeed for us to take him as a walk on. The first week of fall we had all pitchers throw a baseline bullpen and we used our Trackman unit to record data on every pitcher. What we learned about Carlos is that he has a high spin rate fastball that really holds it’s plane. And he has a release height of 4’-4”. So the ball travels on an almost true horizontal plane from the moment it leaves his hand until it arrives at the plate. This is highly unusual and allows him to be effective at the top of the strike zone because his FB has unique qualities - and most hitters swing uphill (too much). An uphill swing only intersects with a flat plane pitch for a moment- so geometry explains why this is a good thing for Carlos. Training him to have a more efficient delivery, and time in the weight room, has increased his velocity to 87. Now he gets a lot of swing & miss with the hitters consistently swinging below his fastball. And he will be an important piece coming out of the bullpen for us. As recently as last year we (or anyone else) wouldn’t have seen much value in a guy like Carlos in a region as competitive as ours so he is a perfect case in point.