Back in , a pitcher named Leslie Ambrose Bush often walked more batters than he struck out, but he threw so hard he earned the name Bullet Joe.
Walter Johnson's fastball "hissed with danger," Ty Cobb once said. A hundred years ago Johnson's fastball was timed not with a Bushnell, Jugs or Stalker radar gun, but rather against a speeding motorcycle and estimated at 97 mph. Thirty years later, Bob "Rapid Robert" Feller took the same motorcycle test and his fastball was estimated at mph. Click here to subscribe.
There's a general consensus that major league pitchers are now throwing harder than ever before. The same is happening with velocity development of amateur pitchers. Did you know? A mph fastball in Little League is the equivalent of a mph fastball in the Major Leagues.
Find out how your son's pitching velocity compares to other pitchers his age with this chart below. If you look at data compiled from MLB's very accurate PitchFX system over the past 10 years, the numbers prove more and more pitchers throwing harder each year. Let's go back to , the first year advanced technology standardized and began reliably tracking the speed of pitches As the chart below shows, in only 8 major league starters averaged 95 mph or better on their fastball.
The number jumped to 15 by and to 20 in In , just 27 relief pitchers were throwing 95 mph or better. If we look at pitching velocity another way, we see that in the average four-seam fastball in Major League Baseball was That number jumped to Pitching has always been further ahead in the analytical world, and applying information to the competition has been much faster on the run-prevention side than the run-production side.
Data shows pitchers are throwing harder in the analytic age, where many big leaguers have had their mechanics analyzed at Driveline Baseball, Cressey Sports Performance or the American Sports Medicine Institute in an effort to gain velocity, efficiency and durability.
Today, the average four-seam fastball velocity is There's no consensus on why pitchers are throwing harder today, but there are plenty of contributing factors that I think are worth exploring further:. This combination of good strength while maintaining flexibility, good pitching mechanics, and good throwing programs to build speed, stamina and a strong arm are the main factors to MLB pitching velocities that are truly off the charts.
Let's take a look at the hardest throwers in baseball from to I'm in the process of updating this information for this season. On a mobile device?
Swipe to view more. What's impressive about these 10 pitchers is not just the fact that they're putting up three digits on the radar gun, but rather the consistency of their velocity as well Over nearly innings in his season, Syndergaard's four-seam fastball sizzled at a major-league best for starting pitchers.
Although data isn't available from earlier eras in baseball, when the mound height and distance were different at times, Syndergaard's average fastball velocity as a starter in might have been the fastest to date. An explosive fastball alone can still get a pitcher to college and entry into pro ball, while wowing coaches, scouts, players and fans along the way. Velocity is a foot in the door. Other variables like good control, command, movement and changing speeds are still needed to pitch at these levels.
Here are 22 ways to improve pitching velocity and point you and your son in the direction of success:. Gaining weight through both growth spurts and eating extra calories per day can help to improve a pitcher's ability to throw harder. Source: Werner ; Zeratsky ; University of Illinois The hardest throwing pitchers in baseball go from stride foot contact SFC to maximum external rotation MER in less than 3-tenths of a second, or 0.
I'll cover MER in greater detail shortly. Source: Werner Good glove arm action helps proper shoulder alignment, trunk arching and flexion, and good trunk rotation—all of which generate arm speed and ball velocity. For both methods, once the stride foot makes contact with the ground, actively whip the glove and elbow down and back outside the lead hip.
Do not allow the glove to go too far behind the lead hip. Have you ever watched Justin Verlander pitch? If you have, you'll notice that he doesn't stop or pause at any point during the peak of his leg lift. The path of his knee is a fluid continuous motion up, down and out. A study compared pitchers who used a balance point and those who did not.
Researchers found that pitchers using a balance point had more head movement which resulted in lower velocity and decreased accuracy. This led the researchers to conclude, "we cannot recommend the indiscriminate practice of the balance-point position Source: Marsh Research indicates that the hardest throwing pitchers have a maximum lead knee height between 60 and 70 percent of their standing height. Source: Boddy Research indicates the more the front knee is bent at stride foot contact SFC , the higher a pitcher's velocity.
This requires the pitcher to be quick with the hips to get more weight onto the front leg at SFC. The average bend in the front knee at SFC is 48 degrees for the hardest throwers. The more the throwing elbow is bent at foot strike , the higher the velocity. The average bend in the throwing elbow at stride foot contact is almost 90 degrees for the hardest throwers. Keeping the head behind the lead hip longer which is why we lead with the front hip with no balance point during the leg kick also produces less stress on the shoulder.
When a pitcher rushes his delivery, it means the body has moved forward towards the plate too early, causing the arm position to be too low at the time of stride foot contact with the ground and arm acceleration.
What I have observed in most power pitchers is that the weight is held back over a firm posting leg until the lead leg starts downward. The lead foot comes downward a little more than shoulder width apart and side along the ground to the contact area. It may be just a slight step back, but the minor league seasons showed some signs that we may have reached peak velo. In conversations with scouts and front office officials during the season many of them mentioned seeing less pitchers with top-of-the-scale fastballs than they had seen in other recent seasons.
Now we have some data to back of that assertion. Reporting by Baseball America has found 63 updated from 62 in our original report minor leaguers who touched mph or higher in To make the list, we have to have credible reporting from a scout, a coach or a club official who has logged the velocity with a radar gun, TrackMan or a similar verification.
We will continue to update this list if we receive further credible reports, but even if we get a few more additions, this year will have the fewest mph pitchers in the minors in the past three seasons. There has been somewhat of a similar trend at the major league level. Cardinals righthander Jordan Hicks arrived to give baseball a new mph fireballer, joining Aroldis Chapman, but overall, there were four fewer major league pitchers who threw mph or better in than there were in Changeups for this group should be at about a 15 mph drop, bringing the velocity near the upper 70s.
It is very likely that you are still growing, and your velocity may continue to increase. These numbers are an estimate, and there are no set rules about how hard you must throw. Look at Greg Maddux! He throws the ball in the mid 80s and is considered one of the best in the game. One of the big misconceptions in baseball is that playing the game keeps you in shape to pitch. I wish that was true. It's not. To get to the next level, preparation matters.
Big league pitchers spend far more time preparing to pitch than actually pitching. If you believe adding velocity could be critical to your success, check out my proven programs for pitchers of all ages.
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