During Tuesday’s night game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers, we saw relief pitcher Ryan Helsley throw the fastest pitch of the year.
It was a 104.2 mph fastball.
MLB hitters are better and better every year, but it’s hard to imagine anyone being prepared to hit a ball coming at you at more than 104 mph.
It’s crazy and incredible, but as hitters improve, pitchers find more ways to increase the velocity and quality of their stuff.
“MLB pitches thrown at 100+ MPH: 2019 —-> 1,055; 2021 —-> 1,824; 2022 —-> 3,240 so far,” Codify Baseball tweeted.
MLB pitches thrown at 💯+ MPH
2019 —-> 1,055
2021 —-> 1,824
2022 —-> 3,240 so far 😮— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 28, 2022
It’s a noticeable trend, and 2023 will probably have close to 4,000 pitches thrown at more than 100 mph, if not more.
The Science Of Pitching
Pitching has become a science, more than an art: there are people trained to finding ideal mechanics adapted to each pitcher with the goal of helping him become the best he can be.
Extension, leg strength, shorter arm paths…those concepts have become incredibly important for pitching coaches, not to mention spin efficiency, spin axis, and more.
The goal is throw as hard and with as much active spin as possible, at least when we refer to fastballs.
Others, however, have so much natural movement in their fastballs that they become two-seamers and instead of generating swings and misses, they are optimal for contact into the ground.
This is the case, for example, of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dustin May.
Each pitcher has unique traits, mechanics, weapons, and movements that will dictate his stuff and which approach they should adopt.
Most of them, however, are looking to throw harder to increase their odds of becoming successful major leaguers.
That’s the future of baseball.
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