2026 ST Thread

Sounds like someone who also is frustrated he can’t throw it harder than that. Probably regretting not going full blown TJS.

Salty bitch was what I got from that.
 
Actually no. Pitchers in spring training are throwing close to peak velocity. The ramp up is with the conditioning. If you aren’t throwing near your average velocity when you are only pitching 2-3 innings then it’s not a good sign.

No one is throwing 5 mph slower because they are “saving their arm”. That’s never happened.
What? Lmao I covered minor-league baseball for a few years as a beat reporter. This is absolutely not accurate. Y'all really do just say stuff to push your own shit.
 
What? Lmao I covered minor-league baseball for a few years as a beat reporter. This is absolutely not accurate. Y'all really do just say stuff to push your own shit.

You’re provably wrong. Sale is out there popping 97. Ritchie was out there popping 95. Holmes was out there popping 95. Skenes was out there popping 98. Literally every single healthy SP is out there throwing with their normal velocity.

Modern pitchers are throwing at or very near their normal velocity by their 2nd ST start. The only ones who aren’t, like Strider and Lopez, are not ok.

This “ramping up” talk is nonsense. If Strider isn’t in the upper 90s he’s done as anything resembling a TOR arm. Simple as that. Every single 92 mph heater he throws represents that reality getting closer and closer.
 
Strider: “I might not throw another pitch harder than 93 mph for the rest of my life, I don’t know.”

He came off like he was saying sarcastically, but he knows it’s close to the truth.
 
You’re provably wrong. Sale is out there popping 97. Ritchie was out there popping 95. Holmes was out there popping 95. Skenes was out there popping 98. Literally every single healthy SP is out there throwing with their normal velocity.

Modern pitchers are throwing at or very near their normal velocity by their 2nd ST start. The only ones who aren’t, like Strider and Lopez, are not ok.

This “ramping up” talk is nonsense. If Strider isn’t in the upper 90s he’s done as anything resembling a TOR arm. Simple as that. Every single 92 mph heater he throws represents that reality getting closer and closer.

It may be different now, but when I covered baseball extensively in 2014-2018, velocity ramp-up was largely individualized. Veterans especially were given autonomy, and pitching coordinators adjusted timelines case by case.

Based on that, what Strider is saying aligns with how I saw clubs handle it.

If the league has shifted toward full velocity by start two across the board, that would be a meaningful change, but that wasn’t the norm in my experience.

But let's hope he takes this improved movement profile and finds a way to get back to 96+. For the Braves' sake.
 
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