GDT 8-9.... JULIO BLACKENS THE FISH IN CAJUN GOODNESS.....

[Enscheff]

At the same time, give Aaron, Mantle, or Mays access to better facilities, diet programs, etc and perhaps they could have been even better. I feel pretty comfortable in saying Ted Williams would be Ted Williams in any era. He had better than perfect vision, super quick hands, and an incredible baseball IQ.

This is the main point about past greats having success in the modern game. When we are talking about the elite of the elite from any period, it’s not hard to imagine Hank Aaron playing travel ball his entire life and weight training like a modern professional athlete still having great success today.

It’s the run of the mill MLB player that is better now than they were 50 years ago. The sheer number of athletes in the world means the average player is better now, but the top player may not be appreciably better.

 

[Carp]

Cool, you read one source that used a questionable mechanic to estimate velocity and arrived at a number that is a total outlier for the entire recorded history of baseball. It’s math though can’t argue with it.

What is questionable about the mechanic? We know the recorded speeds for each player, we know the distances at which they were recorded, and we know the average rate at which balls lose velocity after the pitch reaches its max velocity. It really isn't that complicated. Nolan Ryan registered 100 MPH from 10 feet in front of home plate, roughly 40 feet after its maximum velocity (meaning his pitch had been losing velocity for 40 feet). Chapman registered 105+ mph about 50 feet from the plate, or right at his max velocity (meaning his pitch had yet to lose velocity).

 

[Southcack77]

What is questionable about the mechanic? We know the recorded speeds for each player, we know the distances at which they were recorded, and we know the average rate at which balls lose velocity after the pitch reaches its max velocity. It really isn't that complicated. Nolan Ryan registered 100 MPH from 10 feet in front of home plate, roughly 40 feet after its maximum velocity (meaning his pitch had been losing velocity for 40 feet). Chapman registered 105+ mph about 50 feet from the plate, or right at his max velocity (meaning his pitch had yet to lose velocity).

I completely understand the claim that is being made.

The claim being made is that the two fastest pitches ever measured were both extreme outliers that occurred more than 40 years ago. And they arrive at the claim only by reverse engineering data to arrive at the two extreme outliers.

I would suggest to you that it is more likely that there is a problem with either the data or in their assumptions.

The idea that a mid 30s Nolan Ryan threw the fastest recorded pitch in the history of baseball during the 9th inning of a game he started is fanciful, but would be perhaps somewhat believable if it wasn't 3mph faster than the fastest pitch ever recorded by current methods.

That's 40 years of a huge population of thrown ball events, supported by 40 years of training, pitcher specialization, PEDs, and freakish arms. And none of them came within three mph? That's an absurd thing to believe, in my opinion. It's a cool hook for a paper or documentary though.