Posted by: jerry () on Tue Jan 17 19:01:24 2006

> > What do you guys think the major league average bat speed is? Any guesses for minor leagues, college, high school?
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> > Would a 75 mph bat speed as a high school senior be any good? average?
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> I would have to guess that average would be between 80 to 85 geared up to hit a fastball. Robert K Adair's book "The Physics of Baseball" talks about that subject to a small degree. In Adair's book, I believe he mentions that for a 180lb player swinging a bat that weighs 32 ounces it would take a batspeed of about 70 to drive an 85 mile an hour fastball 400 ft. Of course this would be a strong player who weighed 180 lbs like a Marcus Giles (rotational hitter).
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> Of course there are other factors besides batspeed. On ESPN I observed Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds with batspeeds around 95, Mark Mcguire was as high as 100. The players ability to time a fastball through recognition is perhaps his biggest asset. More than likely your eye sight and ability to hit a fastball with movement is what will determine your success. A lot of players can't hit a good curveball, but pitchers make enough mistakes with the curve, slider, to keep a good fastball hitter in the major leagues.
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> Also, as you age you will get stronger and your batspeed should increase especially if your technique is solid.

Remember that Adair's book assumes you have hit the ball perfectly with an ideal angle. Realistically, I think you'd have to hit an 85MPH pitch with a 80 MPH swing to hit it 400 ft, rather than 70 MPH. The ball is almost never hit perfectly.