Posted by: Shawn () on Thu Dec 11 11:13:37 2008

> > > > > > A couple years ago i saw one kid from maryland or virginia who threw
> > about 75 MPH and that translated to about 115 or something like that if it was
> > at major league distance for reaction time. But that kid was 12 i would say 63
> > is pretty fast for a ten year old.
> > > > >
> > > > > Translate? 75mph is 75mph. This reminds me of women's Olympic
> > softball pitching from 42 feet where TV announcers are always "translating"
> > their weenie pitching speeds (about 65-70mph) into more impressive mens
> > speeds.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > That’s an interesting comment Unclebuck44!
> > > >
> > > > Its my understanding that last year during an exhibition, Jenny Finch
> > completely baffled a bunch of big name major league hitters with her “weenie
> > pitching speeds”.
> > > >
> > > > College and Olympic softball pitching distance is 43 feet, not 42.
> > > >
> > > > Reaction time is a huge factor in hitting.
> > >
> > >
> > > Olympic softball pitching was from 40 feet until a few years ago when the
> > distance was slightly increased. Yeah, some major leaguers couldn't hit her.
> > Wonder how much time they had to practice against softball pitching. Heck,
> > some LL pitchers would give a few MLB sluggers trouble, too. You don't make
> > the bigs by hitting 60 mph pitches. I don't hear of women softball sluggers
> > trying their luck against Randy Johnson.
> > >
> > > The fact is Jenny Finch is about as fast as a good Little Leaguer.
> >
> >
> > They measure the speeds by the time it takes for the ball to get to the plate. If
> > a Little Leaguers fastball that is 75 mph takes a half of a second to get to the
> > plate from 46 feet and a 115 mph fastball from a major leaguer from 60 feet
> > that takes a half of a second to get to the plate the little leaguers fastball is
> > translated to 115 mph.

I'm not sure when Jennie pitched against ML hitters. I have most of it on video and I can check the dates on when the video was made.

I have her pitching against a minor league hitter, in which his swing did not break down. He just keep swinging slightly under the ball, as she was throwing nothing but riseballs or a fastball up in the zone. In the show they had the same hitter hit against a baseball pitcher throwing 95 mph, he routinely hit the ball very well. He was taking the same path against Jennie that he was taken against the baseball pitcher. Basically swinging where the ball "once" was on the rise, and not predicting where the ball would be at contact.

He had no experience in predicting where a riseball would end up. As with every breaking ball he has every seen breaks down.

Jennie made the ML hitters completely break down. Even Pujols swing completely broke down. There is something about it, not ever seeing it, or seeing it for the first time. I'm not sure, but most of the ML hitters swings completely broke down, and they ended up spinning around into their follow through.

The minor league hitter is the only one who did not break down and was taken good swings, but was just under the ball.

A softball hitter would be in for a big surprise against a ML pitcher. In baseball pitches change speeds, and the speeds vary from pitch to pitch. A breaking ball in baseball, both moves and changes speed. In fastpitch a breaking ball, most fastpitch pitchers throw a breaking ball on every pitch, stays at the same speed no matter what the breaking pitch. And their breaking ball speed is not far from their top speed of a fastball.

A ML hitter might be completely fooled at least one time in every at bat in some cases. A fastpitch hitter might find this over whelming.

There are other factors. In baseball the ball travels 60 ft, a little less, so their control or percentage of throwing the pitch where they want it, is much lower then a fastpitch pitcher throwing from 40-43 feet ( a little less). A good fastpitch pitcher seldom centers the ball, in baseball the ball gets centered more often because of control and breaking pitches that don't break. Therefor a good fastpitch pitcher throwing from a much shorter distance is going to have far better control.