Posted by: Greg M. (gmartin@vci.net) on Tue Sep 12 12:00:39 2006

First time poster here. Has anyone read the September GQ article on baseball performance? Its fairly interesting, but some of the statements made are somewhat confusing. For instance, Albert Pujols' batspeed is only measured to be 87 mph. This puts him in the lower tier among major leagures. However, Dr. Marcus Elliott, a Harvard trained physician specializing in bio-mechanics, states that Pujols "generates considerably more force swinging at 87 mph than other players measured at 98 mph." He claims this is because Pujols generates a large amount of angular momentum from the "really big ground correction angles" as a result of a stance which allows him to "redirect horizonitally the vertical energy produced when you push off the ground."

My question is this: is the claim that one player can generate more force swinging at a lower speed accurate? A corollary would be that two players can have the exact same batspeed but one can generate more force than the other. No mention is made of where exactly the maximum batspeed occurs, i.e. whether its at the moment of impact or after the ball leaves the bat. Obviously the only speed that matters is that which occurs just before impact. However, the article strongly implies that Pujols is imparting more force at 87 mph than other players at the same or greater batspeed.

All other things being equal (i.e. bat mass, pitch speed, hitting on the sweet spot, etc...), is there really anything more to imparting force on the ball than generating batspeed at the moment of impact?

Greg M.