Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Sep 12 15:33:02 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? <<<

Hi Greg

Welcome to the site. – There are good reasons for questioning Dr. Elliott’s conclusion. He basically implies that the reason Pujols hits the ball harder with less velocity is due to his having a stronger contact position. It appears he feels that having a stronger contact position (“really big ground correction angles”) would maintain greater bat velocity through the bat/ball collision and therefore impart greater energy to the ball.

Dr. Elliott’s position on this topic is not supported by data from tests ran by several bat companies and independent labs. I think it is likely the method of attaining the bat speed readings is flawed. I found that the handheld radar units used to read a pitched ball’s maximum velocity were very inaccurate for determining bat speed readings. Of the six I tried, they gave reading of +5 mph to –20 mph for known bat speeds.

One of the independent lab conclusions on the influence of the batter’s grip on the bat/ball collision can be read at - http://www.kettering.edu http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/grip.html

Jack Mankin