Major League Baseball (MLB) can use a jolt of excitement. The game has devolved into a battle of sabermetrics, analyzing individual pitchers and individual hitters down to their DNA, looking for any hint of weakness or a hidden strength.
As if that could give either a telling advantage.
The facts are not in dispute: no matter how talented a hitter, no matter how good their batting eye, or how fast their bat speed is, or who their daddy was, a hitter will only hit safely 3 or 3 1/2 times out of 10. Those numbers do not account for the bloops, the “dying quails,” the hump-back line drives, or wind-blown homeruns that are not the result of any known baseball skill but can be ascribed to poor, dumb luck.
On Wednesday in Milwaukee, the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers will feature the two hardest-throwing pitchers in baseball. Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes and Milwaukee’s fabulous rookie Jacob Misiorowski can both throw the ball over 100 MPH. Misirowski’s fastball has been clocked at 103 MPH, and Skenes, last year’s Rookie of the Year, threw a game this year where his fastball averaged 100 MPH, an incredible feat.
At 103 MPH, the ball screams toward the hitter, appearing to be a tiny, jet-propelled pellet of white-hot molten plasma, a blur to the eye of even the best of Major League hitters, forcing them to begin their swing almost before the pitch leaves his hand. That’s why Skene’s slider is so effective. As a hitter prepares to hit his fastball, his 94 MPH slider breaks into the dirt, forcing a swing that makes the batter look silly.
Indeed, Skenes and Misiorowski, both 23 years old, realize they must have more to their game than simply throwing hard. The frightening thought for major league hitters is that they will only get better.
Wall Street Journal:
In his major-league debut for the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this month, the 23-year-old Misiorowski worked five innings without allowing a hit. He followed up that performance last Friday by carrying a perfect game into the seventh. In the process, he became the only starter since at least 1900 to begin his career with 11 hitless innings. Through two starts, he has more wins (two) than hits allowed (one).
He has done it by unleashing some of the most dominant stuff ever recorded on a baseball field. Misiorowski’s fastball has averaged 99.7 mph, the hardest among all starters. He’s had two pitches clocked at above 102. His slider has averaged 94.6 mph, a full 4 mph harder than anyone else.
Skenes is no slouch. The two of them, opposing one another, will be an epic match of youth vs. youth, heat vs. heat, and the most beautiful and compelling competition in sport: pitcher vs. hitter.
I wrote this in 2007 when commenting about the Barry Bonds steroids controversy.
As it leaves the pitcher’s hand, the batter has about 2/10 of a second to read the pitch and decide whether to swing the bat or not. In those fractions of a second, the player must decide what kind of pitch is being thrown, how fast it is going to arrive at home plate, and whether or not the ball will cross home plate for a strike. Being off a couple of thousandths of a second means the difference between hitting the ball or not.
The pitcher, God bless him, has other tricks up his sleeve as well. He can change speeds from pitch to pitch to keep the hitter off balance. He can change the angle of his arm when he delivers the ball: coming “over the top” or “dropping down” and slinging the ball almost sidearm. This will change the rotation of the seams against the air between the mound and home plate, causing the ball to shoot across the plate while diving downward.
The ball can also be made to curve so that when leaving the pitcher’s hand, the sphere appears to be making a beeline straight for the batter’s head, only to fall harmlessly, knee high, over the outside corner of the pentagon-shaped home plate. The flight of the ball toward the hitter’s noggin initiates the “fight or flee” reflex deep in the primitive medulla oblongata, causing the batter’s rear end to begin to skedaddle and the knees to buckle in anticipation that trying to flee from the white demon would be useless. Meanwhile, 50 million years of cognitive mammalian evolution is screaming at the rump to stay put and swing the damn bat because the pitcher is making you look like an idiot.
Baseball needs this. And fans should enjoy it while they can. Skenes and Misiorowski are young and strong, but the incredible strain on their arms, elbows, and shoulders will take a toll.
“The UCL (Ulnar Collateral Ligament), a ligament in the elbow, is particularly vulnerable to injury from the forces generated when throwing a fastball. Repeated stress can lead to microtears and, eventually, a complete tear requiring surgery,” according to the National Institutes of Health. (NIH).
In all sports, “Youth Will Be Served.” It’s an adage that’s never truer when applied to Major League Baseball pitchers.
Editor’s Note: Radical leftist judges are doing everything they can to hamstring President Trump’s agenda to make America great again.
Help us hold these corrupt judges accountable for their unconstitutional rulings. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
