Baseball Has A Pitching Problem 

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I feel a big part is this new age of biomechanics where people try to mold their mechanics to what’s “ideal” for velocity and it’s not natural to them. Some people are just not born to be able to throw that hard for a long period of time

12:05 He gives 5 examples of veteran pitchers "dominating lineups" and ALL FIVE are injured now.

As a 19 year old, Ive seen kids in middle school throwing a full bag of pitches and topping out at 70-80 mph, that’s not good for their health as they are still growing

As much as I loved Tim Linecum being undersized flame thrower watching Maddux baffle batters was poetry in motion.

what's harming pro pitchers is playing baseball year round as youths

I pitched since I was 11. At 14-15 I was throwing around 75. I moved, and joined a rec league because tryouts were already finished. Because of my velo I was pitching most games and despite the pitch cap, throwing at my max velo every game screwed me up so badly. Rotator cuff issues, shoulder blade issues, forearm issues, and eventually weakness, numbness, tremoring, pins and needles in my finger tips. I was told after seeing a sports doc that I had a hole through the middle of my UCL (Tommy john). Take care of yourselves out there guys, don't throw junk while you're still growing, and don't overtrain and over practice. Just because you're told you can pitch 4 innings doesn't mean you always should. Health before wealth, I don't wish my arm issues on anyone.

The stat-based approach has also changed hitting itself. Stats have decided home runs are of ultimate value. Guys used to have all kinds of variation to their swing but now it seems like most guys have essentially the same swing: load up and try to sock a dinger every time. We used to call this the "hero cut" when I was a kid. Pitching is part of the big rise in K rates but so is this approach. Nobody wants to be Tony Gwynn or Wade Boggs these days.

It's still early April and already two top tier pitchers have injured their elbow ligaments, Bieber and Strider. And Cole also had a scare. TJ surgery is becoming a plague among pitchers.

I miss the days when pitchers faced hitters a third time around. Nothing is cooler than a CG

I have been watching baseball since the 1950s. Yeah, I'm old. Baseball did the right thing, putting a clock in the game. It offsets players stepping out of the batter's box after every pitch to adjust their batting gloves, which we not worn "back in the day". If baseball wanted to make the game truly exciting, they would move the mound back 10 feet and move the fences back 50 feet. The game would be so full of action that they would have to make it an every-other-day sport due to player fatigue. Actually, baseball expert George Will has said that the mound should be moved back, I don't think he was talking about 10 feet, but move it back a couple of feet anyway.

Watched a game with a pitcher that threw a 90+mph change-up! How is that a change-up?!

The 3 True Outcomes: watching 2 guys play catch, another guy stand between them waving a stick, and 7 other guys standing around scratching their butts

Batters are also swinging for the fences more and more. Launch angle has mattered more than connecting and getting a base hit.

So why were games well under 3 hours in the 70's, 80's and decades prior? The fact that some pitchers were taking a minute in between pitches was ridiculous. There were batters that stepped out and readjusted their batting gloves after taking a pitch and not even swinging. BTW, the pitch clock is not a new rule in baseball, it's a very old rule that was never enforced and the technology (lack of) made it difficult to ever follow through with it. The pitch clock is not the problem, although it should not be decreased any. MLB needs to leave it and not shorten the time in between pitches even more. Years ago pitchers pitched well over 100 pitches a game and went well past 5 innings a game. Today we see the "magic" number 100 and when that started, it was the ruination of pitchers. Now we have pitchers that are tired after 5 innings and if they go longer, the manager usually takes them out as soon as they are near 100 pitches. Combine pitchers not being stretched out to go past 100 pitches regularly, add in increased velocity and take into account the fact that pitchers are adding new pitches to their repertoire, and you have a recipe for disaster. Pitchers need to tone down the velocity a little bit, be stretched out to go past 100 pitches and be allowed to pitch past 5 or 6 innings regularly. Pitchers did it years ago and they didn't "burn out" and they definitely didn't suffer injuries the way we are seeing today. We are seeing far too many specialists in baseball pitching and it's created a lack of arm stamina for pitchers. No more limit of 100 pitches and no more pulling pitchers out after 5 or 6 innings. Keep the pitch clock, maybe add a couple of seconds and leave the other new rules in place and we will continue to see the return of fans to baseball. Hopefully, it will one day be our "National Pastime" once again. Besball has been berry, berry, good to me.

I can't be the only one who noticed the name on one of the referenced articles. Gabe laques 😂

200 years from now: "Are 175 mph fast balls too fast for the average hitter? We are seeing record high strike outs"

Correct me if wrong, the power pitching movement is a response to the steroids era offense, and the TTO increase is the attempt to improve run production in response to the power pitching movement. Just the fact that teams across the board are putting more power arms on their roster probably means it's easier to throw max effort right down the middle and get away with it than finesse your way to get outs, though I don't have the data to back this up. All sports are trending towards higher efficiency, not just baseball.

Jimmy Piersall has a short, empassioned interview on youtube about what he thought was wrong with baseball (back in 1989). He claimed in the video that weight programs were causing the increase in injuries, and I think he was on to something. Sure, there are outliers like Nolan Ryan, who was a big weightlifter; but on the whole, I'm not sure these guys are getting the recovery they need, are not strengthening their ligaments/tendons, and are pushing themselves too hard. Its all a complicated issue, and I suspect diet may play a part in some players' downfall as well.

This videos needs to have AT LEAST 100k MORE views then it has now

This may be counterintuitive, but what's needed is a heavier workload on starting pitchers. The mentality now is throw as hard as you can for as long as you can, then let the next guy come in and do the same thing. If you're expecting the starter to go at least seven innings, and, yes, even complete a few games, this forces the starter to pace himself, to find a comfortable working speed, getting outs with location and movement, then reach back for that little extra when needed. 120 pitches at 80% effort is going to do less arm damage than 70-80 pitches at 100%. The counterargument I hear all the time is "But the hitters now are too good, everybody in the lineup can hit a home run, you need to go all out with every batter." First of all, we need to get rid of the DH, the opposing pitcher's at bat provides a much-needed break. Second, a slower pitch is harder to take deep than a faster one, the batter needs to generate more bat speed instead of letting the pitcher do all the work. This means that a pitcher who can change velocity can make a batter who is only interested in home runs look awfully foolish. I would propose requiring a pitcher to remain in the game (barring injury) for at least six innings while the possibility of a quality start still exists. I would also change the three batter minimum to requiring the reliever to remain in the game until either the end of the inning or until a run scores, this could be one batter, or it could be four of five. Seems more natural than an artificial arbitrary number. To me fewer pitchers equals better pacing, which leads to fewer injuries, and also leads to more exciting (i.e. less TTO) baseball.

Yeah, pitching may reach a point where throwing harder has diminishing returns if the injuries reduce longevity to a certain point. In the NFL, this point is kinda moot since longevity is so short, esp for RB. Maybe the demand for throwing faster will mean salaries are so high that pitches still go for it. Luckily for the sport, the best pitchers are not always the hardest throwing. There will always be a place for the artful pitcher who finds a way, whether by changing speeds/planes/arm angle or whatever, finds a way to mess the batter up consistently.

The goat is back. Excited for videos this season.

Im 22 now but when I was about 15 my little brother was on a state championship little league team and the pitcher was the best in the whole state throwing 70+mph at 12 yrs old and by the end of the season he was having full blown shoulder surgery and doc said he will probably never throw competitively again. 12 years old man, shoulder gone. Ive had injuries as well so it hits home to know these kids are training to hurt themselves. I know very little about baseball but it seems like we should force the pitchers to stay in even longer? Make it impossible to be throwing that fast all game and start teaching young children to throw the ball differently because fast isnt sustainable for a full game. Who knows, would like to see a change tho.

My favorite part of baseball is the pitching, the movement, the strategy, watching pitchers develop and change overtime...and now its all fastballs and injuries. I was in high school when Maddux was with the Cubs and watching him target pitches, pitches with movement was unbelievable.

177 views is crazy for this video you definitely deserve more bro keep it up

Lotta factors here -- I also think when pitch count became demonized for pitcher health and longevity, it encouraged pitchers to redline every pitch. Back when starters were going deep into games every start they weren't going all out on every fastball they threw.

There are more strikeout because there are no contact hitters anymore. The batter hits a home run or a strikeout. Zero or hero.

What’s hurting pitchers arms is they are not taught at an early age the importance of leg drive. Pitchers work on their upper body strength and forget the most important muscles are in their legs. The very best example of leg drive is Nolan Ryan. Watch how his back leg bends straight down and then drives him towards the plate. Compare him to anyone else, he had a great arm but he had even greater legs. This is the reason why he could pitch in the upper 90’s in his mid 40’s. BTW the circle change was what made him a Hall of Famer though.

As a lifelong Texas Rangers fan I can think back to the time when they had 2 outstanding young pitching prospects in their farm system, Brian Allard and Danny Darwin.. I remember farm director Joe Klein talking about the fact that Danny Darwin's fastball had been clocked as high as 93 mph. A legit flame thrower. Things have changed a lot in the past 45 years 😅

This is a great video and I understand the point you are making with Maddux as he had incredible command of and movement on all of his pitches, but there is a bit of revisionist history with him going on in general. I'm not just talking about your video, but about the way that people speak about him in general. There's this myth of him as some bespectacled, professorial pitching genius who never threw hard. He was not, for the prime of his career when he was an elite pitcher (probably the very best pitcher in baseball), some soft-tossing starter. The dude had a notably above average fastball for his entire peak by the standards of that era. He was touching 94 or 95 and sitting at 92 or 93 with his fastball when the league average fastball for right-handed starters was barely 90. He wasn't Randy Johnson, but the guy threw hard enough to blow it by you if you tried to sit on his slower stuff. It was absolutely a key part of how he got guys out. His velocity allowed his breaking ball and changeup to be more deceptive because he had enough juice to force people to get ready for the fastball. When he lost velocity he became less deceptive and he was just average or maybe a tick above as a pitcher. His command and movement are what separated him from other guys who threw similarly hard or harder, but if he'd always just been a soft-tosser then he'd be a pretty average or maybe slightly above-average starter.

Here in my area 19 year old Nazier Mule (Chicago Cubs draft pick straight out of high school), and his much vaunted 100 MPH fastball went down last season with a UCL tear requiring Tommy John surgery. He has yet to throw a single pitch at the Major League level, and he's already broken. Sure, he can make a comeback, but who wants to start a race from last place?

Unfortunately, the damage starts at a young age these days. Travel ball has gotten younger and more out of control. Parents living vicariously through their children pushing for them to be the absolute best 10 year old pitcher in their league for a relatively meaningless season in a declining game. I'm a nurse practitioner who has worked in orthopedics for the majority of my career now. I started in hand surgery, which is a misnomer because I really specialized in everything from the shoulder down. The reality is no kid should throw competitively year round. Pitchers should have at least 3 months of rest. If the kid plays catcher, then he really shouldn't be pitching and vice versa. Kid's should also continue to play more than one sport to develop other muscular groups, coordination and overall athleticism. We are also seeing an epidemic of ACL/Knee injuries in girls sports, particularly soccer and basketball because of a lack of development other actives use to provide to single sport kids. Girls sports really got the club game going and made single sport focus the fad that it's become. We are seeing this in almost every sport now, from the youth ranks through the pros. So many pro athletes can't stay healthy to save their lives. Look at what's happened to the running back position in professional football. They train year round. Our bodies were never designed to be that big, that fast and trained that relentlessly year round...then take the beating of an NFL season. Over training is a serious problem. I see athletic trainers doing this with their athletes constantly. If you want to build speed, you don't have the kids sprint at 100% any more than 2-3 days per week max. You should have them alternating speeds when they are training and progress through various intervals. Long story short, it's time to let kids be kids again. Encourage multiple sport participation and try to keep things fun. You don't have to throw hard to be a great pitcher. Teach them control, a good change up and to work the corners. Breaking pitches are unnecessary in the youth ranks. Stop letting uneducated coaches teach kids bad habits. I appreciate parents willing to volunteer their time but they should understand their limitations and not introduce techniques, habits or concepts they don't fully understand the consequences of (the curveball for example).

Thank you, great video. I’ve noticed this as well even as a casual baseball fan. It seemed like when I was growing up there really weren’t that many good pictures and the reliever/closer was becoming more emphasized. Now it seems like the starter goes four, or five innings- then there’s a middle reliever then a left-handed specialist and, then another set up man and then the closer comes in to finish off the game

Another reason strikeouts keep going up is the approach hitters take. Many more hitters are swinging for the fences in situations where they didn't 30+ years ago. The majority of players used to shorten up and just try to put the ball in play with 2 strikes or hit behind the runner to move them to 3rd with less than 2 outs.

The documentary Fastball noted that the human eye is not fast enough to focus, predict where the ball is going, and get the bat on the ball from 60' 6" away (it's closer than that when measured from the release point). Most 100+ mph pitches are out of the strike zone, so, unless the hitter has two strikes, if they sense the pitch is that fast, they should just let it go - easier said than done. However, if the documentary is right and 100 mph becomes more common with accuracy, the solution might be to move the mound back.

One possible solution is to move the mound back like 6 feet so that it's in the actual center of the diamond. As a trade-off, you can raise the mound back to what it was before they lowered it in the 1960s. This would be a pretty drastic change, though, and I don't see it ever happening. But one thing to consider is the safety factor-- both hitters and pitchers would have a little more time reacting to balls coming directly at them.

You can also see this trend in the amount of home runs being hit as well. From the 90's on, home runs have been steadily rising along with the pitch speed metrics. You could also argue the hotter on average games have become, the higher the average bat exit speed velocity. There are so many factors, but the game has certainly changed from chess-like pitching strategy to brute force; more strikeouts and more home runs.

Pitchers are also being taught an increased assortment of pitches, which places extra stress on the arm. Where once the average starting pitcher threw a fastball, a curve, a slider and a change-up, it's common now to see someone feature six or eight pitches. This is what team scouts and management are looking for. And of course, as this video points out, emphasizing sheer velocity and developing training regimens to achieve increases in that department brings young prospects closer to the threshold of injury.

You also need to know that the way the pitch speed is measured. The pitches used to be measured 10 ft from the plate, now it's 50 ft from the plate. An 85 mph pitch in 1980 was actually low 90s.

"The average baseball pitch speed of a fastball (thrown by an MLB pitcher) ranges from 92-93 miles per hour (148-149 kilometers per hour). Even some pitchers already reached speeds up to 100 mph or more." "- Pitcher’s Mound to Home Plate Distance (feet): 60.5 - Pitch Time (seconds): 0.47."

Let's put the facts on the table. Ever since MLB introduced "100-pitch" limits and using "analytics", MLB starters are dropping like flies. Someone did a computation on MLB starters in the days before all these pseudo-science. MLB starters (including fastball hurlers), used to average 150-180 pitches per game! On top of that, MLB starters used to start 33-37 gamers per season! even more, MLB starters used to go at least 7 innings. And no, they were not dropping like flies. It was a shock to hear any ONE starter went down with season-ending injury. Now we hear it once a week it seems. The problem is not number of pitches, how many innings, games, but approach to pitching. In the old days pitching coach would teach "pacing". I.e. in the first 3 innings don't go full throttle on your arm, but throw at 70-75%. This is why fastball hurlers always start the games at low 90s mph. Then, from 4-6, you start to give 80-90%. For the final stretch (7+) you may go 100% to put the game away. Nowadays nobody teaches pacing. I see pitchers throwing 95-100 mph straight away on full throttle. This is the reason it's killing their arms. Humans are flesh and blood, not machines nor numbers. The problem with 100-pitch count and Analytics is it takes the flesh and blood out of it and try to manipulate the game purely on numbers and stats. Remember analytics and 100-pitch snakeoil salesmen used to try to sell us that their methods will LESSEN pitcher injuries? You hear them saying any of that now?

Thank you. I haven't been able to sleep. A couple minutes of this video, and I was out like a light.

Sounds like the roids have gotten better.😮

great video bro keep up the good work

just started watching MLB this year and my eyes are glued to Yamamoto. He's 3 games into the season and I think he's doing okay. I get excited whenever he gets a strikeout, there's this thrill when he gets the batter with his splitter/curveball. I was always wondering why something feels lacking whenever I watch full matches, then I realized, from a batter fans' point of view, it gets kinda boring if the batters keep on getting striked out. But it's also fun when the entire stadium screams if people go run for the bases or try to steal one. I also remember that game where Ichiro threw a ball to the third base, outing the runner, that was crazy. Seeing this video got me worried, saying how there's more strikeouts than hits and the TTOs are getting higher compared to the previous years. Hope everything goes well for the MLB (sorry if I didn't get some of the technical words right lol)

Great production, and information! I hope your channel grows, you deserve it!

5 sec 20 sec or 20 hrs isn't going to help recovery. It's the spin rate + velocity that will destroy your arm.

Its bc the flamethrowers aren't sat up there set waiting on you to lift your second foot into the box...

Thank god as a Nationals fan Stras was able to give us that 2019 postseason. Deserved his World Series mvp. Was an absolute phenom when he was called but but even back in 2010 people were talking about his inverted W throwing motion and a year later he has Tommy John

Loving your content! Such high quality for such low sub count lets fix that! Thank!

When golfers starting hitting farther courses like Augusta moved the tee boxes back. Does the mlb need too do the same and move the mound back? Would that help?

This video reminds me I’m not the only one whose heart breaks when my feed shows a hs kid throwing high nineties.

Great video, amazing how things have progressed in 20 plus years since i last played.

Great video but some of the strikeout vs hitting goes to a newer approach from batters to the plate. Instead of putting contact hitters first in lineup people have been putting big hitters that either strike out or hit a homer as their first 5 batters. I think the bigger issues with pitching injury's is the windup and flicking their elbow. They are flicking their elbow to get extra velocity but their body cant handle it. Windups in the past were long and used legs power verses arm power like they do now.

Who’s here after the Strider/Beiber news

Very well made video

What is crazy is Leo Mazzonne the former Braves pitching coach. Had the pitchers doing more on their off days than any other coach in the history of the game, but those horses he had never got hurt. I think it is several things causing the injuries, the commissioner is clueless to think it is just one thing causing it.

This is a well thought out video with stats to support your narrative. Well done.

Problem is baseball.

We need a Maddux resurgence

You present this like is a fixable problem but teams have already seen how much more effective high velocity throwers are then lower velocity so atp we cannot go back. We are approaching the upper limit of what’s humanly possible but it’s up to the hitters to catch up which I think they have a bit the last few years pitch clock saved baseball.

Ligaments and tendons can be adapted to the stress of throwing is just takes longer than ur muscular structure overall to get stronger.

I've said this for many years. Pull back the pitcher's mound distance from home plate at least 5-10 feet to facilitate more play on the field while decreasing the innings from 9 to 7 for time constraints. Baseball has devolved into just a pitcher/batter duel when viewers really want to see home runs and more action on the field. At the end of the day, if the game is not entertaining for the fans, it will die off and that is what we are witnessing. Too many diehard fans stuck to tradition and resistant to change will kill it off in my opinion.

Billy Bean and Sabermetrics have ruined baseball. Bean hasn't won shit, either

It also needs to be noted that the technology strike zone is pulling the zone in and this benefits the batter. Imagine the strike out to hit ratio if they were not monitoring the zone ?

gotta love that clemens 20 strike out game. had it on tape as a kid, must have watched it 50 times

Need to take care of those delicate pitching arms. Unless you’re Aroldis.

Why don’t they just move the pitcher back?

My 10 year old son is his 12u and 10u teams best pitcher. I was not a “baseball dad.” We were a football family. But he was good at baseball so I let him play it but never would do the traveling teams. Just his regular team, until I was talked into letting him “play up” when he was 8 years old on a 10u team. And that’s when I saw how bad it can get. Again my kid was 8. And I didn’t know shit about baseball, and this team was a middle of the road team who had a very nice guy for head coach. A guy I was friends with from way back. However, after their older pitcher kept having mental meltdowns and the other older pitcher couldn’t throw a strike to save his life, he called on my son. That was the very first game of the season. My son pitched in every single game the rest of the season but 2. The pitch count was not changed for his age, and even if it was, an 8 year old should not be throwing 85 pitches a game every 2-3 days. At the time I didn’t know, I just was happy for my boy to be pitching and overcoming nervousness of throwing to kids much older and bigger then he. But then a few months after the season ended, he played football, and was quarterback, and that’s when the pain started. Long story short luckily for us the doctor caught it in time and we rested him and his arm the rest of the year while doing intense rehab. I let him play baseball still, but his coaches are now told by me that he does not throw over 50 pitches ever, and if he’s throwing, he’s getting a full 4 days rest. Dont let these coaches fuck your kids up

I find it humorous that you were showing footage of Maddox pitching for Atlanta against Chicago, the two teams he played for.

Baseball is the only sport where players are encouraged (implicitly demanded) to go max effort 100% of the time. This is the fault of the general managers and the head coaches who have essentially told amateur pitchers that the only way to get to the show is to push their arms to an unhealthy degree.

Viewership increased because of broadcasting into Japan and Korea. Maybe ??

That Zumaya clip brought up some rough memories and it's not just strictly related to guitar hero.

My tournament coaches growing up would have me throw complete games every tournament because if i was on the mound we won. Age 13 throwing 100 pitches, or more if it went into extra innings. Had to have multiple surgeries in college for bone chips. Doctor said my bones didnt fully develop.

In the 90’s-early 2000’s a 95mph fastball was considered a blazing fastball. Most top pitchers threw 93-95. Now guy’s sliders & cutters are 92mph & their fastballs are 99-101. Pitching puts way more stress on the arm & shoulder than any other sport. Now guys have gotten bigger & stronger but the connective tissue is the weak link in the chain. Greg Maddux, one of the best even probably topped out at 92 in his hey-day but his sinker was like 87mph & he was still winning games. I live flame throwers but many rely om velocity like Noah Sydergaard who wasn’t the same after surgery. Chris Bassitt who my Mets stupidly let go is like a poor man’s Maddux. He tops out at 92-93 but throws nasty breaking balls & knows how to pitch. He’s like 35-36 & still going strong. DeGrom is so nasty but he was injured for parts of 3 years once he hit his mid-30’s before Mets let him walk. The Rangers gave him a huge contract but he blew out his arm again. At least it wasn’t his shoulder which is worse than an elbow arguably. The fact is that he doesn’t need to throw full bore all the time. He’d still be great at 80%. Anyway, as entertaining as velocity is it’s risky. Pitchers need to learn how to pitch & rely less on velocity which will help with longevity. A perfect example would be former Mets pitcher Big Sexy Bartolo Colon. He was a power pitcher but remade himself as he hit his mid to late 30’s after he could no longer thrown 95mph fastballs. His fastball was 89 but he was still pitching into his forties. Beautiful pitching is beautiful pitching even if it doesn’t light up the radar gun.

Velocity can cover up for poor mechanics, which I think is likely why both a lot of pitchers are favoring pitch speed and also why we are seeing more injuries. I also have no idea how to fix it. I can't think of any way you could change the rules to incentivize prioritizing accuracy and movement over velocity that would be feasible (like you could maybe make the strike zone smaller, but that just doesn't seem like a realistic rules implementation.) Maybe you could reduce roster size so starters have to pitch more often which would force them to adopt pitching styles which favored longevity, but I don't see the union ever signing off on that.

does the pitch clock with shorter time between pitches, positivly or negatively affect pitchers?

Not gonna lie man , the biggest mistake you made with this video was putting Alek manoah in the same category as Ohtani , Kershaw , Scherzer etc. 😂

Most pitches now seek VELO. What happened to all the off speed pitches? Side note, does the clock add to injury?

Loving the deep dive into this topic. Algorithms doing its thing properly for once. Take my thumbs up and a sub. Like others have said, this should have way more views than it currently does. Bravo nonetheless! 👏🏻💪🏻

With max effort velo, spin rates, and wiffs being the main commodity scouts look for, and more teams trending towards developing pitchers to maximize those skills I don't see how this is going to get any better in the future. Especially when pitching to contact is artificially made harder via the shift restrictions, teams that stress pitching over throwing and keeping their guys healthy in lieu of high strikeout rates are always going to lose. It's not something the league can regulate either and I wouldn't want them to. I already hate pitch timers and shift restrictions, if the league proposes a 'speed limit' of sorts to keep guys healthy it will be the last nail in the coffin to killing the game.

Every sport has a problem when money or skill becomes more important than health and excitement to watch, and this is a problem facing almost every sport today, just like the entertainment industry is facing a crisis, sports is as well. We have taken one aspect of development too far, and done too little do develop other aspects and that is always going to be a problem. The only solution is an awareness of value which can create for greater balance, but such a awareness can threaten the entire system and sport in general as there is a cause for concern for people who prioritize anything over their physical and mental health, relationships and long term progress. Great video as this is a important issue to be aware of which was explained very well in my opinion.

Great video man! Really enjoyed it.

I wonder how much taking away grip substance, mixed with pitch clock, is adding to injuries. If pitchers are gripping the ball harder, that has to make each pitch take a greater toll on the arm.

It’s the emphasis on velo. Not a lot of “pitchers” anymore. They’re just hard throwers. I’ve noticed that almost every pitch is thrown with everything they got, which is stressful on the arm. If you avg 92 and can jump up to 94-95 but dot the corners you’ll be a better pitcher and save arms

I read somewhere that the way velocity is measured today is different than it was back in 1990s

Wau what a channel! The quality of Your new channel is so high! 😮

Question: why are pitch speeds expressed as miles per hour? Neither the mile nor the hour are sensible units for such a short and brief event. It would make more sense to use feet per second. A 90 mph fastball travels at 132 feet per second. Since the mound to home plate is 60 feet, 6 inches, you can see right away that the pitch takes a little less than half a second to reach home plate.

@3:00 I was so expecting you to say if the trend continues by the year 2400 the average pitch speed will be 150mph lol

It's wild hearing his quote and seeing what happened to Spencer Strider after this video. It's definitely a problem but I don't know what can be done to really fix it at this rate :(

I would suggest trying out the NPB ball. According to Yu Darvish and other Japanese pitchers, they are slightly softer, more grippy, and does not require as much force to grip the ball as well as use sweat and other substances to throw. Also use a 6 man roster would be better to allow longer rest and heal time.

Great video. Our city youth league limits pitchers to 70/week with no more than 60 in one day. Its a little lower as the age goes down. But unsure how this is enforced with practice where kids still want to throw hard.

Bruh, coming back to this video. Strider and Bieber out with Tommy John. This video couldn't have came out at a better time. We need to stop focusing so much on velocity and improve movement and accuracy. This is crazy

As someone who has at very high levels and have obsessed over pitching, I really enjoyed this video. However, there are some parts i believed you missed/were incorrect. 1) Maddux did not rely on spin rate, it was what we now call “seam-shifted wake”, where the pitch moves more than previously anticipated. There also was not a dichotomy of velo vs movement/accuracy back in those days. When Maddux was being scouted, his scouting notes say “has a good 90mph fastball (fast for the time)”. Velocity was still coveted back then. 2). Not only do pitchers use advanced scouting reports, they are also throwing dramatically less fastballs and SIGNIFICANTLY more sliders, which objectively have better outcomes. 3). 3 true outcomes also has a better predictive value for evaluating pitchers because they are the only outcomes that a pitcher can control. 4) I disagree with your last point that we have “tapped out” our potential. I believe that to the contrary, training methods have become significantly more effective for developing velocity, which will continue to push the average up, and weed out the lower velocity throwers. With algorithms and AI, it’s not unreasonable to predict a future where specific metrics are taken for a individual, and specific protocols will be produced for their VERY specific body and needs. This system could seemingly get even more granular for scouting, where specific metrics could “predict” how much velocity an individual can gain. Scouts have been doing those for years, algorithms will be more accurate. 5) I would also like to mention the fact that breaking pitches are getting objectively better. Pitch tracking tools and algorithms have aided in making breaking balls move more at a higher velocity. Anyways, other than these trivial points, great video and keep up the good work!!

Can't say but I've watched many a game where the pitcher tried putting the batter and the crowd to sleep. Gibson, Ryan, seaver all worked quick. It's more the emphasis on hard throwing is more to blame.

Adonis Chapman the former closer for the Yankees, he played for the Reds too, had one clocked going 105 mph before.

It is the implementation of the pitch clock last year and the crackdown on sticky stuff league wide that has caused the sudden surge of significant injuries to pitchers. Think about it about it. Pitchers have less time to rest their arms between pitches and are gripping the ball harder to create spin, minus sticky stuff. It is obvious why these injuries are occurring.

It seems banning the sticky stuff has made it worse

Is there a difference in the number of pitches per at bat?