Saw this and figured I would share.
And we wonder why pitchers are getting tommy john surgery non stop.
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I actually think athleticism and number of games is a key reason for injuries increasing across all sports. Add in the field surface etc but these athletes are not the same as i watched back in the 90s or even 15 years ago.
I don’t wonder why at all… Same reason I don’t wonder why ACL and Achilles injuries are so prevalent in the NFL… The body was not made to handle the stress these super athletes are putting on them. You can build a muscle to and insane size, there isn’t a training exercise, steroid or surgical procedure to improve the strength of a ligament.
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Exactly. Velo and spin rate is ligament snap city.
Crazy how fast the velo is climbing.
Young people are wimps.
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Meh, I’ll take a Greg Maddux type pitcher who could pick off a fly crossing the plate 60’6” away
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The “Metrics” don’t care about the players. So, the organizations don’t care abut the player.
Bet you anything, Nolan Ryan didn’t throw max all the time. Didn’t need to, only when needed.
It’s almost criminal. I remember in the mid-’80’s, you would be stoked if your team had three guys that threw in the 90+ range. 93 was an exceptional fastball in 1985. That is considered slow now!
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I’ll take Randy Johnson blowing up a pigeon with a 100 MPH fastball.
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Velo and spin rate both increasing by an insane amount. Nice chart though.
The surprise for me is that hitters still average aorund 250 or 260. I can’t imagine trying to hit a ball from today’s pitchers.
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They need to let the hitters use aluminum bats.
The pitchers can wear head gear so they don’t get killed.
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Repeatability is key.
That bird was my friend Petey.
Might need full body armor….
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Maddux would have some trouble with today’s strike zone. He lived down and away. I watched some old games not too long ago and it’s was a crazy strike zone belt to knees up to 6 inches out side if you had some movement and an inch or two inside.
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Tough to say for sure. But you work with what they give you. I guess I’m just saying the guy had pinpoint accuracy. Which might be enough in today’s game where a majority of the hitters are anything but patient. The strike zone was definitely more pitcher friendly, but BAs across the league have been steadily nosediving for the last 2 decades even with the smaller zone. But I guess chicks dig the long ball. Probably why Bols does so well 
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You just have to hold out until we get T-1000s playing and we start seeing 3000’ home runs
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Randy Johnson was the best LHP I ever saw and JR Richard was the best RHP I ever saw. I only saw film of Koufax and Gibson was at the end of his career when I saw him. There were others that had more sustained success like Pedro, Carlton, Seaver, Ryan, Catfish, Palmer, and I would even throw Bumgardner out there for what he did for a couple years.
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Just to be clear I’m not a fan of longevity stats. I prefer guys that dominated for a period of years. Fernando Mania, The Bird Fidrych, Ron Guidry. When these guys were pitching nobody cared about Don Sutton. Let me add Vida Blue to the list that dominated .
Randy Johnson was a great LHP. He also had some of his best years later in his career when he lost some of that velocity. The movement on his pitches was top notch. Also being as big as he was his delivery was deceptive as hell