Liz hits 102MPH!

[Ruzious]

I'm not sure why you are responding to me, but I know. As you said in the post I replied to:

Guidry definitely walked fewer batters, so presumably he had better control. Maybe Guidry had better stuff too, perhaps even "in a class far above Bedard's" and there is something more than stuff + control that is more important than the two, but Guidry never had a season where he came close to striking out batters like EB has this year (3 K/9 less), although K rates in general were down in 1978 so its closer than it first looks when you think about where they are vis-a-vie the league - but EB still shines.

Because the discussion wasn't about K rates. It was about how hard Guidry threw. You bringing up K rates seems to indicate you think that proved something, but K rates can be affected by lots of things. For example, Johan Santana got 9 of his SO's the other day from changeups. Guidry - who was definitely not a finesse pitcher - didn't have a changeup. Maybe if he did, he would have gotten a lot more SO's. Point being - K rates were irrelevant to the discussion.

[oriole_way]

The post in the tracker was that the pitch was clocked at 102, immediately followed by a breaking ball/changeup at 85. This, I think, was what I personally was excited about. Still, it was impressive to see the 102.

But if we're talking about 98 (as pointed out by BowieMike when he asked the scouts about their readings), then we're also talking about 81 - which is still a sweet 17 mph differential. He also threw the fastball, changeup, and a slider effectively Monday night. Good signs, I think, of the progress he's making.

I completely agree with you. I'm glad that he's supposedly throwing a change up, hopefully improving his control and progressing in general.

I was referring more to the posts which go something along the lines of, "OMG, Liz hit 102 mph on the radar gun. Get him up here ASAP...."