Aroldis Chapman vs. Pads 9/24 -- 25 straight over 100 MPH!

[Arthur_Bryant]

I watched Aroldis Chapman last night against San Diego, an amazing sequence: five hitters, one walk, two strikeouts, 25 pitches--all fastballs, most between the belt and the letters.

And every pitch registered on GameDay at 100 MPH or faster. Pitch FX had one at 99.9 and the other at 99.6, but rounded them up to 100. OTOH, one of them clocked in at 105.1, which GameDay rounded down to 105. That was an inside pitch that Tony Gwynn Jr. took for a ball. I believe it's the fastest pitch ever recorded by Pitch FX.

It started when he came in with two out in the seventh, after Miguel Tejada had given the Padres a 2-1 lead. With two runners on base, and pitching out of the stretch, Chapman struck out Adrian Gonzalez on three swinging strikes:

101.5

101.6

103.4

Pitches #1 and #3 were dead in the middle of the zone, and Gonzalez wasn't even close.

Then Chapman came out in the eighth. The inning went like this:

Ryan Ludwick faced four pitches, between 100 and 102. Ludwick went down to get the last one and hit it to the warning track in CF, br far the best-hit ball of the 25-pitch sequence.

Gwynn had a truly amazing sequence. I am sure that few hitters in MLB (if any) have ever faced this kind of velo over a six-pitch sequence.

102.6

103.7 (this one nicked the ump on the right shoulder, as the catcher couldn't get a glove on it)

102.5

104.1

105.1

103.1

101.5

Gwynn fought off three pitches but took the last one--the slowest of the six--for a called strike three on the outside corner.

Then Yorvit Torrealba walked on four pitches between 100.7 and 103.9. No, he didn't lay one in on 3-0; the fastest of the bunch was up and in for ball four.

Finally Chase Headley battled for seven pitches between 99.6 and 102.5 before grounding into a force play -- broken bat.

For those who have MLB.TV, this is truly worth the replay.

[Moose Milligan]

Saw this earlier today. Neftali hit 103 earlier this year which I didn't know about...but the 105 is the fastest ever.

Truly incredible.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Saw this earlier today. Neftali hit 103 earlier this year which I didn't know about...but the 105 is the fastest ever.

Truly incredible.

Makes you wonder about the actual fastest ever... really ever... before pitches could be measured within the width of the hair on a gnat's ass.

Dick Enberg has seen a few MLB games. He was doing the broadcast for the Padres' crew. He said that he had never seen anything like it, "and I've seen Nolan Ryan throw no-hitters."

I dunno, but there's a chance that the 105.1 to Gwynn might have been the fastest pitch ever thrown in an MLB game. It was 1.2 MPH faster than Chapman's previous fastest as measured by Pitch FX.

[Moose Milligan]

Makes you wonder about the actual fastest ever... really ever... before pitches could be measured within the width of the hair on a gnat's ass.

Dick Enberg has seen a few MLB games. He was doing the broadcast for the Padres' crew. He said that he had never seen anything like it, "and I've seen Nolan Ryan throw no-hitters."

I dunno, but there's a chance that the 105.1 to Gwynn might have been the fastest pitch ever thrown in an MLB game. It was 1.2 MPH faster than Chapman's previous fastest as measured by Pitch FX.

True...Walter Johnson? Dalkowski?

[waroriole]

I'd love to know how fast Bob Feller threw.

[scOtt]

True...Walter Johnson? Dalkowski?

I don't remember where I heard it... They said the Big Train didn't throw 100, maybe not even 95. It was just that he threw SOOO much harder than everyone else at the time.

Who knows about Dalkowski...

And because I LOVE to see Walter throw...

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwUHeuVqME?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwUHeuVqME?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

I never saw this one. Detailed breakdown of his mechanics.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc8MbjXMfzs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc8MbjXMfzs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

[Can_of_corn]

I don't remember where I heard it... They said the Big Train didn't throw 100, maybe not even 95. It was just that he threw SOOO much harder than everyone else at the time.

I don't get this, if it is accepted that Bob Feller threw over 100 MPH in the 30's then why couldn't the Big Train do so twenty years earlier? It is not as if there was a huge evolution in training methods in the intervening years.

Anyway according to the Big Train himself no one threw harder then Smokey Joe Wood.

[Arthur_Bryant]

I don't remember where I heard it... They said the Big Train didn't throw 100, maybe not even 95. It was just that he threw SOOO much harder than everyone else at the time.

Who knows about Dalkowski...

And because I LOVE to see Walter throw...

I never saw this one. Detailed breakdown of his mechanics.

Is there an objectively measurable athletic act that hasn't showed clear improvement over the last 90 years? Even over the last 40? Men and women run faster today than they ever did. They lift greater weight. They swim faster. They throw the javelin and put the shot and throw the discus farther than ever before. Even granting some marginal improvement through improved equipment and faster tracks, it's clear that advances in conditioning, technique, and coaching have made the performances of modern athletes superior to their counterparts of decades ago.

There's no reason to believe that pitching is the exception. Just as Usain Bolt is faster than Bob Hayes ever was, and Hayes was faster than whoever was top dog in 1930, the very fastest of today's pitchers almost certainly throw faster than the very fastest of other eras. I would be astonished if it were otherwise.

BTW the pitch from Chapman that was clocked at 105.1 was apparently 1.3 MPH faster than the fastest he had previously been clocked. That kind of improvement, when you're already performing at such a high level, is phenomenal.

Love that 2nd vid of Johnson. I wonder where it came from.

I don't get this, if it is accepted that Bob Feller threw over 100 MPH in the 30's then why couldn't the Big Train do so twenty years earlier? It is not as if there was a huge evolution in training methods in the intervening years.

Anyway according to the Big Train himself no one threw harder then Smokey Joe Wood.

Yes, and Lefty Grove is probably in there somewhere too.

However, I would not take for granted that pitching methods and mechanics didn't advance significantly between, say, 1905 and 1935, which are about the years that Johnson and Feller started playing seriously. The modern game was just emerging during the first four decades of the last century, and I'd be surprised if the optimal methods and techniques just sort of materialized out of nowhere.

[scOtt]

Is there an objectively measurable athletic act that hasn't showed clear improvement over the last 90 years? Even over the last 40? Men and women run faster today than they ever did. They lift greater weight. They swim faster. They throw the javelin and put the shot and throw the discus farther than ever before. Even granting some marginal improvement through improved equipment and faster tracks, it's clear that advances in conditioning, technique, and coaching have made the performances of modern athletes superior to their counterparts of decades ago.

There's no reason to believe that pitching is the exception. Just as Usain Bolt is faster than Bob Hayes ever was, and Hayes was faster than whoever was top dog in 1930, the very fastest of today's pitchers almost certainly throw faster than the very fastest of other eras. I would be astonished if it were otherwise.

BTW the pitch from Chapman that was clocked at 105.1 was apparently 1.3 MPH faster than the fastest he had previously been clocked. That kind of improvement, when you're already performing at such a high level, is phenomenal.

Love that 2nd vid of Johnson. I wonder where it came from.

Yes, and Lefty Grove is probably in there somewhere too.

However, I would not take for granted that pitching methods and mechanics didn't advance significantly between, say, 1905 and 1935, which are about the years that Johnson and Feller started playing seriously. The modern game was just emerging during the first four decades of the last century, and I'd be surprised if the optimal methods and techniques just sort of materialized out of nowhere.

Don't know. It's the first I've seen it. Both "videos" are lifted from restored film by Ken Burns I think. I don't know who is doing the analysis.

[jdmyprez]

I certainly do not envy whoever is the first one to get beaned by that.