quote:Not to sound rude, but in my opinion, Bustamove is way off. I would think it would be more like..
15 yrs-70
16 yrs-74
17 yrs-77
18 yrs-80
That IS about right... maybe even high This topic comes up all the time. Everyone forgets the huge numbers of awful baseball programs and small rural or private schools. I've seen high 50s in freshmen games and upper 60s in varsity, even at large succesful programs. The upper 60s guy was VERY effective, btw.
Many pitchers are slow, but they tend to pitch less often than the 80+ mph guys. So are you talking about the average top out speed a batter will face, or the top out speed of all the pitchers including those rotting on the bench?
Mid-80s. No way. Most teams we see have NO ONE who can hit 85. And it seems that just about every team has one fairly worthless fastballer who can't throw strikes.
I should add that I've seen some pretty speedy pitchers who show their max speed only a few times in a game, relying instead on movement and deception.