In your circle analogy, you are forgetting one important fact. Potential vs kinetic energy. Just because the ball is on a bigger circle does not, in fact, mean if will travel faster. No I am not a physicist, but I certainly took physics in college and have a pretty good grasp of science in general. Like I said before and I will say again, there is a LOT more that goes into throwing hard no matter the position than simple height (levers or whatever you want to say). Throwing is a very complicated action that is an unnatural motion. I really wish Kyle or someone with his background would give their take on this topic.