It's funny to me how people want to argue this. One only needs to look at stats for the last however many years and look at the rise in pitching velocity and the corresponding drop in batting average. Also, common sense. It takes a certain amount of time to pick up the ball, decided ball or strike, start firing the nerves accordingly and get the bat into the path of the ball, I don't care how much you choke up. And it's not just "catching up" to the FB. If you knew that's all he was going to throw then yes, you could commit earlier, problem is a pitcher is allowed to throw off-speed, which throws a hugh monkey wrench into things.