What makes a good hitter, a good hitter?

Just kidding, Stats. 

       
       
Don't also forget the slower pitches are coming in a steeper angle making contact area smaller.  Timing has to be better.  Sometimes can overwhelm a 12 or 13 yr old hitter but after that the slowballers are done.  And really even at that age most kids still drill the slow throwers.  Don't know what the AMSI is and don't really care.  American Medical Sports Institute?  Good guess?  When they can show me specific data DIRECTLY linking radar guns to arm injuries I will join their crusade.  When I was a kid we threw the ball as hard as we could.  Nothing better than striking out the sides and better if they were swinging.  Then it was the pop of the mitt instead of a radar gun.  We didn't think about injury we just threw as hard as we humanly could.  Why are there so many more surgeries now?  Cause we can!  Maybe Mark the bird fidrych would have been a hall of famer if he played today.  Wally Bunker and countless others you have never heard of cause their arm got hurt and they were never heard from. How do we even know injuries are on the rise?  If a cure for cancer is invented and the number of cures skyrocket does it mean cancer is skyrocketing?  The radar gun is a tool.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I will not leave home without it!

Wile I agree with most everything Doc Andrews has to say, I'm with jolietboy on the radar gun.

 

Does anyone really believe that back in the days before the radar gun kids didnz''t try to throw as hard as they could?  When the scouts came to look at Bob Feller do you think he tried to show off his arm?  Would he somehow have thrown harder if they had a radar gun back then?

 

Someone could say the fascination (or importance) of velocity is an issue.  But the only way a radar gun is going to hurt a pitcher is if you hit him with it.  Other than that it doesn't do anything except measure velocity.  Pitchers will throw hard with it or without it Because velocity is important. The radar gun simply gives information, pitchers can't throw it any harder than what they are capable of.  And since the beginning of time pitchers have been throwing baseballs as hard as they're capable of.

 

that is the way I see it anyway.

 

 

True Story of a good hitter.

In 1978, I was invited by Dick Case, Director of USA Baseball to observe the International Tournament in Ohio. My stop over was Columbus, Ohio to visit Marshall Brant who was playing 1b for Columbus [Triple A].

 

Columbus played Rochester that day and I was told to closely watch the #3 hitter.

His 1st AB, He watched the first pitch inside corner "Strike one", the 2nd pitch a slider on the outside corner - "Strike two" and again the 3rd pitch inside "Strike three".

He never took the bat off his shoulder.

 

The second time AB, he drilled the slider and "handcuffed" the right fielder.

The third time AB, he hit the inside pitch 9 miles over the LF wall.

 

This hitter was "gathering information". His name - CAL RIPKEN.

 

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A HITTER? See the ball.

 

Bob

 

 

I would be a little careful.  Bat speed/exit velocity and quickness are not necessarily directly correlated. 

 

I could have a "long" swing which off the tee creates excellent exit velocity.  But it isn't quick/short enough to hit a good fastball. 

 

 

Originally Posted by Consultant:

…WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A HITTER? See the ball.

 

And here I always thought the word “hitter” in baseball came from actually hitting or at least attempting to hit the ball.