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To maintain a .950 fielding percentage, you bet your ass you're going to have make hard throws regularly. Not just occasionally.
60 mph at 13On to your other point. Are you saying I can't hit 80 mph? I honestly don't know. I know I was clocked in the mid 60s at a Missions game booth when I was like 13 or so. I'm not sure how much stronger my arm has gotten now that I'm a grown ass . If I can hit 80 I can make those throws though. It's really not a small pocket. First baseman are huge and it's not rare to see them stretch out on a throw or scoop a ball off a bounce. Again, you're over exaggerating the difficulty of it.
Kids with good arms can throw 60 at 10 and 11 years old. I was throwing 55mph at 10. And my arm is just average-to-below average.
No. You ain't throwing 80mph straight off the couch. You're underestimating the difficulty of it because you never played beyond maybe T-ball and at a recess.
Yeah, those specialist positions that you and the soccer crew keep referencing as if they're an example of the average baseball player. That's like me posting a bunch of pictures of centers and offensive guards from the NFL and saying, "See. Football isn't really that athletically demanding since MORBIDLY obese non-athletes (centers and o-guards aren't "athletic fatties" like defensive lineman) and slow, skinnyfat 40 year olds with bad knees and backs can be MVP candidates (Peyton Manning).Fatball is less dependent on athleticism than any other major sport, In no other sport will you ever see 40 year old, obese men be above average players like you do in fatball:
Fact: Average vertical leap of MLB player - 28" (same as the average NBA vertical).
Fact: Average 60 yard dash of MLB player - 6.8" (which translates into a 4.6 40 using strict math. Factor in acceleration from 40 yards to 60 yards, and it's a safe estimate that the average 40 time for an MLB player is in the 4.7-4.8 range). Even those "fatties" you keep referencing like Ortiz and Colon can gear up to 16mph over 90 feet. Fat=/=unathletic, which you should realize being a fan of the fattest sport in the world: Fooobaw.
The tactical battles don't play out on the field as much as they do between the pitcher and batter. If it's so simple, Pepsi Challenge. Tell me how you to pitch to Trout from that clip. Tell me what complementary players you surround him with in the lineup? Tell me if you should shift on him? If so. Tell me where you should shift on him?I don't think simple acts like hitting, tackling, or shooting are considered tactics. That'd be like considering the simple act of shooting a gun a military tactic. The double switch, pitcher/batter match-ups, shifting a defense are more related to tactics imo. All of which are ridiculously simple and made even easier by the fact that fatball is such a static sport btw.
"What's that prove?"
It proves strategy/tactics in baseball aren't obviously simple like you claim, and in order to figure out Trout and other players, a great deal of study and research about them needs to be done. They just are figuring out Trout's weaknesses after 4 years.
Because you never played, so of course you would think that. Baseball players also have the greatest core strength out of any ball sport athlete, generating 2300+ watts of power on average during a swing (2.5x of the average male). A pitcher's arm joint?My main issue with fatball is that the game itself is not physically demanding at all. That should be a requirement to be called a sport imo. It's the same reason why I have a problem with people calling golf, where fat asses roam as well, a sport. I know there's some great athletes in MLF but how often do they use those physical gifts? On average, they get 4 at bats and field maybe what 4-5 plays a game? The rest of the time they're sitting in the dugout eating sunflower seeds or standing around on defense. In futbol, even during a 0-0 tie, you can see a player's elite speed, dribbling, touch, defense, etc all the time. The same goes for any other real sport.
Average vert? We know it's 28"."Shoulder rotation in baseball pitching is the fastest motion of any joint in any athlete," Fleisig says; moving faster than hip joints in sprinters or shoulders in elite tennis players.
Average sprint speed per statcast? 19.5mph, a faster speed than Robben ran during his famous World Cup sprint.
Yeah, training those athletic traits up isn't demanding at all
"But the fatties"
An NFL roster is half morbidly obese. Your point? The fatty/shredded ratio in baseball is probably 15%/85%. More baseball players look like Bryce Harper than Prince Fielder. And they always have.
And why do you need constant "running and jumping" to be engaged? Aren't there enough sports to give you that fix? Never mind the fact you get to see 300 world class athletic events just from the pitchers alone when they're throwing a baseball over 95 mph spinning at 2000-2800 rpms and nasty junk like 90 mph sliders and curves with 3 foot breaks. "They're not dunking, doe
You also mention that players only get a few chances to shine during a game. Well, that's one of the sport's intrigues. We already have enough sports in which players get a dozen or more chances to produce. QB will throw 30-40 passes per game. RB gets 20 rushing attempts. Wide Receiver gets 10 to 15 throws his way. O line gets a 100 snaps, so a missed block or hold isn't necessarily killer. Soccer might see limited shot chances, but players will get 50-100 touches per game, so there's still a lot of opportunity to perform in a non-scoring fashion (controlling possession, clearances, etc). Pitcher aside, in Baseball you just get your 4 or 5 chances at the plate and sometimes only 1 or 2 chances to make a play, so you better make those chances in' count. There's no, "He's 0-5 right now, he'll heat up eventually. Just needs to see a shot go in or see a pass be completed."
More facts to consider for the shortstop challenge:
Average home-to-first times:Scouts grade arms visually; in general, radar guns are not used to measure arm strength in the infield or outfield. But if you do not have a radar gun, average-grade velocities throwing from shortstop to first usually around 85 mph and higher.
So let's put the average on the high side at 4.50 seconds. The slowest player in the league averages under 5 seconds. Ball will take about 1.50 seconds to reach you at shortstop on average, average transfer time (moving ball from glove to throwing hand) is about .70 seconds. To set, aim and throw takes about 1.00 second. So we have a total time of 3.2 seconds before the ball leaves your hand. A ball thrown 75 mph moves at 110 feet per second. 4.2 seconds for the total play. The best home-to-first runners get there in under 4 seconds.
Can you throw out some of the slower baserunners with 65mph ducks? Sure. (I doubt that you could, without a couple of months of daily practice, throw 65mph reasonably accurate from 110 feet, though). But, as you said, "I could make those throws," means you have to consistently make the many different kinds of throws MLB shortstops are required to make, from side arm 65 mph ducks to throw out jogging baserunners to 85-90mph bullets to throw out the speedsters (and despite your fatball and Bartolo Colon memes, an average lineup these days has guys that can all move).
Whenever you're ready to fire up the smartphone. And it has to be 100 throws, filmed continuously, no edits. Not trying to rig the challenge, but anyone can get lucky over 10 chances. I hit 7/10 threes yesterday during a streak, but my overall average out of 100 is 41%.
100 throws should only take about 10 minutes, maybe less. And it shouldn't tire or wear you out, since baseball is not athletically demanding
Note: I'll do 10 throws tomorrow or the next, filmed, to show you how hard to do it without hours of practice actually is. Take me on the honor system. I'll try my best and won't sandbag just to prove "hurr, see baseball is hard."
