I am finishing this before Thursday night's USA vs. Canada hockey game. Regardless of the outcome, start your day with the greatest motivational speech in history.
Shall we scroll down? We shall
“Strikeouts are boring. They're fascist. Throw some ground balls – it's more democratic”- Bill “Spaceman” Lee (and Crash Davis)
Hitting (and Throwing) The Ball Hard Is Good For The Game
Baseball is awesome. Throwing 100mph is awesome. Being bigger, faster, and stronger is awesome. Do you know what happens when a pitcher throws 100mph and the batter, who is bigger & stronger than ever before, hits that ball? It exits the bat at over 100mph. It’s science. Baseball players don’t normally do science (labs conflict with practice times) - but this is pretty basic. As the great Dustin Pedroia said, “98 coming in, 102 going out!”
This clickbait made its way around the internet this week and I hate it.
Sure, we’re throwing the ball harder than ever and that means a lot fewer strikes than ever before. Is that bad? Sometimes, but lets remember that pitchers have a significant advantage over hitters at every level of baseball once you get to College.
Irrefutable Facts: We are increasing the average fastball velocity year-over-year while increasing the spin and effectiveness of breaking balls. As a game, throwing FEWER fastballs and MORE breaking balls.
Every hitter on the planet will tell you that they would rather hit a fastball than a breaking ball. Now, imagine having to prepare yourself to hit more breaking balls that move horizontally and/or vertically all while having the pitch you hit best (fastballs) be thrown harder than ever, with less accuracy.
In Summary: Hitting is hard. Pitchers are throwing harder. Hitters are hitting the ball harder.
P.S. For those who say, "In my day, pitchers threw strikes and hitters hit for a high average”, did you know that during the great home run race of 1998 with Sammy Sosa & Mark McGwire, the average fastball was less than 88mph. That is an above-average Division 3 fastball today.
Things to Discuss
Sam Tackett, Virginia Tech
The Hokies’ opening day series against Bucknell featured a broken Center Field camera. Usually, this wouldn’t be a big deal but Sam Tackett hit a 500-foot home run. This is the best camera angle of this gargantuan blast, which is a real shame.
The preseason #11 ranked team in the country was borderline embarrassed with an opening day series loss at home against the Cincinnati Bearcats, the pre-season 10th-best team in the Big 12.
G1: 3-8 (L), G2: 6-5 (12), G3: 5-19 (L)
A nice midweek win against UNC-Wilmington is a nice pick-me-up for Duke after a rough weekend. The schedule favors Duke over the next few weeks with a series against Cornell, Northwestern, and Cal to open the ACC slate but this is not an exciting team to watch so far.
Brian Curley, University of Georgia
It is not every day you see a sub-6-foot pitcher throwing 100mph from a pause. Brian Curley is that man. VCU transfer, who turned down some money from the Pirates last year to head to UGA is taking over the closer duties throwing 97-100mph and….flicking his tongue at runners on 2nd? Sign me up.
Exhibit A - Throwing 100mph from a pause
Exhibit B - This guy is nuts (awesome)
Throwing Strikes is Overrated
Not much to say about the tweet below. Shoutout to the players’ families and girlfriends that endured this 5-hour baseball game.
Week 1 Games to Watch From This Past Week
If you’re not following Wheels on YouTube, you should.
If you’re looking for high quality sports content, then this is the channel for you! I’ve covered Baseball (NCAA, LLWS, MLB), Football (NCAA, NFL), Softball (NCAA), Basketball (NBA, NCAA), Hockey (NHL), and much more! Wheels covers sports in many different ways, which is why this channel stands out. You'll find highlights, breakdowns (voiced by me, Wheels), shorts, and much much more.
Highlights on Wheels to watch going into Week 2
James Madison at #9 Florida State: Jamie Arnold is the best pitcher in the country. It is an absolute masterclass on how to get the season going on your pursuit of becoming the #1 overall pick.
#24 Nebraska vs. #16 Vanderbilt: Nebraska is good. Good for the Big Ten. Vanderbilt is in year 3 of trying to reimagine what the program is. Look across the Top 100 MLB Prospects and you’ll find a ton (6) of Vanderbilt recruits that never made it to campus. Gone are the days of Vandy having top-10 draft picks so this new team approach is based on defense, speed, and athleticism.
Marshall at Hawaii: I normally am not awake during Hawaii home games but the kid couldn’t sleep Friday night so we watched a 2 am EST game. It was arguably the best game I watched all day. Spoiler - everyone loves a walk-off home run
My Daughter’s Favorite Player & Team Update
If you missed my comeback announcement, I made (she was 3 weeks old) my daughter pick her favorite college baseball team by pointing to my phone screen and she picked Preseason #1 Texas A&M.
Texas A&M Record: 3-0
Favorite Player, Gavin Grahovac Stats: .273/.385/.545
