ESPN PRSENTATION ON ncaa softball to MLB game

[SBFAMILY]

Anyone watch this presentation with data presented. I thought it was very interesting since it covered not only hitting, but pitching and fielding with data and times.

1. A NCAA softall player has 20% less time to react to a softball than a MLB player has to a baseball.

2. Fielding a ground ball to shortstop the softball player has 1 sec less to get it to first base.

3. That where a softball player must start her hands in the swing is different based on a MLB player on a mound throw a downward pitch , while a softball pitcher can throw a ball that goes higher in the zone.

The demo's with times were very good. I'm sure I left off many of the things they showed. So if anyone else watch the demo fill in what I left off. I was a little brain dead after watching softball all weekend.

 

[jbooth]

Anyone watch this presentation with data presented. I thought it was very interesting since it covered not only hitting, but pitching and fielding with data and times.

1. A NCAA softall player has 20% less time to react to a softball than a MLB player has to a baseball.

2. Fielding a ground ball to shortstop the softball player has 1 sec less to get it to first base.

3. That where a softball player must start her hands in the swing is different based on a MLB player on a mound throw a downward pitch , while a softball pitcher can throw a ball that goes higher in the zone.

The demo's with times were very good. I'm sure I left off many of the things they showed. So if anyone else watch the demo fill in what I left off. I was a little brain dead after watching softball all weekend.

No doubt, that hitting a high-level fast pitch is difficult, but not all of them throw 70mph which is what the 20% time is based upon.

Softball players have bats that weigh 25% less than a baseball bat. They need to keep their hands up more through the zone.

 

[smddad]

No doubt, that hitting a high-level fast pitch is difficult, but not all of them throw 70mph which is what the 20% time is based upon.

On the reverse side of that coin, not all MLB players throw 95MPH + fastballs. I would say that as you go down in skill level and age, that 20% would remain close to a constant.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

9" ball vs 12" ball. A fastpitch hitter has 33% more area to hit even though the reaction time is 20% less, so they should still have a 13% advantage to put a pitch in play.

 

[SBFAMILY]

espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6592801 I cannot open this at work , but I think this is the presentation for those that didn't watch it and are trying to make comments! If not you can google it by typing
espn softball to baseball differences presentation and it comes up. I had problems with my new laptop trying to cut and paste the site.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

IMO the information in this presentation is misleading and potentially deceitful.

First, the math is wrong.

They state that in FP that a 70mph fastball will travel 37ft and give a reaction time of 0.35 seconds. If you do the math it is 0.36 seconds ... they errorred on the low-end for some reason in running this calculation.

They state that in BB that a 90mph fastball will travel 55ft and give a reaction time of 0.44 seconds. If you do the math it is 0.416 seconds ... they errorred on the high-end for some reason in doing this calculation.

The 20% difference they report drops to a 13% difference if you compute the numbers correctly and don't error differently based on whether you are computing a FP number versus a BB number.

Then there is the question of why one is comparing a "70-mph FP pitch" to a "90-mph BB pitch". A 70-mph FP pitch is one of the faster pitches you'll see, but 90-mph BB pitch is not one of the faster pitches you'll see. If you ran the numbers for a 98-mph BB pitch then the reaction time is 0.38 seconds ... which is roughly the same for a 70-mph FP pitch.

Then there is the fact that a 5-frame swing takes 0.167 seconds regardless of whether one is in a FP or BB game ... but the approach velocity in BB is considerably faster than that of FP.

One could also bring into question the release distance they selected from the rubber. They used 6ft for FP and 5.5ft for BB.

Just seems a bit fishy to me ... almost as if they wished to lean towards a particular conclusion.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Then there is the fact that a 5-frame swing takes 0.167 seconds regardless of whether one is in a FP or BB game ... but the approach velocity in BB is considerably faster than that of FP.

I've always wondered why there is so much focus on reaction time at the expense of 'approach velocity.'

I assume that I could do front toss from 10 feet and provide the same reaction time as a 70 mph fastball from 45, but the challenge to the hitter would not be the same.

Similarly, if a ball shot from a cannon was traveling 140 mph from the center field fence directly into the catcher's mitt, you'd have a fair amount of time to react to it. But I suspect that would be difficult to hit it.

It's hard enough to hit Danielle Lawrie. But it doesn't have to be harder to hit her than a MLB pitcher for me to respect college softball.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Right, I also respect the challenge of hitting a pitcher like Danielle Lawrie ... but it doesn't do the sport much good when those attempting to promote the sport fudge the data and ignore important differences in their comparisons.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Similarly, if a ball shot from a cannon was traveling 140 mph from the center field fence directly into the catcher's mitt, you'd have a fair amount of time to react to it. But I suspect that would be difficult to hit it.

off topic but this reminds me of a quote I heard from Eddie Matthews, hall of fame 3rd baseman for the Braves, "I don't care if you shoot it out of a cannon. If it's straight I'll hit it."

 

[jbooth]

I've always wondered why there is so much focus on reaction time at the expense of 'approach velocity.'

I assume that I could do front toss from 10 feet and provide the same reaction time as a 70 mph fastball from 45, but the challenge to the hitter would not be the same.

Similarly, if a ball shot from a cannon was traveling 140 mph from the center field fence directly into the catcher's mitt, you'd have a fair amount of time to react to it. But I suspect that would be difficult to hit it.

It's hard enough to hit Danielle Lawrie. But it doesn't have to be harder to hit her than a MLB pitcher for me to respect college softball.

I find this discussion interesting. But, I don't know which is harder to hit. A 70 mph softball is about the same as a 98 mph baseball. BOTH are hard to hit. Each gives you the same time from plate to home plate; 0.419 seconds.

But, as you mentioned; the time is not the only factor. The baseball is covering more feet per second. If your swing takes .18 seconds from launch to contact. You have to swing when the baseball is 26 feet from the plate, whereas, you can start your swing when the softball is 18.5 feet from the plate.

This assumes a constant speed, which is not true. The softball started with a lower speed, has more mass, and less kinetic energy, which means it not only starts at a lower speed, but decelerates at a higher rate also. So, it is slowing down more as you swing at it, than a baseball.

The question is; is it harder to read and react to an object moving at a higher feet per second rate, or not?

I don't know for sure; but I think it is harder to hit the object moving at the higher rate. You have to react to 98 and 70 respectively, in the same amount of time, but the baseball is moving faster and is smaller.

I need to calculate the deceleration rate and find how much of time difference that makes.

Meanwhile, here is a link to a javascript I wrote that gives you various numbers and comparisons.

http://firstpickclub.com/speedcalcs.html