Moved thread

[GOINGDEEP]

Pretty impressive pitching. I've hit off a few guys throwing 95/96 in college, but that was from 60' and 20 years ago. At 38 I'd have to just square for the bunt and hope his pitches hit my bat.

 

[Goobie]

Goober, you know that there are not different rules for men's fastpitch. I watched the video as well and there was not a walk.

No biggie! I know there are not different rules for men... I was being sarcastic.

I have watched the video a few times. Ball, Foul (83mph), Ball (81mph), Rise strike on swing, Foul (84mph), Ball.

At 1:56 blue holds up a 3-2 count (here he is correct). 2:02 Foul ball (labeled 'defensive swing). Foul ball so still 3-2 count. Reload the box... then batter steps out of box at 2:20 with a 3-2 count. Then there is a pitch at 2:33 that is inside and goes in the catcher's glove. No move by blue to indicate strike, so it is a ball. No swing by batter, but if it did hit the batter's bat, it went directly to the catcher's glove so it should have been an out. So I got ball 4. (The pitch happened so there has to have been some result!). At 2:44 blue again signals 3-2 count which is directly followed by a strike out.

Again, no biggie. Dropping the subject and moving on!

 

[GOINGDEEP]

You know a lot of folks don't realize that we had these same similar tests and discussions back in college on the "rising" 4 seam fastball in baseball. For years we were told/taught the 4 seam does rise and gravity holds it flat, thus the straight pitch. But it was an optical illusion and a myth.

We had a math major on the team and he did a study for one of his class papers. Wish I had the results to share. What little I can remember ( college life was hard on my brain ) he used the Magnus effect and the engineers campus wind tunnel, along with some math formulas ( way out of my league ) to prove it doesn't rise. The ball is not rising, it's just not falling as fast as the brain perceives it.

 

[CoachFP]

GD, remember that a baseball is thrown downhill and won't rise. A softball is thrown upwards. I believe the two examples aren't comparable. Also the softball is less dense.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

GD, remember that a baseball is thrown downhill and won't rise. A softball is thrown upwards. I believe the two examples aren't comparable. Also the softball is less dense.

How could I forget, I only pitched my whole childhood and college. lol

I know you softball guys don't remember but it was a big topic in the late 80's and early 90's about the backspin on the 4 seam was actually rising the ball. Not a huge amount but enough to spark a controversy. I'm at work so I'm going to post a quick reference that I could pull up from an engineer.

The Rising Fastball — For years batters swore that some pitchers could throw a rising fastball that would "jump" a half foot as it crossed the plate, making it hop over the bat. But this isn't possible, Bahill says. Even the greatest pitchers can't violate the laws of physics. Once a ball is thrown, it follows a smooth trajectory. Physics simply doesn't allow abrupt jumps in that trajectory.

So what's happening? "The batter is using the wrong mental model," Bahill says.

Batters divide a pitch into thirds. The first third is sensory gathering, the second is computing, and the third is swinging. So a pitcher throws several 90-mph fastballs and the batter develops a mental model and reaction to this speed, Bahill says.

Then the pitcher slips in a 95-mph fastball. During the sensory gathering segment of the pitch, the batter doesn't see anything different. He calculates where the 90-mph fastball would go and swings at that spot. But the 95-mph fastball has a flatter trajectory. It doesn't drop quite as much from the pitcher to plate because it's going faster.

"When the batter starts to swing, he takes his eye off the ball to look at the predicted bat-ball collision point," Bahill says. "When the ball comes back into his view, it is higher than his mental model predicted and he sees it 'jump' higher than where he calculated that it would be."

 

[Greenmonsters]

Seems like another "does the rise ball rise?" thread is looming. Has it been the requisite 6 months yet since the last one?