It’s not news to anyone that being on the receiving end of a 100-mph fastball is an unpleasant experience, but it’s easy for players and fans alike to forget that this little projectile is in fact a deadly weapon. While the tragic death of Ray Chapman along with decades of bruises and broken bones have spurred hitters to don an array of protective items in the box, our baseball culture does not afford pitchers the same protections. This is despite the fact that batted balls regularly exceed the speeds of the fastest fastballs, and occasionally top 120 mph, which may approach the limits of human reaction times at that distance. Additionally, while hitters are selected for their superhuman eyesight and reaction skills, those attributes are generally less important for pitchers. The issue may be further exacerbated by the increasing emphasis on exit velocities in modern hitting analytics:

That’s a concerning chart. In particular, notice the difference in scales across the panels; while the frequency of batted balls with exit velocities of at least 90 mph has increased by 8.7% in this span, batted balls hit 110+ mph occur a full 41% more often now than they did in 2015! Let’s find out if this trend is putting our already-fragile pitchers at even more risk. Read the rest of this entry »