Pitch Speeds

So, my nerdy side prevailed and I looked into finding out about pitch speeds. To set this up, think of the last Angels game you watched on FSN. Try to forget the fact that the Fizz just put the emphises on the wrong part of the score (i.e. when the Angels were Down 5-0 and they score two runs, Fizz said, "...now it's FIVE to two...) and check your memory of the pitch speed in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Sometimes for Frod's fastballs it'll read 96 MPH! But is that the pitch's "real" speed as it crosses the plate (after Jeter takes a useless swing at it)? Or does it cross the plate at, say, 91 mph? According to MLB.com's Gameday pitch tracker, there are two distinct speeds: The release speed (from the pitchers hand) and the result speed (at home plate, regardless if the ball hit the catcher's glove or the batter made contact). The speed readings are compiled by time/distance video tracking and calculated for every pitch. The results are intriguing and different from what we would see on the radar reading we get on TV. I asked Alan Nathan, who runs a website titled the Physics of Baseball, his take on this. He says the radar reading most likely only measures the speed of the pitch about 1/4 of the way between the release of the ball from the pitcher's hand to home plate. He even goes on to say that the speed indicated on TV is most likely 2-3 mph slower than the release point and ends up being perhaps up to 7 mph slower at home plate compared to the release point. He figures a 10% DECREASE in ball speed from release to "result" (home plate). I tried out his theory and garnered the following results, based on the memory of speeds indicated on Gameday. In my very unscientific test, I got a decrease in release/resulst speed of approximately 5.5 to 6.5%, depending on different release/result speeds used, which I observed.

I guess this conclusion can be derived: Radar readings are an inaccurate way of determining pitch speed. A more accurate measure is video time/distance tracking which effectively measures the rate of speed at home plate, where the batter is.

After all of that, check out this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQrQkgcty0I