What in the wide world of sports is going on with today’s pitchers in Major League Baseball?! Cardinals pitcher Jordan Hicks throws two pictches in the same game that hit 105mph on the radar gun. Holy Smokes....back in the 90’s when I played I got an at bat against John Burke when we played the Florida Gators while they were #1 in the Nation. Burke, who was a first round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies threw 93-96 in those days and was unanimously considered the hardest thrower in College and certainly had one of the top five fastballs in the Big Leagues as well.
I can assure you that 95mph is very difficult to hit and in the 90’s era a 90-92 MPH as a high school senior was certainly enough to get you drafted. Today TONS of pitchers in high school can throw gas in the low 90’s but the difference between 95 and 105 is a country mile apart! Watching Jordan Hicks highlights is a blur. The guy not only works fast on the bump, his fastball is nitro infused propane! What are the trainers, workouts, supplements and diet doing to increase the speed of a Baseball by light years in the last decade? If pitchers get any better we may see the day where a hitter just can not hit an object coming that fast from 60 feet away. Below is a video of the record speed pitches that were recorded as a new MLB record, watch it and see for yourself. Standing at the plate and seeing 95 is scary. It sounds like a snake hissing when it’s coming at you and when it hits the catchers mitt, the explosion of the the leather can be a little intimidating because you rarely get to see anyone with that kind of arm strength. If you get one thrown at your ear hole, you have no time to make a decision to get out of the way.
The fact that his fastball is 105 and his sinker is +103 makes Jordan Hicks absolutely lethal to have on your team. His tendency to be a little wild makes him even more dangerous because hitters can not really dig into the batters box for fear of loosing all their feelings....literally.