This all began as a result of I hate dropping. Particularly to Ben Lindbergh.
Simply earlier than the season began, I took half within the annual Successfully Wild preseason predictions sport, by which Meg Rowley, the Bens (Lindbergh and Clemens), and I every made 10 daring predictions in regards to the 2024 marketing campaign. The listeners voted on which of them they thought would come true, and we’d be awarded factors accordingly — the extra outlandish the prediction, the higher the reward if it occurred.
Certainly one of my 10 predictions was that Spencer Strider would strike out 300 batters in 2024. As my predictions go, this one felt fairly conservative. Strider had struck out an absurd (and league-leading) 281 batters in solely 186 2/3 innings final season. I attended Strider’s Opening Day begin by which he debuted a brand new breaking ball and punched out eight Phillies in simply 5 innings. I used to be feeling good.
Then Strider’s elbow began barking in his subsequent begin, and by mid-April it was introduced that he’d want Tommy John surgical procedure and would take no additional half within the 2024 season. Scorekeeper Chris Hanel marked that prediction down as incorrect, and took 42 factors from my rating.
Virtually, he was appropriate to take action. Even at 13.5 Ok/9, Strider would want to throw a minimum of 200 innings to succeed in 300 strikeouts, so lacking even two or three begins would possible render my prediction incorrect. Conventional Tommy John takes a yr to return again from at an absolute minimal, and even the newfangled inside brace surgical procedure would in all probability hold Strider out of motion into the 2025 common season.
However I bristled at dropping a prediction so quickly. In spite of everything, wasn’t it theoretically doable — theoretically — to line up a sport in such an ideal style as to permit a pitcher to strike out 300 batters in a single day?
I imply, virtually, no. Fashionable starters get to double-digit strikeouts pretty routinely, however something greater than about 13 punchouts in a sport remains to be noteworthy sufficient to guide MLB.com the following day. The season excessive throughout MLB this yr is 15, by Blake Snell. Strider’s profession excessive is 16, set in September 2022. There have been solely 16 video games of 19 or extra strikeouts in all of main league historical past, and just one previously 20 years. And honest sufficient. There are solely 27 outs in a sport, proper?
Fallacious. The all-time single-game strikeout document stands at 21, set by Washington Senators righty Tom Cheney in 1962. However he wanted to throw 16 innings to do it.
Bear in mind, a baseball sport can theoretically go on perpetually.
The limiting issue now could be now not the variety of out there outs, however the variety of strikes the hypothetical Strider might throw earlier than he wanted to return below the knife. Cheney’s 21 strikeouts required 63 strikes — 300 strikeouts would require, at minimal, 900 strikes.
Not consecutively, after all, however every pitch comes with a price in fatigue — a price that compounds over time. We don’t have pitch counts courting again to the 1800s or something, however in response to Baseball Reference, the document for many strikes in a serious league sport is 128, shared by Sandy Koufax and Herm Wehmeier. In different phrases, 14% of the way in which is the closest that anyone has made it to throwing 900 strikes in a sport, that was so way back ballplayers had names like “Herm Wehmeier.” The one starter to throw 100 strikes in a sport within the twenty first Century is Randy Johnson.
So probably the greatest and most sturdy starters of all time acquired inside 800 strikes of the objective — a number of instances, in actual fact, however most just lately 22 years in the past. We’re clearly coping with idea right here. So theoretically, what’s the higher restrict pitch depend at sport energy?
“For relievers, it will in all probability be 70, 75 pitches, simply because we haven’t labored that load,” mentioned Phillies righty Orion Kerkering. “However starters, you in all probability get 130, 140 earlier than it’s like, ‘All proper, I’m getting drained.’ ” Kerkering guesses probably the most he’s ever thrown in a sport was about 110 pitches, again in faculty, when he was a beginning pitcher.
Kerkering’s teammate, Tanner Banks, says he threw 151 pitches in a highschool sport as soon as, although his fastball was within the low 80s on the time. “My highschool coach would say this didn’t occur, however I’ve the pitch chart from the sport,” Banks mentioned.
Rangers righty Grant Anderson acquired as much as about 125 pitches in a highschool sport as soon as. “That might be, lifetime-wise, by far the best,” he mentioned. “However now in Texas, they’ve acquired a rule, the place you have got your variety of pitches capped. Like, they’ll’t go previous 80 or one thing like that.”
I saved anticipating to bump right into a pitcher who had some ridiculous 300-pitch outing again in faculty or highschool, however I didn’t notice how far sooner or later we’re. The pitch depend dialogue has been happening so long as guys like Kerkering, Banks, and Anderson have been alive. The actually dangerous pitcher-abuse circumstances in faculty are largely 10 or 15 years previously by this level. Virtually the entire pitchers I talked to have personally thrown 110 or 120 pitches in a sport and determine they might get to someplace round 150 in the event that they completely needed to, however something past that’s science fiction.
“I believe your arm fatigue would simply get fairly extreme,” mentioned Nationals righty Jacob Barnes. “When you begin getting deeper, I believe not solely your arm, however your complete physique fatigues. So even when you’re lobbing it, simply the fixed movement and making an attempt to repeat that will be exhausting.”
To say nothing of the truth that pitchers aren’t merely taught to get the ball over the plate, as a result of a get-me-over pitch continuously finally ends up as a memento.
“The best way the sport’s going with stuff normally, effort must be via the roof, which takes away the command,” mentioned Phillies left-hander Matt Strahm. “You possibly can’t pitch at 91 with slightly little bit of motion anymore. You will get away with 91 when you have got max effort due to the deception it creates… Robert Inventory would all the time inform me in San Diego, ‘You could possibly throw loads tougher, since you throw too many strikes.’ And I all the time giggled at that, as a result of he’s not incorrect, however I’m right here as a result of I throw strikes. So it’s that double-edged sword of which [command or stuff] you need to take.”
I requested Strahm if it’s doable to pitch successfully at diminished effort so as and last more into video games.
“I don’t know. I imply, that is the very best lower than 1% of the world competing on the highest degree each night time,” he mentioned. “I nonetheless don’t purchase it when starters are like, ‘Yeah, I’m saving slightly for the second and third time via.’ I name the BS button proper there. You’re competing, so that you’re in all probability giving as near full effort as you may on each pitch.”
So clearly, with a reside batter, 300 strikeouts in a day is unimaginable. However what if situations had been excellent, and all of the pitcher needed to do was throw the ball over the plate?
This could possibly be completed with an settlement between the 2 groups: The hypothetical Strider’s opponents wouldn’t swing, and his teammates would rating as many or as few runs as essential — zero, until Strider began hitting or strolling batters — to maintain the sport going for a minimum of 100 innings.
How wouldn’t it change issues if the pitcher knew the hitter wasn’t going to swing? If the one problem was to hit the strike zone?
Lobbing the ball to the catcher remains to be a problem. Within the 10 seasons of the Statcast Period, there have been 2,606 tracked eephus pitches in sport motion, of which simply 36.5% have been strikes. And whereas nearly all of these pitches have come from place gamers in mop-up obligation, the actual pitchers hit the zone solely 38.9% of the time themselves. (This season, 49.6% of whole pitches have been within the strike zone.)
Even so, an eephus pitch in a sport remains to be thrown with a hitter in thoughts. If it was a certainty that the hitter wouldn’t swing, what number of strikes might a pitcher throw?
“That’s what I’m going via in my head proper now,” mentioned Giants left-hander Kyle Harrison. “Even lobbing it over, you may miss. So I believe I’d have a couple of walks sprinkled in there.”
However might he nonetheless throw sufficient strikes to strike out 300 batters? Even when it took one thing like 1,100 whole pitches?
“If that’s what it takes, I might do it,” Harrison mentioned. “I’d should get again to my soft-toss days… After I was a child, I threw BP perpetually to my little brother.”
“I’m going to stroll a man each now and again,” mentioned Rockies prospect Brody Brecht. “Hopefully, I can get via a couple of earlier than I try this. I don’t know. I imply, 900 pitches… If you recognize they’re not swinging, I imply, shoot, you may throw it underhand.”
And there’s the second breakthrough: The 900 strikes required to get to 300 strikeouts in a day must be authorized pitches, however they wouldn’t should resemble something like a typical main league fastball.
“I bear in mind coaching within the offseason years in the past, and I’d do a number of pitching classes,” Banks mentioned. “I’d do my throwing, which ended up being 100, possibly 150 throws in a day. Then I’d go and do three or 4 pitching classes that I might catch. So I’d heat up with them, then I’d catch their bullpens — it was possibly 400 throws tops, but it surely was lobs. I believe with a mixture of the entire types of throwing you can get it achieved. It wouldn’t be fairly, and also you’d positively be sore, however I believe you can get it achieved.”
It’s been settled science for many years that a part of what makes pitching so harmful to the physique is the overhand throwing movement. Pitching underhand is much extra pure and fewer traumatic, which is why softball pitchers can rack up monumental pitch counts. Final season, 22 Division I softball pitchers threw 200 or extra innings. The nationwide chief, Florida freshman Keagan Rothrock, appeared in 50 of the Gators’ 69 video games and threw 262 innings. The final large league pitcher to throw that many innings in a season, which is greater than twice as lengthy, was Roy Halladay in 2003.
Now, softball makes use of a much bigger ball, a shorter distance between the rubber and the plate, and a flat pitching circle as an alternative of a mound. It’s, to paraphrase Ted Stryker, a completely totally different form of pitching altogether.
However the pitchers I talked to acquired extra bullish on the thought of a 900-strike day as soon as they thought of throwing underhand as an possibility. I’m skeptical that even skilled baseball gamers might hit the zone reliably throwing underhand, however maybe I’m underestimating their athletic prowess.
Strahm, who mentioned, “My shoulder hurts simply enthusiastic about” throwing 900 pitches at full effort, was completely sure he might full the duty underhand.
“Cornhole’s my shit,” Strahm defined.
The ultimate breakthrough on this puzzle got here courtesy of Mitch White, who’s at the moment pitching within the Brewers’ farm system. White estimated that he had a most of 150 to 180 pitches in him below regular situations, but when he had been allowed to lob the ball up there with out concern of it getting hit, he had a shot on the legendary 300-strikeout day.
“Yeah, I might do it,” White mentioned. “However I really feel like certainly one of our BP throwers would in all probability be higher for it. They’re used to throwing that a lot.”
I felt silly for not having considered that myself. In case you want somebody to strike out 300 batters in six months, Strider is a perfect alternative. However throwing 900 strikes in a single 100-inning sport requires a special form of pitcher.
Batting observe pitchers prepare to not miss bats, however to place the ball within the zone: Reliably, repeatably, and in excessive quantity.
One title instantly sprung to thoughts: Dave Jauss. You won’t know the title, however you’ve positively seen his work.
Jauss, 67, has labored in baseball for greater than 40 years, in a wide range of entrance workplace, teaching, and managerial roles in faculty, the minor and main leagues, and LIDOM. To offer a way of his expertise, I initially miscounted the variety of organizations Jauss has labored for as a result of he’s been with each the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals.
In 2021, Jauss — then the Mets’ bench coach — was Pete Alonso’s pitcher for Alonso’s second House Run Derby title. Having watched Kris Bryant get waxed within the 2015 Derby as his dad struggled to seek out the zone, I’ve lengthy believed that profitable a house run-hitting contest is as a lot an accomplishment for the pitcher as it’s the hitter. Jauss stridently disagreed after I put the proposition to him — generally probably the most completed masters of a craft are probably the most humble — but when there have been a Corridor of Fame for batting observe pitchers, he’d be in it.
“I get guys coming to see me, and so they don’t know I’m throwing,” Jauss mentioned. “They usually see me throw my first pitch and so they say, ‘Oh, that’s Jauss!’ as a result of my throwing mechanics are actually good.”
Jauss is likely one of the pitchers for MLB’s House Run Derby X, a worldwide exhibition tour that includes baseball and softball stars; he’s been throwing for therefore lengthy that he’s acquired it all the way down to a science. By day, Jauss is a particular assistant in Washington’s entrance workplace, however after I reached out to the Nats to arrange this interview, I used to be cautioned that he won’t get again to me immediately, as a result of he was busy throwing batting observe to the Double-A Harrisburg Senators that afternoon.
Not eager to beat across the bush, I got here proper out and requested if a 300-strikeout day was doable, and Jauss instantly mentioned sure, if the hitters weren’t swinging. Actually, he mentioned he’d really thrown a 100-inning sport of kinds earlier in his profession.
“It was a fundraiser after I was teaching in faculty again in 1986 or 1987, and I threw the 100-inning sport for each groups,” Jauss mentioned. The catch: The depend began 1-2 to every batter. “I threw for possibly two hours and quarter-hour. It positively wasn’t 900 pitches. I throw, on a standard BP, in all probability about 10 to 12 pitches a minute. So if that’s 12 per minute, for an hour, that’s 720 pitches.”
At a charge of 1 pitch each 5 seconds, it takes 75 minutes to throw 900 pitches. Accounting for the occasional misfire, and a barely much less grueling tempo — say one pitch each six seconds as an alternative of 5 — that session stretches out to one thing nearer to 90 minutes. Which feels like a whole lot of throwing to me, even at lower than most effort. That’d be an extended session, in response to Jauss, however doable for any skilled batting observe pitcher.
So, by altering the context from an precise sport to a BP session, the 900-strike problem goes from unimaginable to doable in lower than an hour and a half. Form of.
Jauss, like a softball pitcher, doesn’t throw from a serious league mound. He throws from a ramp, behind a display, arrange between 45 and 52 ft from the plate. And he says the explanation he can throw so many pitches, precisely, is as a result of he’s honed his supply for that particular process.
“I don’t should throw 60 ft, 6 inches. I don’t should throw 120 ft from the opening, or 260 ft from proper discipline,” he mentioned. “I all the time take it as a cross-seam [fastball] across the horseshoe and on the laces. I can spin the ball proper, I really feel proper on my fingers, and so these issues actually assist the BP man. Whereas all these different issues, for the pitcher, goes so as to add a complete lot extra stress.”
Jauss talked about that not having to manage the operating sport or discipline their place — no person on the opposite group is swinging, in any case — would assist any pitcher work quicker and longer with out getting drained. However one side of this experiment we will’t change is the literal guidelines of the sport. Jauss may be capable to throw 700 strikes an hour, however he’d solely be capable to throw 9 at a time earlier than he’d have to sit down down and look forward to the opposite half of the inning to play out.
Of the pitchers I talked to, Barnes was most smitten by happening the rabbit gap and making an attempt to think about each think about whether or not a 300-strikeout day was doable. And the inevitability of fatigue-induced mechanical collapse was the factor that gave him critical doubts.
“It might take many of the day, I might say, so as to have the ability to get that many strikes,” Barnes mentioned. “You’ll in all probability should take a pair 10-minute, 15-minute breaks, to attempt to reset and get again on the market.”
Inning breaks would afford the pitcher some relaxation, however not 10 or quarter-hour below the boundaries of this experiment. Typical knowledge says {that a} longer break between pitches permits the pitcher to get better, however inside this context, Jauss thinks slowing down and resting between innings would do extra hurt than good.
“It might mess along with your rhythm,” Jauss mentioned. “Your skill to throw each 5 – 6 seconds is the explanation it really works.”
Jauss introduced up a current House Run Derby X journey to Durham, North Carolina, the place he needed to throw a number of rounds of the competitors at intervals of between one and three hours.
“I acquired up like 4 instances over seven hours,” Jauss mentioned. “I used to be nice throwing the ultimate, however I awoke on Sunday morning and my spouse goes, ‘Hey, pay attention, you actually appear to be you’re 67.’ I felt about 87. However it was the ups and downs and the time in between. So our rhythm is likely one of the issues that basically helps. That further 10 seconds [between pitches] wouldn’t assist.”
Jauss mentioned that if he needed to throw that many pitches from a 60-foot, 6-inch mound, he might do it, “so long as it was a BP.”
However even the pseudo-game scenario this hypothetical calls for comes with variables.
“The mound slope makes it harder in your physique — not your arm, however the physique,” Jauss mentioned. He gleefully recounted watching Kevin Brown throw a 70-pitch bullpen within the basement of Camden Yards throughout a rain delay in lower than 10 minutes with out even respiratory closely, a feat Jauss attributes to Brown’s unbelievable health and conditioning. However as soon as the physique will get drained, the arm follows.
“Regardless that you’re not going to full effort, it’s nonetheless making an attempt to repeat the identical factor continuously all through the sport,” Barnes mentioned. “I believe that will be the place the difficulty is — when your legs begin getting drained. Does your arm catch up? It’d be slightly tougher than lots of people suppose.”
Each pitcher I talked to appeared to a minimum of discover the query amusing, I believe partly as a result of pitchers have a tendency to like nerding about their craft, and partly as a result of everybody likes to ponder a daft hypothetical. However there was additionally an undercurrent of “I wager you may’t do that” inherent within the query, and that raises the aggressive hackles of an athlete and conjures up them to wager that they might throw six weeks’ value of strikes in a day. No one ever ate 50 eggs, and so forth.
“I used to be there in Pittsburgh when Joe Musgrove began the sport with 21 straight strikes,” Jauss mentioned. “Gamers can do greater than they suppose once they don’t should maintain a operating sport, change their movement, change their timing, their supply.”
The one solution to discover out for positive is to strive.
“It’d be attention-grabbing if somebody really would do it,” Barnes mentioned. “I’m curious what route they’d go along with it, like in the event that they’d attempt to do it unexpectedly, or take breaks, and the way profitable they’re at really attending to [900 strikes].”
Maybe he’d prefer to be the one to strive, I instructed.
Barnes laughed and walked off. I suppose I’m not getting these factors again in any case.
