Long past are the days of being recruited because you “just throw strikes” (this alone has never got you to the next level) and recruiting has become much more based on computer metrics than watching you live in-game. This switch to a much more metric driven process, as baseball is a pseudo individual game of the batter v the pitcher, in which your stats can be placed into a vacuum has left kids worried/obsessed about their numbers and rightfully so. New technology and things we can measure has left college/pro teams desiring high exit velo, pitching velo, spin rates etc, elite traits that stand out on paper.
When I was a PT in pro-baseball, I remember a minor league lefty reliever who was in the low 90s, saying if I can’t get up to 95, I don’t have a chance to get called up. The average MLB fastball is up 2mph since 2008 and with pitchers continuing to push the boundaries, I expect that to continue to rise.
At this point, we know, you’ve got to throw with some velocity if your goal is to pitch at a D1 program which generally requires some “risks” in your training unless you’re some of the select few natural throwers. I put “risks” in quotations, as every mph increase in velocity with worth .0104Nm of torque on the elbow joint. We’ve seen in numerous other studies over the past decade that throwing speed is one of the largest risk factors to injury to pitchers, and possibly one of the reasons for the rise in pitching injuries but that discussion is much more complicated. This idea gets even more complex when you figure out that torque at the specific joint isn’t uniform, ie if Player A and B both throw 90, the amount of torque is going to be different based on mechanics but if both players have increased their throwing velocity from 85 to 90, the relative torque will have increased in both cases. Mechanics can help to throw harder, move more efficiently, decrease potential stress but they only matter so much, being perfect with your mechanics and throwing 82 mph, doesn’t get you very far.
Now gaining velocity also requires taking some risks, like throwing more consistently at high intent, always trying to push the boundary. This is where the idea of using pull downs or weighted balls came into play, as they both can be used to manipulate speed. Underweight balls allow you to easily increase arm speed in hopes of teaching the arm to move faster with a 5oz ball, pull downs are similar, they give you a running start to teach the body to move faster to allow the body to self organize to throw harder off the mound. It’s not weighted balls that increase your injury rate, it's pushing the capacity of what your body comfortably tolerates where injuries occur.
Yes, throwing hard increases your risk of getting injured, but throwing slow also increases your chance of never playing the game again. It’s ultimately a risk/reward discussion that most players tend to side with, chasing their future in the game. Unfortunately, the rise in velocity has also been accompanied by a rise in injury rates across all levels of baseball pitchers, injuries across most sports are down but baseball rates are up 8.6%. Athletes get hurt in all sports, there’s no perfect solution to reducing all injuries but we’ll have to be better because the velocity craze is not going to stop any time soon.
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