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MLB Radar Guns Juiced?

Discussion in the Nichi-Bei forum
MLB Radar Guns Juiced?
Old man Takashi Saito's doing exceptionally well. Last night he hit 98, then 99 mph on the radar gun (transates to 157 and 159 kph). That's way faster than anything he's thrown when he was a young lad. There's something fishy about MLB radar guns.

Matsuzaka's got a good heater, but when I watched a game recently, he was hitting 97-98 mph quite often (155-157 kph). I don't think he threw that hard in Japan.
Comments
Re: MLB Radar Guns Juiced?
[ Author: NipponHam11 | Posted: Jun 29, 2007 5:03 AM | SFT Fan ]

National TV games definitely juice the radar guns. If you want a more accurate reading on pitch speeds, then watch local broadcasts. I watch Daisuke Matsuzaka's starts on NESN (New England Sports Network), and Dice-K's fastball is always around 91-95 MPH (146-152 km/h).

There has been a debate about this before, especially last year when Detroit Tigers' reliever Joel Zumaya was throwing over 100 MPH on the Comerica Park scoreboard, but the national radar gun had him throwing 104 MPH.
Re: MLB Radar Guns Juiced?
[ Author: BigManZam | Posted: Jul 1, 2007 10:54 AM | CLM Fan ]

They are definitely juiced. Don't trust the national broadcasts by Fox or ESPN.

As for Saitoh, he's been surprisingly fast in the U.S. I think there's probably a big difference between his arm health when he's starting and when he's relieving. It's really a shame that he didn't get to relieve more than a couple seasons in Japan.
Re: MLB Radar Guns Juiced?
[ Author: Something Lions | Posted: Jul 16, 2007 11:12 PM | SL Fan ]

Hasegawa has mentioned in interviews that the difference in training regimen and pitch count in the States allowed him to gain speed (3-5kph?) on his fastball. He said that the lower pitch count (in practices and games) allowed him to go all out instead of saving his arm, apparently.
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