8 Dozen MPH Vortex
Believe it or not, it doesn't take more than three pitches to become an effective major league pitcher. Anyone that thinks every young MLB pitcher commands a five pitch arsenal is looking for Tommy John surgery. There is one statement that accurately describes an exploding fastball which cannot be predicted; most go STRAIGHT, some tail away and some tail downward, and there are some of them that TAIL UP and some that tail INTO a hitter.
I would look at some of the bean ball footage of players who lean away from the pitch. Most are damn glad to see that ball RISING over them, instead of sinking into their shoulder. There are plenty of major league hitters that knew what John Rocker was bringing ot the table; low heat, more heat and high heat. There are many more who cleverly made careers off a very good fastballs. To say that one of those four-seam gripped pitches did not climb the ladder or RISE to the top occasionally is absolutely ridiculous.
There isn't one of you that can imagine the airflow around a 96 mph fastball that doesn't allow the same "knuckle" motion on its way to the plate. By the way, surface drag and gravitational influences decrease remarkably above 75 mph. Above 90 mph, objects tend to take on characteristics of FLIGHT. To categorical state that 100 mph objects cannot RISE in FLIGHT is simply ludicrous. Please, it is time you update your physics books.
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