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[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

Ryan was a hard thrower with amazing durability but his fastest pitch ever was 100.9 and he did that at the age of 27, not as a college kid. He also wasn't regularly hitting 100+ like Strasburg was last year. The real question will be whether the kid can drop back to 97-98 and be as effective. So far in the minors it has been no problem but if he has to rely on a 103 mph fastball to do well in the big leagues his shelf life will be short as a starting pitcher.

How do you know what his fastest pitch ever was? There was no public radar readings in the late 60/early 70's when Ryan started. Your inference that somehow Ryan was not throwing that fast when he was Strausburgs age is faulty. Ryan had already pitched over 200 major league innings at the same age that SS is going to debut at as well. There is zero evidence that throwing a baseball a certain mph causes injuries. In fact the fastball is generally considered to be the kindest and most straight forward pitch a player can throw.

I'm not sure why you think that Nolan Ryan wasnt regularly throwing as fast as SS. As for SS, he doesnt rely on throwing the ball over 100 mph. I'm not sure where you got that impression. The guy throws very hard but lives in the 95-98 range with very good breaking balls, a hard slider and slurve. He has even mixed in a little changeup though it may not be ready for too much MLB exposure.