I want to start this by saying, I am not so idiotic as to think I actually would be able to hit a major league pitcher.
But when presented with the “do you think you’d be able to even make contact on 1 out of 100 pitches by a pitcher”, I’d like to understand why.
Like if they did nothing but pitch breaking stuff, couldn’t I just overcorrect? Same deal with fastballs? I’m sure they would mix it up, but out of 100 straight pitches, if you were a major-league pitcher, what would you do to make sure that they never made contact?
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Combination of the variety of pitches they can throw and your reaction time. Take any illusions you have of being able to “adjust your timing” and put those in the trash, it’s not happening. You’ll never see the same pitch twice and if you do you won’t realize it.
Even major league hitters, who have a higher batspeed than the average person, start their step and turning their body before the ball is thrown. The combination of reaction time and muscle memory required to make contact is high enough if you know where the ball is coming. But combine that with a pitcher varying speeds and location, and the average person has no chance.
If you played D1 high school or college baseball you might be able to make contact as you’d be more coordinated than average and have the training required. But MLB pitchers are simply on another level. I remember an old bit from The Man Show where Adam Corolla goes to a minor league game and they let him sit in on batting practice. He makes a big show of strutting into the batters box and spitting and grabbing his crotch or whatever to look like a comedic caricature of a tough guy, then the pitcher fires an easy (for him) 90mph fastball down the middle and you can fully see Corolla break character and jump backwards out of the batters box and yell “HOLY SHIT!” with real fear in his voice.
I also remember the last year I played little league as a kid, I was probably 12 and there was one pitcher who could hit 60mph and it felt IMPOSSIBLE. The day before we played that team our coach took us to a batting cage to practice (because HE, an adult male, couldn’t throw the ball that fast) and we all immediately knew we were completely fucked tomorrow.
If all you did was square up and try to bunt, I bet you’d be able to at least make contact once, because that takes timing out of the equation and now you just gotta position it right (still not easy.)
The first question would be, what is your skill level?
I would say if you played at a competitive level in college or maybe high school, you might have a chance to make contact. If that experience is current or very recent, that contact might even put the ball into fair territory. But for the average person, who has little to no knowledge of swing mechanics, and has not developed the specific hand-eye coordination that plays into precisely timed swings, you have basically no chance.
As for why? Our brains do not work instantaneously. It takes time for something we see to get processed by the brain, and for the brain to send out the signals that make our bodies move. A baseball pitch, even a breaking ball, moves so fast that it is humanly impossible to react to whatever it is doing in the last ~20 feet before it reaches the plate. So to hit one, a batter is trying to judge arm position and speed, ball spin, the pitcher’s tendencies, the count, and several other factors. The pitcher, meanwhile, tries to minimize the differences in arm position in speed, to make it harder to react to the pitch.
Even if you have a decent swing, it would take a bit of practice to catch up to a 70mph pitch. If that came from a pitching machine, and was therefore consistent in speed and position, someone with passable swing mechanics would adjust and probably make contact within 100 pitches. But very few major league pitchers throw anything that slow.
To address the last part of your question: What would a pitcher do to make sure you never made contact? Vary location, speed, and break direction. A good pitcher can add and subtract speed. One fastball will be a bit faster or slower than the previous fastball. A good pitcher will also be able to throw an off speed pitch from the same arm slot as their fastball, with very similar arm speed. It will look like a fastball, until it arrives a bit later than expected. You can try to guess speed and adjust, but they will change speed to keep you guessing. You can try to guess location, but they will spread their pitches around, making it very difficult to guess.
Furthermore, if we are just making pitches, we never have to worry about the count (more balls than strikes), it puts the batter at an advantage. It forces the pitcher to throw strikes, which narrows possible pitch location. The pitcher may have to rely on pitches they can control well, which might make it easier for the batter. In the 100 pitch hypothetical, the pitcher never has to throw anything in the strike zone. He could throw inside, outside, high, in the dirt… pitches that would be called balls. No problem for the pitcher, because he does not need to worry about walking the batter.
So you find yourself in a situation where the pitcher has every advantage. No baserunners, so they can always pitch with a full wind-up. No count, so they never have to pitch over the plate. They will keep you guessing, because pitches are going to move in different ways, and at different speeds. And unless you have a decent swing and an eye dialed in for major league speeds, you’d struggle to catch up to the pitcher’s change-up, let alone the fastball.
That old show sports science did a thing where they determined that hitting a fast ball is THE most difficult action in any sport, don’t remember the details of it but when you factor in the speed it’s moving, the size of the ball, the bat, you having to swing the bat, the millions of variables in where the bat and ball could be at the perfect time for a hit….. 1 in 1000 swings might get a lucky hit lol
It’s not about the speed its about the movement and they all look the same coming out of the pitchers hand. You can overcompensate with a pitching machine throwing 100 and you can hit it. But these are moving different directions every pitch.
I think “Could I hit a ball an MLB pitcher threw?” is different from “Would they be able to strike me out if I got 100 strikes?”
I grew up playing sandlot baseball. We played a LOT, this was before video games. I hit high school, got interested in other things, but still played an occasional sandlot game. No formal coaching. So I’d classify myself as a normal, athletic guy who was very familiar with how to swing a bat. I’d say I was above the average human, maybe in the 65% range. Not as good as a true baseball player, but could have easily made the HS team if I wanted.
Went to college, was friends with most of the baseball team. One day I went out with the pitchers to see if I could hit a few.
No way. And the curve balls were damn frightening with how much they broke. I cannot imagine hitting a professional pitch. I guess statistically one would eventually hit a ball. But I would get too exhausted swinging the bat before one college pitcher got tired of throwing.
I tried a 90 mph batting cage when I was young. I made contact once by starting my swing as the ball was being released. I couldn’t see it coming in and it was pure luck that my bat was in the right place at the right millisecond. So even being a fairly athletic 20 year old I was still too slow.
I can’t imagine trying to hit a pitch from a human who is trying to make me miss. It’s not going to happen.
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