Talk:Jonathan Broxton

big pitchers

In terms of weight, and body mass index, is he on the the few top leaders with a huge BMI. The other being CC Sabathia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.230.3.250 (talk) 17:51, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Quantifying the "slider": A pitch known as a "slider" in baseball is a slight misnomer. It's named after a slide at a park, where you slide down it and hit the upward "swale" at the end. The baseball pitch does the reverse at the end, dropping down below a swinging bat if the batter tries to hit the pitch. When a pitch in baseball is thrown by a pitcher, it is released at or above the shoulder. In addition, the mound elevates that release point. To make up for this, the pitcher must throw the ball at a downward projection so as not to be "high", above the strike zone. There are generally two types of sliders: the sliding fastball ("hard" slider) and the sliding curve. which has been nicknamed a "Slurve". The hard slider is thrown similar to a fastball, but has a late downward "break". A hard slider that breaks down at the very last moment is known as an "exploding" or "nasty" slider. The sliding curveball is thrown as hard as a fastball, but, again, the "break" or movement of the pitch comes late in the pitch and it moves like a curveball as well as downward. Some baseball observers called the slider "the pitch of the 70's" because many pitchers threw many of them in the 1970's in major league baseball. However, throwing too many sliders started leading to a condition known as "slider elbow". Starting in the 1980's, the slider was de-emphasized by pitching coaches. Many pitchers who are "hard throwers" these days throw sliders, but not nearly as many as their predecessors in the 1970's. Broxton's slider is above average, but he relies more on his fastball to get hitters out. Broxton's teammate with the Cincinnati Reds, Aroldis Chapman, is believed to have the hardest slider in major league baseball today, with his sliders ranging in speed from 88 to 93 miles per hour. Chapman threw what was believed to be the fastest pitch in baseball history two seasons ago in San Diego, 105 miles per hour, and regularly throws fastballs that range from 97-102 MPH. He uses his slider as a kind of a "changeup" pitch.76.105.145.42 (talk)