The Baum Stadium radar gun is reading quite a bit hot in the season opener Friday. Blaine Knight’s first pitch flashed 98 on the scoreboard. He later hit 99. He was consistently putting 95 readouts on the scoreboard.
So I checked with scouts with numerous radar guns behind home plate. As I figured, the gun that reads on the scoreboard is hot. The scouts had Knight’s top pitches at 94. Most were around 90. Some that read 95 on the scoreboard were reading 89 on the scout radar guns.
I’d heard in the fall that the Baum gun was a bit hot. I think new pitching coach Wes Johnson likes it to read hot. He’s about velocity. He wants pitchers to feel good about their velocity and their stuff. Maybe it will fuel their workouts, all designed to improve velocity. I do think all of the pitchers have added some to their velocity, even with scout radar guns.
The Miami starting pitcher was getting 94 readouts on the scoreboard. Scouts said their guns showed 87-88.