LIke I said before, I envy stories from pitchers throwing heat because I can’t. I can’t intimidate a batter with a pinpoint fastball on the inside corner as effectively as a 99-mile per hour fastball does just leaving the hand.

I don’t think any less of my abilities, of my many ways to get batters out, because at the end of the day, that’s all we’re trying to do and doing it in different ways and means.

My means are what they are and for a guy like Justin, it’s the natural 99-mile fastball that flows from his hand without effort.

It’s not something you can develop. You can’t commit to a workout routine that will allow you to generate that arm speed and the ability to harness and spot it.

If that was possible, everyone would throw 99 miles an hour.

I will admit, it does seem like every pitcher that comes up today is throwing nothing but heat. But that’s because it’s not just about how hard you can throw it.

Four pitches at 105 are pointless if they’re not over the plate.

And that’s not taking into account the guy standing 60 and 6 away. He’s likely been training to deal with your 99 and likely has turned on a couple of those pitches.

That’s why he’s playing in the Bigs.

But when a guy isn’t Big League quality facing that kind of heat, you get situations like Justin ran into in Ogden.