We Have Our First Freak Athlete of the Little League World Series, Chinese Taipei's Ace Pitcher is Throwing 82 MPH Fastballs
I love the Little League World Series. Playing little league baseball from ages 8-12 (right up until everybody starts taking the game too seriously and coaches expect you to do baseball shit year round) were some of the best times of my life. I also umpired travel baseball for a good 10 years of my life. Which for the record is legitimately the best college job/side-hustle there is. You get paid $40-$50 bucks on the field every game (might be more now). Sometimes you catch a 45-minute run rule and literally make over a dollar a minute. There'd be tournaments where I'd get 12 games in a weekend and leave on Sunday with a $600 envelope of tax-free cash. As long as you understand that you're inevitably going to miss some calls and get yelled at by the occasional asshole, if you know how to talk to people like equals, and don't put on the whole "I'm the big bad umpire in charge" act that just pisses everyone off, it's really not that difficult. And there is always work. Little leagues always need umpires.
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoy watching the Little League World Series every year. It's quick, it's fun, everybody who's watching it is on the same page in the sense of nobody knows any of these kids. When an awesome player or team comes along, it's an equal surprise for everyone. It's just a nice wholesome baseball tournament. "The last gasp of amateurism in this country. Sports at it's purest form." - Rico Bosco
Yesterday, we got our first freak pitcher throwing the baseball WAY too fast for being only 46-feet away from the batter. Lin Chin-Tse of Chinese-Taipei (or Taiwan depending on your Chinese politics). He pitched 3 innings and struck out 9 batters. He topped out at 82 mph (or "107 MLB", as ESPN likes to say).
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He also led off the game with a solo home run.
The funny thing was, Lin Chin-Tse should have struck out 10. A batter reached first base on a passed ball in the 2nd inning. So with 2 outs in the 3rd, Lin Chin-Tse had 9 strikeouts, and 8 recorded outs. That final batter he faced is the batter he hit 82 mph on back-to-back pitches against. Up until then, Lin Chin-Tse hadn't thrown any harder than 78. He didn't need to. But early in that final at bat, Mexico's hitter fouled a couple off. For the first time, someone had kinda timed him up. So Lin Chin-Tse finally decided to really rear back and throw. Had that batter never timed him up, we may have never even seen how hard he could really throw it yesterday.
But credit to that last batter. He was facing pitches 5 mph faster than the rest of his teammates, and he didn't strike out. He hit a hard ground ball to third ricocheted off the 3rd baseman's glove, bounced to the shortstop, and was thrown out at first.
For reference as to how hard 82 mph is for a 12-year old kid, compare him to Danny Almonte. The kid who famously faked his birth certificate and dominated the Little League World Series (a 12u tournament) at 14-years old.
Even Danny Almonte never touched 80 mph. I found one article claiming he hit 79 once, but for the most part his fastball was around 76.
For the record, I don't think Lin Chin-Tse is quite as good as Danny Almonte at 14-years old. After watching back old Danny Almonte highlights, Lin Chine-Tse doesn't have the off-speed stuff that he did. Lin's curveball was good, but I don't think he has this pitch at 28:05 in his bag. If he did, he probably would have struck out that last batter.
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Danny Almonte's fastball was one thing. But that curveball is impossible for a 12-year old to hit. It's kinda absurd people didn't call out Danny Almonte for being old earlier than they did. Just fast forward though some of those at a bats. It's not even a contest. I saw a lot of people on Twitter making jokes about Lin Chin-Tse being older than 12. But after watching him yesterday, and comparing him to that Danny Almonte game… Danny Almonte was a whole different, much, much older animal. Almonte was doing it on raw talent, arm strength, and having already gone through puberty. Lin Chin-Tse just seems like an incredibly technically proficient 12-year old.
But maybe 12-year old Lin Chin-Tse can be just as dominant. I hope he is. It would be cool to see an actual 12-year old (please actually be 12) out pitch 14-year old Danny Almonte. Danny Almonte struck out 62 of the 72 batters he faced. Right now, Lin Chin-Tse has struck out 9 of 12. Only 1 batter has put a ball in play. Also, I gotta see him throw a little bit faster. At least once. From what I can find, the record fastest pitch in Little League World Series history is 83 mph. I think Lin can get to 84.