Tanner Houck on state of pitching: 'We’re pretty close to the max of what the human body can do'

The ceiling of what Major League pitchers can do keeps getting pushed upwards, but Tanner Houck thinks they might be running out of real estate.

Most pitchers these days boast either a power fastball that can routinely clock 100 mph or more, or some sort of devastating offspeed pitch. The elite of the elite have a combination of both.

It’s a indicator of all the strides made in pitching over recent decades, especially as data and ways to track pitches become more sophisticated and ubiquitous. But at a certain point, the human body can only accomplish so much.

Houck told Audacy’s Rob Bradford on Baseball Isn’t Boring that we might be nearing that point.

“I think we’re pretty close to the max of what the human body can do,” said the Red Sox hurler, who has a knee-buckling slider and a fastball that sits around 93-94. "I don’t know how much more we can really get out of the human body. In terms of baseball, pitching-wise, you’re definitely not going to add any more velo when guys are throwing 100-105. There’s not much more ceiling I feel like you can get velo-wise.

“Movement-wise, I think we’re reaching the pinnacle as well. You see guys like Greg (Weissert) ripping sliders that are almost 30 horizontal. With the plate only being 17 inches, I’ve posed the question before of how much more do we need on that before you’re moving almost double the plate width. Where do we cap it off with that? But now I think you’re gonna see people throwing sliders that are 20 horizontal at 88, some like MLB The Show-type stuff.”

What exactly the max the human body can do with a baseball remains to be seen, but suffice it to say pitching coaches far and wide are intent on finding it.