I want to be completely honest with the poster about the number and odds for the "crafty lefty" pitcher in top academic baseball. The very high academic school my son plays for has only one. That player only does late inning mop up work and gets hit very hard. For that matter, we have a 6'3" lefty who throws north of 85 who is a weekend starter and gets hit very hard if his breaking stuff isn't on. So here are the odds at our school. The coaching staff recruits nationally for only 6 "tips" per year to bring to admissions. They start with 1500 names that they think are academically in the ball park. In the four years of my son's involvement they have used only 1 slot for a crafty lefty. Thats one crafty lefty in 6000 names and that kid is used sparingly if at all.
We played Johns Hopkins in this last weekend series. No pitcher, for either team, through less than 83. Every pitcher's fastballs got hit hard. All the kids on both teams had nearly perfect HS academic records. Hopkins has a crafty lefty on their staff who grew up close to here. He plays sparingly. He was All-State in HS and throws smoothly in the low 80s with all kinds of junk. He is a senior at Hopkins and this is the first season where he has had any meaningful work. He is still a bit player on their staff.
I haven't seen an effective crafty lefty at this level all season. Someone in the stands at yesterday's game (we were getting beat by a crafty righty of all things) said that crafty lefties are the "UFO's of college baseball..You here about them but you never see one yourself".
I feel bad when parents get the wrong idea about Centennial Conference and NESCAC baseball. At 15 every kid should just be working on getting better and becoming the best HS player they can be. Test yourself over the summer against the best competition in your age group but understand that there are thousands of kids just like your kid. Thats good news and bad news. The good news is that there are so many kids in the pack that there is a lot you can do to separate yourself. The bad news is obvious. The reality is that this fan hasn't seen an effective high seventies lefty in the three years my son has been playing at this level.