Objective Tool Grades
| Tool Is Called | Fastball Velo | Batting Avg | Homers | RHH to 1B | LHH to 1B | 60 Yd Run | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 80 | 97 | .320 | 40+ | 4.00 | 3.90 | 6.3 |
| 75 | 96 | .310 | 35-40 | 4.05 | 3.95 | 6.4 | |
| 70 | Plus Plus | 95 | .300 | 30-35 | 4.10 | 4.00 | 6.5 |
| 65 | 94 | .290 | 27-30 | 4.15 | 4.05 | 6.6 | |
| 60 | Plus | 93 | .280 | 23-27 | 4.20 | 4.10 | 6.7 |
| 55 | Above Avg | 92 | .270 | 19-22 | 4.25 | 4.15 | 6.8 |
| 50 | Avg | 90-91 | .260 | 15-18 | 4.30 | 4.20 | 6.9-7.0 |
| 45 | Below Avg | 89 | .250 | 12-15 | 4.35 | 4.25 | 7.1 |
| 40 | 88 | .240 | 8-12 | 4.40 | 4.30 | 7.2 | |
| 35 | 87 | .230 | 5-8 | 4.45 | 4.35 | 7.3 | |
| 30 | 86 | .220 | 3-5 | 4.50 | 4.40 | 7.4 |
And I'm going to disagree about pitching velocity. In my opinion, there is zero chance the average pitching speed for an 8th grader is 75-80, even at the Majors level in a baseball hotbed. We just went through it. 80 is top-end velocity for an 8th grader, particularly for the fall. When you get to next summer, it will start appearing more often (yes, 6 or 8 months can be a huge difference at this age), but it is still not average. The kids we know who touched 84 or 85 in the summer after 8th grade were touching 80-81 in the fall of 8th grade (with most of their fastballs in the upper 70s), and these are super high-end kids. Like, USA National team kids.
The bases were 90, the kid that ran the 4.1 was VERY tiny for 14u and super fast. That is why I mentioned the nothing over 5.0 comment.
As for pitching, RJM nailed it, I am witnessing higher level players. However, as RJM mentioned these are the kids most likely to go onto playing in HS and beyond. Perhaps we should evolve 2 standards. Average baseball player, and highly competitive team average baseball players.
13u Major pitchers are approaching 80, and 14u Major pitchers are expected to be well over 80 by the end of Spring. At my son's high school there were 2 pitchers chosen from the sophomore class this summer to be on the HS team, both sit mid 80's. Pull up the PG tourney records of the 13u or even the 12u tourneys and take a look at the all tournament pitchers...I think you will be surprised by what is actually being thrown.
OK. Just so we're clear, the kid running a 4.1 home-to-first should run about a 6.5 sixty-yard dash. That is the equivalent grade over 60 yards, per the chart. My point was it seems odd to say kids range from 4.1 to 4.5 for home to first, and 7.5 to 8.0 for sixty yards. Those are not in alignment.
In terms of pitching velocity, we're going to have to agree to disagree. But it seemed odd to me that kids in Georgia and Florida throw so much harder than kids in Southern California, so I took your advice and looked up the all-tournament team from last summer for the Perfect Game 13U World Series. A mix of 2020 and 2019 kids -- in other words, kids heading into 8th grade and kids finishing 8th grade. Keep in mind, the velocity shown by PG is the top velocity, not where a kid sits. Here are the top velocities for the first dozen pitchers on the all-tournament team (in alphabetical order; there are way more pitchers than that, but I got tired of looking them up):
(1) 78
(2) 80
(3) 70
(4) 80
(5) 79
(6) 77
(7) 82
(8) 73
(9) 72
(10) 73
(11) 71
(12) 70
Those are kids on the all-tournament team, not "average" Majors pitchers, and those are their top velocities, not where their average fastball is.
To be honest, I don't know what the top PG tournaments are for 13U, so I also looked up the PG Super 25 13U all-tourney team (google had the World Series and Super 25 as the top two results). Here are the top velocities for the first 12 pitchers listed on the all-tournament team (though these were not listed in alphabetical order, this is the order they were in on the PG site):
(1) 73
(2) 74
(3) 75
(4) 68
(5) 72
(6) 73
(7) 75
(8) 74
(9) 75
(10) 78
(11) 65
(12) 70
Of the 24 pitchers listed above, about a third were class of 2019. After doing this digging on the PG all-tournament teams, I am not surprised by what is actually being thrown. If we assume the average fastball is 2 mph below the peak velocity -- which I think is a fair assumption -- I stand by my comment that 80 mph for an 8th grader in the fall is top notch, even for a Majors pitchers.