Last HS season, my son was a freshman. Before the season started he was taking pitching lessons. His pitching coach is the pitching coach for the AA Red Sox team. One of our last sessions I was talking to him about the upcoming tryouts. I told him that I hoped my son was able to pitch some varsity during the year in order to challenge him where he would actually have to pitch and not just chuck fastballs. He told me a couple of things. One was that he thought the coaches were stupid if they didn't put him on the varsity team (ringing endorsement for son's skills). The other thing he said was that he hoped he did make varsity and that he got rocked - at least once.
When I asked him why, he said one of the biggest things they have to deal with at the MiLB level is that so many of their pitchers have been dominant their whole life. He said at that level, every pitcher will get rocked at some time. Because of their previous dominance, many of them have a hard time coming back from that bad outing. Mentally, their confidence is shaken and it is often very hard to for them to come back.
Well, son did make varsity and did well overall. There was one game in particular that was, I think, what his pitching coach was looking for. He had beaten this team earlier in the year, but threw way too many fastballs this time around. He got rocked for like 8 or 9 runs in 3+ innings. After the game I talked to him about it and told him he could either look at this game and figure out what he did wrong and improve on it, or just think that he stinks and give up. His response was "I stunk tonight".
Next game, he threw a complete game, 7 innings, 67 pitches, 2 hits, 1 unearned run and won the game 3-1. Pretty good recovery.
The experiences our kids face in baseball and life will only serve to make them better in the long run. My son believes in himself and believed that he could come back next time and do a better job. He did.
The worse thing that can happen is that someone loses their confidence following one of these "failures". If they begin to believe that they are a failure because of failing at a particular task, that is trouble. If they realize that they are not a failure, but simply failed at that particular task they were undertaking - be it pitching, hitting, fielding, taking a test, whatever - they will be able to overcome and be successful.