TideFanRTR posted:We have a 2022 kid (5'7" & 175 lbs) and are looking for advise. He is a RHP and his top FB velocity last summer was 79. He is part of a competitive travel team and participated in five PG tournaments summer/fall and made the All-Tournament Teams in four of the five for pitching and all five for hitting. (The one he missed for pitching was due to an injury where he did not pitch. ) I understand the All-Tournament Teams is not a big deal but mention it as back ground information. He also catches and we have been told his catching skills are high and might be his ticket to a mid D-1 school.
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I appreciate the knowledge on this board and would welcome some guidance.
TideFan, thanks for the post...thank you to all who post here. I have been a lurker for a couple of months now and this is post #1.
I have a 2022 who was a catcher/pitcher combo until the end of the spring season this year. I agree with the majority of advice/info given thus far on this thread but do want to post a warning or caution for you and your son to consider. My son was similar to yours from a velo standpoint with him touching 78 this last spring on the mound while catching a lot of games for his HS team. He only threw a couple of innings in games in the spring (we play spring/summer/fall here in MN) but caught 18/21 games for his HS team. I would have considered him a catcher/pitcher rather than a pitcher/catcher as his HS team needed him as the starting catcher more than as a pitcher. We threw bullpens on Sunday's during the HS season in order to be more prepared for summer club team where he would be called upon to pitch more innings while splitting catching duties.
The back of his shoulder started to bug him late in the HS season about mid way thru his Sunday bullpens. We would throw till the shoulder bugged him and then shut it down. Usually it was about after warm up and 20 or so pitches into the pen.
Long story much shorter it finally started hurting more and much sooner when he was just throwing rather than pitching. We went to the orthopedic doc to have him checked out and found out that the combination of pitching/catching was exposing some weakness in the muscles around his rotator cuff. No internal damage but the combination of his throwing 2x as much and in different ways made that weakness apparent in pain. My kid is a nice combo of big/strong/flexible (6'3" 180) which is great everywhere but for those muscles in his right shoulder. The solution from the orthopedic Doc and the Doc of PT was shut it down for 10 weeks and do shoulder strengthening every day until muscles back where they need to be and then start throwing again. DH'd all summer (what a learning experience that was on many levels) and then was able to start throwing again in late August and then played some OF this fall. Gonna ramp up catching again this winter.
Beware the combination of Pitching and Catching. Both of our docs (they are both THE people to see for arm/shoulder injuries here in MN) warned us of that combo going forward. They said the only combo that is worse for arm and shoulder injuries is SS/Pitching. My son has decided to be a Catcher/other going forward (he hits the ball well) for the rest of his HS career and beyond as he likes catching more than pitching and both he and his club coach think that is the best strategy going forward. He can most likely change to a pitcher only or pitcher/other in the future if catching does not work out.
I wish your son nothing but the best going forward but just wanted to let you know a little about what we went thru this summer. Hoping that it does not happen to him or another reading here in the future and for sure later in his recruiting window.