bballman--your son and mine share the same 17 year-old DNA. Are you sure we're not related??
Bballman and Justbball: you guys obviously know what you are talking about! Thanks!
My son's travel team has an institutional pitch: the knuckle-change-up, which is taught starting with 12u. They forbid any breaking balls before a kid hits 16 years-old. After a year and a half of practicing it, it all of a sudden worked for my son and it was absolutely devastating. He could throw it hard or relatively slow and it would just fall off the table. In fact, 2 years ago in his Babe Ruth league--which forbids curveballs--more than one opposing coach stopped the game to complain that my son was throwing a curveball. My son would proudly walk over to the coach and home-plate ump and show them his grip. End of story.
But now that he is 17 and consistently hitting high 80s with his fastball and throwing a wicked slider, he has abandoned the knuckle-change and added a split-change to his repertoire.(He argues that the knuckle-change and the slider are redundant.) Both change-ups are great. But I think he doesn't throw them enough.
"They can't catch up to my fastball, why should I thow the change?" indeed!