Dadof3 posted:2020dad posted:My son has not showcased and will not until he hits some numbers we have in mind that would make it worth it. He is closing in on the hitting end not so much with pitch velocity. We have yet to try driveline but seriously considering the $400 deal. Given the amount we have spent over the years... I will certainly ask him to throw with his football mouthpiece in - that's free, what is there to lose? In short we are willing to try about anything or at least entertain it. Not mechanically though we have to keep focused on improving mechanics and don't want to keep changing every time some questionable expert suggests something. My son has not been recruited and likely will have to sell himself more than be recruited. Will have to convince some team he will be the good soldier at the end of the bullpen, work hard and be a good teammate. However even that will not be possible without a velocity increase. He pitched in 17 games last year about 13 being starts. He lost only one. The last game of the year when he was completely exhausted from football workouts. He IS that guy many talk about. The guy who doesn't walk people (except when maybe you should), is a student of the game, throws mulitple pitches effectively and gets a lot of ground balls - he is a pitcher not a thrower. You know who cares about all that travel ball success? Him, his coaches, teammates and sometimes me. That's where the list ends. No college coach cares how well he does. We had a total of one guy talk to us last year when he was 14 and its really questionable how legitimate that was. VELOCITY IS KING. Don't ever doubt that. And you can't sit around and wait for it to happen magically. That's all we 2020ish crowd are saying. Nobody is ready to jump off a bridge cause their son doesn't have an early offer. Nobody is wigging out and we sure as heck aren't naive. If you think you can sit around and wait for it to magically happen then you are naive. Hope is not a plan. I would encourage all parents of 8th graders and freshmen to get the kid to work. You are laying the foundation now for the improvements that will get your kid recruited later. Do not be deceived into believing you are some how out of control and should just sit back and wait.
What was his velocity? Aren't there pitchers in the Majors who aren't the fastest but have great movement? I truly don't know the answer to that.
Dadof3 my observations, which should NOT be taken as fact, is that there are some MLB pitchers that hang out around the 88-92mph mark, and they do have deceptive movement, but they once upon a time threw a magic number to get them in the door, and that number isn't 85mph.
There have been many stories on here about two pitchers. One is crafty, lots of movement and can hit his spots, he peaks at 85mph. Another pitcher is fairly wild, not always sure where his pitches will land, but he throws 92. The 92 guy will be drafted higher and more sought after because many coaches have the belief that you can TEACH crafty...you can't TEACH 92.