Catcher Info?

If those are his actual numbers, he is doing more than just fine.

Best of luck.

BaseballByTheYard.com

That is more than excellent. My 14 YO son has been a catcher for about 4 years and (probably) cannot touch those numbers. And his throw-downs are great for his age/grade.

Terry15,

Those pop times are excellent, but realistic for a very good 14 year old.  The velocities just don’t sound realistic.  My son is a 2015 catcher.  His Perfect Game profile says that the highest velocity of all 2015s they’ve recorded is 84 mph.  Those numbers would be in the upper echelon of pitching velocity for 2016/2017 classes.

If the velocity numbers are accurate, you are probably in for an amazing baseball experience over the next few years.

Congratulations, those are strong numbers.

Our 2015 is now 16 and 1 ratings service had him as fast as 85 mph to 2b in the tag zone last winter (at 15).

The pop times with accuracy are on track for sure for his age

(see another ratings thread - Bum had a good post, #'s jump after sophomore year, our son's dropped quite a bit),

and 87 mph at 14 years old is really fantastic!

Many HS pitchers may never reach 87 with a tailwind, let alone at 14.....

I was thinking the same thing...if the speed is accurate, he will be around 1.9 before you know it, once he speeds up his lower half with faster footwork......if he can hit, make sure he works out at 1st and/or 3rd as well, it will help his footwork and expand his potential value 

Very few humans can throw 85+ from behind the plate.  If he can hit and block then all top schools will want him. 

It's been posted 5 times already...but I'll say it again...the velocity numbers seem out of line for the POP times.  My son threw 2.2 a year ago and his velocity was in the low 70's....though his mechanics are very good.  Velocities in the upper 80's would put him in line with top D1 catchers. 

My son is 1.9 at velocities of 78-80 as a college freshman.  Needless to say he gets rid of the ball very quick, but I agree these velocities look out of line with the pop times unless he is very slow getting rid of the ball. 

Yep, he could have a cannon that just takes a while to load

Are the coaches trying to get him to pitch? With those velocities out of the crouch (and at that age) he may be pushed to pitch.

A C on my son's team threw that fast at 14 and by 15 was throwing 92,

so they moved him to Pitcher

as twotex said, they may ask him to pitch.

How tall is he?

The above player was 6'2 at 14 and 6'4" this spring so with that arm & the height  Pitching is a natural move

(yes, this guy has several top D1 offers).

Speaking of height,

we saw last night on MLB that Joe Mauer is moving to 1b.

 Yeah, just to join the chorus: that velocity has to be wrong. It would be considered very good for a D1 catcher.

I think step "dad" maybe setting his step "son" up for disappointment unless he gets some realistic numbers. 

Age 14?  I'm not buying it.

Mine has been a catcher all through high school.  Varsity starter as a freshman and state champ as a soph.  He's now a senior.  He's 6'3" and his pop times done by people qualified to do them were 1.9 plus or minus a little.  Late this summer after travel season was over, he stepped on the mound for the first time in years.  He was low 90's.  He went to Jupiter a couple of weeks ago and was 93 and pitched very well.  Guess who has probably caught his last game.....   My point in saying all this is if he legitimately has that velocity at his age and especially if he has any size (no I'm not reopening the does size matter threads) then you might want to get him developing on the mound sooner rather than later.

Just out of curiosity, why not continue as a catcher?  My son was throwing 82 in 8th Grade, but loves to catch and has a great bat.   He choose to focus on catching and hitting. He never enjoyed pitching even though he was extremely good at it.  

When your kid gets to be a junior and recruiting really takes off, you will notice that humans consistently throwing 90+ are rare, and the most money and scholarships go to these persons.  If he has other tools, great, but most coaches will try and use his arm strength to pitch.  

What Aleebaba said.  Mine is a very good catcher - Area Code tryout, great travel team, and was getting interest.  Then he took the mound.  The amount of interest and the type of school interested changed dramatically.  I love catchers, and if your kid loves it and is committed then stay at it.  Good catchers are very valuable, just in general terms not AS valuable as pitchers who work in the 90s.  At least that's been my experience.

Interesting topic. My son has played catcher for years and has attended 4 college camp/showcases. He is junior - 16yrd old and he consistenlyt has pop time around 2.0 to 2.05.  He broke 2.0 once - generally between 2.0 and 2.05. However his fastest velocity ever recorded was 72mph(usually around 70) from the catcher position.

I know he works extremely hard on his footwork and quick release but I am thinking if he can get 3-5mph gain on his velocity he will consistenly be under 2.0

When looking at the other catchers he is always toward bottom in velocity but toward the upper quarter in pop time. It is somewhat frustrating to see his arm velocity verse other catchers but he does work hard so I am hoping he will get those extra 3to5 mph.

I guess I should add it seems hard to believe if you can throw 80plus (or even 75) from catcher position that you would not always be under 2.0 pop time.