Daddy Gun

I have a stalker and generally gun slower than e.g. a stadium gun. Did you have a good angle compared to the other guns?

quote:

Is this the first time a Daddy gun has read slower than someone else's gun?

Yes. Daddy gun is usually 8-12 mph faster then the stalker gun.

I concur DeeMax, but its more like 12-15 mph. I don't like responding to high school pitching staff velo threads anymore because I have been around the game since I was 6 yrs old and have never seen that many guns at games or practices, but everyone who writes here seems to have one.
A dad told me his son was being recruited by a D1 because of his 89-91 velo. I went to a game to see the kid pitch and I know the coach. I asked the coach about his velo and he answers with, I dunno, I don't have a gun nor have I seen one here at a game yet. As the game rolls around I see a couple of scouts I know and ask one guy if he's clocking the pitcher. He says not this one (player I was there for) but the opposing team has a lefty who could touch 88-89. I ask him to clock the kid throwing. The entire inning the kid throws to 7 hitters, not a good inning, never goes over 83. I asked if he'd check the next inning. I went back to him later and the kid was throwing 80-81. Dad was off in the stands telling people "he hit 90 tonight". Take all readings wth a grain of salt as the kid must pitch effectively and get hitters out for it to matter much. By the way, the kid did pitch naia for one yr out of the pen, then quit as he wasn't going too far. Nice kid, goofy dad.

baseballpapa,
The angles weren't quite as good a month ago but they were not enough off to make that much difference. I also gunned the kids in the pen before they threw a month ago with a good angle and didn't get higher speeds in the pen and in fact got higher speeds in the game. All the readings were with JUGS guns. I just think the guns have a couple mph difference. Our school also gunned these same kids with a JUGS and got a couple mph faster than I did. Who knows, maybe I'm getting the equivalent of a Stalker reading with mine. Maybe that way if he ever gets a chance to showcase I won't be shocked at the velocity they post.

When I saw the velocities the other team was getting for our kids last week I probably should have gone and gotten my gun to compare but my plan was to get velocities during the first game of winter ball and the last game and not take any in between because I don't want the gun to be a distraction.

I guess gunning them can't be all that bad of a thing because the team that was doing the gunning has won a few national championships.

Maybe you need to get your gun calibrated.

I used the gun yesterday while a high 70s type kid was throwing a pen. I had my JUGS side by side with the JUGS from the batting cage. The cage's gun read 2 mph faster on about 2/3 of the pitches. It read 1 mph faster on a few pitches. They read the same on a few pitches and my gun read 2 mph faster once and 1 mph faster once. It looks like my gun does tend to read a bit slower than other JUGS guns. I'll have to find an opportunity to try it side by side with a Stalker sometime.

Daddy Gun usually reads faster the farther you are from a ball park.
At a Christmas Party - 94
One week before tryouts - 88
First week of practice - 83
First game of season - 78

quote:

Originally posted by trojan-skipper:
Daddy Gun usually reads faster the farther you are from a ball park.
At a Christmas Party - 94
One week before tryouts - 88
First week of practice - 83
First game of season - 78

Yep, last night the high 70s kid's dad was doing the gunning. While I was gunning alongside he maxed at 79. After I was done he hit 82 once but never broke 80 otherwise. The kid was throwing for velocity and not coming very close to throwing strikes. This dad is fairly realistic but I'm guessing most dads would be pretty quick to say the kid was throwing 82.

Good one, ts.

I have found the average margin of error in a dad's eyeballing to be 7 mph.

Texan,
I'm guessing that error is all on one side of the distribution.

Our team doesn't have any guns. We use the pitching machine technique. We watch the 55, 60, 70 and 80 MPH cages then eyeball the kids speed during a game.

If the speed isn't where we want it we go to a different facility.

If your son is the real deal the scuttlebutt about velocity becomes less important, even comical. I know what Bum, Jr. throws.. but listen to some of the dads in the league and there's 4-5 guys around that throw harder. At some point you just accept your son's fate. He's slow. Real slow. Just faster than the rest.

The real deal pitcher includes velocity. Parents want to validate their son's ability by using a "real" number and the only “real” number is MPH. The W-L and the number of K's plus other "indicators" are as dependent on the strength of the opposition as the ability of the pitcher so they can be disputed. Not so with the radar gun!
Since parents tend to “fudge” on everything the MPH gets inflated. Not sure how they do it but trust me it gets done.

Fungo

Fungo,
While I agree that velocity is the only real number, there are certainly other factors that come into play that affect the W-L and Ks other than the strength of the competition. Year in year out our kids play against the best competition you can find in HS so that isn't an issue, but movement, control, etc. play a role also. I don't know how hard one of our league's best pitchers throws, he isn't reputed to be a flamethrower relative to the rest of the league, yet he's signed with a very top tier D-1. He is reputed to have outstanding command. He probably "only" throws mid to high 80s. We all know that velocity is important and I think Bum told the story of the college coach who said he ranked velocity #4 because if you didn't already have it you wouldn't be there.

Now excuse me please, I have to go add a couple mph to my claims for my son's velocity since my JUGS reads a bit slower than some other ones. And I didn't hear the part about that meaning it probably reads about the same as a Stalker. Anyone else want some fudge while I'm at it?

quote:

Originally posted by trojan-skipper:
Daddy Gun usually reads faster the farther you are from a ball park.
At a Christmas Party - 94
One week before tryouts - 88
First week of practice - 83
First game of season - 78

HAHAHAHAHAH>>

They got him on a Stalker today, 80-81. About the same as my JUGS has been reading, kind of like I figured. Hate those reality checks. I sure like the numbers from other people's JUGS guns better.

quote:

Originally posted by Coachric:
I concur DeeMax, but its more like 12-15 mph. I don't like responding to high school pitching staff velo threads anymore because I have been around the game since I was 6 yrs old and have never seen that many guns at games or practices, but everyone who writes here seems to have one.

We have a gun going on our HS pitchers' bullpens everyday at practice. However, we use it as a tool for one thing only. We use it to get the difference in velocity between pitches for each pitcher, mainly the difference between the fastball and change-up.

We never tell the kids their velocity. If they ask, all we tell them is their differences in pitches.

I don't own a gun(radar) but every year around this time I borrow one from a friend to track training throws. This past summer my son was in a tourney here in SOCAL. Opposing coach and opposing teams parents had guns. They had a 6 ' 1 tall left throwing hard and straight. Son hit him well and got to pitch the first two innings. I got some nerve up and asked the parent what readings he was getting from the kid. He told me 82-81 in the first inning. I asked if he got a reading from the opposing pitcher, my son, and he replied 79-81. He hit 81 twice in the first and several times in the second. I was baffled since my son is about 5'5 inches and matching the bigger kid. I even asked the coach after the game and he gave me the same answer. I thought it was good to get some readings from a game situation and the son was good too, he even said he didn't feel good pitching that day too.

I have asked my friend for the speedtrac again to ramp up the throw training my son does at this time of year. I will not take a reading until he ramps back up and is able to throw 100 percent again but it will be interesting to see where he is at in terms of velocity. I still will not purchase one because I have also seen kids overthrow and hurt themselves , my son's friend being one of them, for the entire season.

The gun is useful is used right and not used as a competition to see who can throw the hardest. But when it is in the wrong hands there is the possibility that someone may get hurt.

When I mentioned to my son that he had been gunned during his first outing, his response was "I was?". Then after his second outing where he wasn't gunned he asked what they got him at on the gun that day. He's not real aware of anything going on outside the confines of the field.

quote:

Originally posted by Bum:
At some point you just accept your son's fate. He's slow. Real slow. Just faster than the rest.

As a high school coach, truer words have NEVER been spoken. Amen.

quote:

Originally posted by CatchingCoach05:
We never tell the kids their velocity. If they ask, all we tell them is their differences in pitches.

Likewise. We have the gun going to give the difference between their best bolt and their two-seam fastball. The difference between their standard four-seam fastball and their changeup. Etc.

Of course, we use the gun to help gauge a pitcher's fatigue levels during the games as well.