Educate Me - Projectable

Just an example. We had a kid 6'4 170 topping out at 88 and another kid 5'10 155 touching 90. The kid who is 6'4 has much more upside or more room to improve as does the 5'10 kid who has probably hit close to his max velocity. Projectabilty is when in a few years and 25 lbs later that skinny 6'4 kid is now throwing 94 and the other kid is still at 90. Is just another term for an educated guess for the future.

Coach...How do you lose any games, when, in a high school program, you have two pitchers in the 88-90 range?

Our high school programs are very competitive with a student population, now, nearing 3700 students. Top velocity was likely from a middle infielder who pitched on occasion, and he was only 84-86 tops.

what's the difference between "Topping out" and "Touching?"

They lose games because it is elite summer baseball and he has to play against other teams with the same make-up.

Top Tier, Cangelosi, Blazers, Sox 18U -- don't they all have at least 2 guys on their staff that can dial it up into the upper 80's?

FB dad, They are the same , he probably did not want to use the same word twice in the same sentence.lol..

SI we may have faced the little guy and he was very impressive. And yes he was touching 90.

And Ratby , you would be correct, each SI , Blazers, Orioles, WSOX, TT, Sparks, there are at least a couple. And in some cases like SI says a couple in the the low 90's.
Get used to 90 because you will start to see it often at the top levels. But throwing 90 and Pitching are very far apart.

quote:

Originally posted by FastballDad:
what's the difference between "Topping out" and "Touching?"

Nothing really. Like deuce said I just don't like to be monontonous. We are a summer program not a HS program. Most of those guys will pitch at 3-5 mph lower during a game than their max. The more projectable kid I was speaking of was Broadway who could pitch at 90. The little guy deuce has actually gained a few mph. Bryant is a freak of nature. He played football as a kicker and has kicked 60 yard fg's in practice. The velocity comes from that tremendous leg strength and hip explosion and his arm finally caught up here in the past year.

SIBullets:

Love to hear those testimonials about those little freaks of nature that never are described as projectible, but nonetheless get the job done...as duecedoc witnessed!

Give that kid a pat on the back for me. Thanks.

I second what deucedoc says, especially since I am the parent of a 5'10" pitcher who "sits" at 85-86 and "touches" 88-89. One thing projectibility doesn't test is the size of a kid's heart...if he can get outs, size doesn't matter. Let's hear it for Cliff Politte, Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner...three guys who would not have been "projectible".

I'm not a big fan of the term but that is the place we are in as far as scouting is concerned. Give me a hard nosed little bulldog who can pitch and I'll take him over Mr. Projectability everyday of the week.

Deuce,
I checked the box score and you were actually facing one of our "projectable" guys that day.
SI

Right now my nephew is considered projectable, so I kinda like the term. LOL

I'll give you that one CentralIL...better to be projectible than rejectible.