Keep your kids in a bubble until Jupiter(PG)

Ouch!
Hope he is good to go in Jupiter...

Your son pitched a complete game on saturday, then pitched yesterday and has a painful and swollen leg and you expect him to pitch friday?

No tournament (not even Jupiter), no possible scholarship is ever worth compromising your son's arm.

A few years ago son's teammate got hit with a line drive on the shin, he was out for months. Injuries like this can throw off the entire pitcher's mechanic.

Complete game Saturday, then pitches on three days rest with a scheduled pitching assignment on one days rest afterwards.

You're not allowing your sons arm time to heal between pitching assignments and the cumulative affects could be career threatening. If you'd like him to be successful at the next level, that means taking care of his arm at this level.

I gotta agree with others. Not very good planning for Jupiter. Hopefully he won't show up for school freshman year in a sling,.....or with a new zipper.

How many pitches in the CG? How many in the showcase? I agree with these posters, as impostant as Jupiter is if he hasnt committed yet, you may want to try and push his Jupiter start back to Saturday at the least. We are headed down on 5 days rest ready to throw the cheddar.

First of all, thanks MaddogPA.

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I have always protected his arm to the point of a couple of his LL coaches being annoyed with me. I would show them the age/pitch specific NPA recommendation, and they would tell me it was only a guideline. I'd say it was a guideline I intended for my son to follow. One day I arrived late to one of his games and was not following his pitch count. When the opposing coach(a friend) told me he was already above what he considered appropriate for his players, I almost blew a gasket when I found out how many pitches he had thrown. I went to our coach and privately said shut him down. His attitude was that there was only one more inning and "he was needed because we were winning". I told him our conversation was over and that if he sent him out to the mound I would go on the field and take him off. So I have always watched out for his health.

Now lets get to the specifics of this situation keeping in mind he is going on 18. He pitched a very efficient complete game, though I would have preferred he pitched less since the other two events were on the horizon.
Yesterdays showcase was not like a tournament in that he was only to face 5 batters max. As it turns out he threw very few pitches with one hit(the ball that struck him), two grounders one being a double play, and a fly out. So while he cannot come close to pitching another complete game Friday, he is still within the NPA guideline for total pitches within a week.

The good news is that he is feeling better this morning, but as expected it will hurt for a few more days.
It could have been much worse so I figured I'd give a warning to anyone going to PG that they should be careful their kids don't get hurt in the next two days.

When you fear getting hurt, you get hurt

You cannot play any sport in a bubble !!!

Vector,
If you asked a sample of experienced parents about your sons pitching schedule ( the operative phrase being, "experienced parents", meaning those that have had their sons pitch well beyond HS and have seen the cumulative effects), you will be hard pressed to find many, if any that agree with what seems a rationalization of the events.

Educating yourself about recovery times and the reasons for those, will go a long way to helping preserve Juniors arm. Healing needs to occur between outings. Without it, damage occurs to most players.

so...how did he make out in Jupiter?

I will help "Vector" out here.

First of all his son did not pitch on the first day.

He did start the game on Saturday and I believe he went 3 innings. I don't think he gave up a run.

His velocity was mid 80s and he throws all his pitches for strikes. He definitely showed some talent.

After watching him pitch, I can see why a MLB scout might show more interest than a college recruiter. He is a tall kid, with room to get stronger, and he might easily throw in the 90s later on. He really competes and he looks very young. His best years are ahead of him.

I would imagine the big DIs might look past him. This is based on knowing what they look for. However, with the right fit, things could work out very well for Vector's son.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
I will help "Vector" out here.

First of all his son did not pitch on the first day.

He did start the game on Saturday and I believe he went 3 innings. I don't think he gave up a run.

His velocity was mid 80s and he throws all his pitches for strikes. He definitely showed some talent.

After watching him pitch, I can see why a MLB scout might show more interest than a college recruiter. He is a tall kid, with room to get stronger, and he might easily throw in the 90s later on. He really competes and he looks very young. His best years are ahead of him.

I would imagine the big DIs might look past him. This is based on knowing what they look for. However, with the right fit, things could work out very well for Vector's son.

Thanks for the help "PGStaff" as questions like the one MadDog asked are not easy to answer, and very subjective from a parents point of view.

PM SENT

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MadDog, I plan to start a new thread in the coming week regarding my observations about the PG Jupiter event. It will not be so much about how my son performed, but rather a perspective about the overall experience from a first time parent.
As to my son, I'm glad PGStaff took the time to watch him and comment. To me, it was a case of my son going out and giving his typical performance. Whether that will be enough to interest any scouts is not something I am knowledgeable enough to say. He did have 6k's and did not allow any runs so he shouldn't have hurt himself. If nothing else at least he was seen by X amount of scouts and the folks at PG, so that is all I could ask for.

The bottom line to my son is that he earned a steak dinner from his Dad, so he is happy.

Food, any food, but especially a big juicy steak with potatoes will always be appreciated regardless of the outcome of the performance!

Congrats and good luck going forward!

Vector, congrats to your son for representing himself well.

I look forward to reading about your experience as Jupiter. I have a 2013 so I'm absorbing all I can.

That would be a positive thing to give your perspective of Jupiter as a parent attending teh first time.

With the info that PG provided that your son has room to grow and improve, don't overlook having your son commit to a FL JUCO (will not cost you much) for a chance to get bigger and then in a year, two, turn some heads from the larger D1 programs. In the meantime, keep working hard, attend the PG showcase in Ft Myers for an evaluation.