Whats average speed for a 14-15yr old?

14 yo average cruising speed would be about 65 mph. Average freshman pitcher (14 to 15yo) cruising speed would be about 70 mph. Average cruising speed for a good HS pitching prospect at 14 to 15 yo would be about 75 mph. That will usually get a freshman pitcher onto the JV assuming reasonable pitching ability to go along with the velocity. Cruising at 80 mph as a freshman would be a potential star. Cruising at 85 mph as a freshman is maybe one in the entire country each year.

Thats what I was thinking, but my new Highschool next year only has a varsity team That I know of... I pitch around 60-70, And Im going to tryout and Not sure if pitching would be a option or should I try to take another field position? Im going to Clearwater Highschool in pinellas county, anyone heard of its baseball team and know if it has a jv and varsity team?thanks, very appreciated-
Will G.

Those numbers sound a bit low for our area. I am in KY and I would estimate the average freshman to be cruising in the 70-75 range. There are many that throw in the 80-85 range. I don't think I have seen any above that yet though.

agentdad...no offense, but have you used a gun? 80-85 for many freshman is WAY above the norm. 70-75 sounds closer, but still a little high for avaerage.

In our neck of the woods 63-68 is the average for a decent freshman pitcher on a freshman team. Fast is anything over 70. My experience is that everybodies much faster early in the year until I turn the gun on them. The really fast pitchers "estimated" in the 80's never seem to be able to get it done when the gun is around.

I think the two freshman pitchers I know about at our HS are cruising 69 or 70 and low 70s. I don't know what the 6' 170 lb 14yo pitching for the varsity throws. I believe TO HS has a freshman throwing 87 max according to one of the showcase firms, but he's 16yo and most likely on the varsity or the JV.

Of course Stock was throwing mid to high 80s last year as a 14yo freshman throwing for the varsity. I don't think our area is typical and I stand by my earlier estimates and if anything would drop them toward DG's numbers. I expect mine to be cruising about 68 or 69 as a freshman and am hoping for 70 to 72. He throws 67 and 68 when trying to throw hard so I'd put him as cruising at 63-64 for now. I also have a young 14yo on my Pony team who is cruising about 68-72 now so I figure he'll be low to mid 70s as a freshman.

CADad has some good points. Ages of Freshman can vary from 14-16 years old and at that age that can be a very big difference physically and potentially speed. I would also agree that some kids cruise at one speed and then pump it up 3-5 MPH occassionally. Other kids are comfortable cruising at their maximum.

I gun every pitcher I see at HS games and I see a lot....almost 50 games already this year.
Trust me when I say this: there are many more HS pitchers in the 70s than there are in the mid 80s.
My son is in the 8th grade and turned 14 2 weeks ago. He sits in the 74-76 range comfortably and that is way above average at 14U. We have 2 14U kids in the area (one the Baseball America POY last year)that hit 80 on my stalker this past weekend. That is exceptional.
I can't tell you how many people tell me about this kid or that kid that "must be in the upper 80s" and is in reality 81-83. Don't believe most of what you hear and you will be ahead of the game.

rbinaz is right on the money, in my experience. I have a 14 year old 8th grader who is a catcher but pitches too.

Mid 70's is above average; there is one guy I've seen in my state the last two years touching 80 at the age of 14. My son is a low 70's pitcher, and he's a pretty big strong kid.

A 14 year old at 80 or above is certainly not unheard of, but, like rbinaz says, it is exceptional.

rbinaz,
Way above average. I'll be absolutely thrilled if mine can sit at 72 next year as a 14yo. It'll take some work, some growing and some maturing for that to happen.

Starzz & DG are correct. Velocity is way overstated in most cases. I would love it if my 15 yr. old could hit 85, but he's a little shy of that. He is a varsity pitcher due to several factors, the least of which is velocity.

California is considered a hot bed of talent and we have travelled up and down the state at select events. I agree that some kids can actually get into the 80's at 13 & 14 years old. But these kids are exceptionally rare.

hey I am 12 years old and I haven't hit puberity yet. I normally cruise around 65. A parent came up to my dad and said that the JV coach was out looking and was standing by someone that had a gun and he said that the last pitch that I threw in a two inning outing hit 74 I was just getting warmed up. I feel like I am not giving it everything that I have. What I want to know is will I keep gaining speed or will I level off at a certain age?

The thing about this issue is that lots of these 13-15yo guys who throw high 70s to mid 80s, are the guys who grow really fast and weigh like 180 and are 6'0" tall. I am currently 14yo and am only 5'8" 135lbs. At this point in time, I throw about 75 tops, so compare me to someone the exact same age,but thats 5 inches taller,has adult bulk and weighs 180,and you'd definitely see a difference.

I do alot of work with 14-15YO pitchers. In our area, average cruising speed for a 15YO (which would normally be a freshman) is somewhere between 65-69. 70+ would be good. 75+ would be very good (and probably a ticket to the sophomore or jv team. 80+ would be exceptional (and a ticket to the varsity at most schools. Those are average speeds. Most can top out a couple mph over their crusing speed occasionally.

It is amazing how much slower everyone throws when a QUALITY/ACCURATE gun is around. Don't believe academy guns, and don't believe word of mouth. I have seen scout guns on many top prospects, and they usually cruise at least 3-4 mph below what I heard the crusied.

K13,
Pretty common for a top speed (throwing hard for the gun as opposed to highest speed ever recorded) to be reported as a cruising speed and cruising speed is almost always about 4 mph below top speed.

Last time we gunned my 13yo he was hitting 67-68 regularly and hit 69 once. I estimate his cruising speed at 63 to 64 on that gun.

i'm a hs freshman and i turned 15 april 13 (last wednesday). i was clocked last august at 66-68 consistently at a camp (i'm certain that this is an accurate radar gun). right now i would estimate that i'm cruising at 71-72, topping out at 74. i think i'll be able to get in front of a radar gun soon and i'll let you know how i do.....this will be a little experiment.

THE FB must be located to work. Speed will come with age and some attention to building rotary power and technique but the ability to work in and out with movement will allow you to survive. Bring that 83 plus MPH FB in HS that doesn't move and you can't locate and you will give up 10 runs quick. Way to much emphasis is placed on speed alone IMO

Couldn't agree more SwingBuster (read above my statement on coming up with a gun that measures movement and accuracy). Heck, I was a pitcher and even I could hit a flat 83 mph FB!

I was wondering if the average speed of a freshman’s fastball is calculated by taking all the freshmen on the team, clocking them, adding all their speeds together and then dividing by the number of freshmen on the team. Should we just use the ones that are currently pitching or do we check position players too? Do we geographically adjust the results. If we are looking at pitchers only, who do we calculate? Many used to pitch before they came to high school but aren’t considered pitchers at this point but MAY become pitchers when they are upperclassmen. To be fair and accurate we need to establish a national procedure for establishing an average fastball rate for all different age groups. I nominate Swingbuster to get the ball rolling.
Fungo

Good point Fungo. When a kid comes into a HS program what determines if they are considered a pitcher? Velocity and the ability to throw strikes is what we use as the determining factor. Now some kids come into HS and have a strong arm but have no mechanics and can not throw a strike. Some come into HS and can throw strikes but dont have enough velocity to pitch. The first group you work with and hopefully over time they learn proper mechanics and can help you on the hill down the road. The second group you work with and hopefully they develop the arm strength and gain enough velocity to help you on the hill down the road. Then you have the kids that have either avg good or exceptionaly velocity and can throw strikes. These are the kids that get on the hill right away. Hopefully they continue to work and only improve over time. In my years at the HS level the avg Freshman that we use as a pitcher is around the 68-72 mph range. The above avg Freshman is in the mid 70's and the exceptional Freshman is in the upper 70's to low 80's. Now that does not mean that the avg guy in the 68-72 can not throw harder than the exceptional guy by his sr year or even jr year. Work ethic, how much does he grow, genetics etc all come into play. We have had kids that were not even considered pitchers as Freshman that were borderline making the team end up as our #1 or #2 down the road. Some kids come into HS 5'6 140 and by their Jr year are 6'2 190 and really develop. And some kids come in 6'0 190 throwing 80 and leave 6'0 190 throwing 80-82. There are so many factors that it is impossible to project what kids are going to do from 15 to 19. If your a freshman and you are one of those exceptional guys dont rest on your current status because if you do you could be the avg guy as a jr sr. And if your one of those below avg or avg guys keep working because if you do you could be the exceptional guy your jr or sr year. We have two sophs that are 15. One is 6'3 165 and is 83-85 cruise and can hit 88. The other is 6'2 205 and is 82-84 and has hit around 86. We have two Freshman one a pitcher and one a catcher. The pitcher is 5'10 175 and 82-84 and has hit 86 and the catcher is 6'0 205 and is low 80's and has hit 84. His pop times are 2.1 2.0. All four of these guys are exceptional right now for there ages. What will determine if they are exceptional as Jrs and Srs when it will really matter for their baseball future? Work ethic during and especially out of season, genetics and staying healthy. We are really blessed to have four arms like this especially at a young age. But that wont mean a thing if they are satisfied with where they are at any point in the game. Getting caught up in where you are right now and where you stack up right now is counter productive. Where do you want to be and what do you need to do to get there is more important. And do you have the heart and the work ethic needed to achieve your goals is the more important question. jmo

Coach May -
Four young arms like that on one team? Sound as if you'll be winning lots of games for quite some time!

We are currently ranked #7 in the state. We are 11-3 5-0 in conference. There is no doubt that we are strong on the hill every game out. We have really pitched well and for the most part played really good defense. In the games we have lost we have just not hit and gave up a couple of runs. Our better sticks are our younger guys for the most part and they just need to learn to be more patient at the plate. We need to find some guys to step up in a couple of posistions for next year to fill in some holes by graduation. With the potential pitching that we will have from this group we could be darn good for awhile. Its kind of funny when we play people because we have a Freshman or Soph on the hill a Freshman behind the plate every game. We played in a tournement a couple of weeks ago and we started game one with a soph game two with a Fresh and game three with a soph and a freshman all three behind the plate. People are amazed at the level they play at and all four are just 15. Hopefully they all will continue to work hard at the game like they have and they only will get better with time.

Swingbuster and K13,
Having seen pitchers do well in HS against all but the best hitting teams without great location or great movement and also having seen their gun readings from showcases I'd say you are underestimating the impact of a 83+ mph fastball in HS. Any kid who can throw strikes at 83+ on a regular basis and has at least one off speed pitch will do reasonably well in HS. If they have good location and/or movement then they'll do very well.

CADad,

Your observations would hold true in my area. In fact it would hold true at many small colleges.

SBK,
I watched one of our HS pitchers throw against the only team to beat Chatsworth (last year's national champs) HS this year. He did quite well and he did fairly well against good teams as a junior. A showcase company showed him as topping out at 81 mph with only slight downward movement and a good slider last year. When I watched him pitch it looked like he was throwing smoke. He was probably throwing low 80s at most.

When I played against Mike Scott in HS in the early 70s I doubt very much he was throwing more than mid 80s and he was dominant. Of course we were using wood bats.

You dont have to go to a HS game to see what a pitcher can do when he can locate his fb and his off speed pitches. There are a ton of College "pitchers" that do this everyday. High School pitchers that have a good fb not dominate but can locate it and have a quality off speed pitch that they can locate and throw at anytime in the count with success can dominate a HS team.

CaDAD your right maybe...... I overstated at 83 ...thats pretty fast.

I have an 8th grader throwing high 70's low 80's but is not on a very good high school could he get noticed if he is at a bad school?

SF GIANTS,
Yes. If he progresses well, he could be a good pitcher. He'll get some notice at any school. However, if he isn't facing top notch competition scouts and schools would like to see him against strong competition. That's where showcases and summer teams come into play. There are a lot of articles and a lot of information on here that can help you with the process.

quote:

Originally posted by rbinaz:
I gun every pitcher I see at HS games and I see a lot....almost 50 games already this year.
Trust me when I say this: there are many more HS pitchers in the 70s than there are in the mid 80s.
My son is in the 8th grade and turned 14 2 weeks ago. He sits in the 74-76 range comfortably and that is way above average at 14U. We have 2 14U kids in the area (one the Baseball America POY last year)that hit 80 on my stalker this past weekend. That is exceptional.
I can't tell you how many people tell me about this kid or that kid that "must be in the upper 80s" and is in reality 81-83. Don't believe most of what you hear and you will be ahead of the game.

rbinaz:

My son is also an 8th grader in Tempe. Chances are we've seen our kids throw against each other. I also coach a 14U club team of Tempe kids. I don't really care how hard 4thgen is throwing as long as his command and composure is good. I've seen only one 14U kid throw in the mid-80's and right now with his back troubles I don't think he could be the one you gunned. I'd be curious who the other is?

I haven't seen any 14U kids who hit mid 80's around here. The player you are referring to (I think) has hit 81 for me one time and is usually 78-80. I've probably gunned him 10 times in the last 6 months.
I sent you a PM.

rbinaz,
The only HS game I've seen lately did have both pitchers throwing 87 to 89 and both hit 90 once during the one inning they were gunned. I saw one of our websters at the game with a stalker and asked him later what the pitchers were throwing. Just to confirm how things get exaggerated I saw an article later saying that both pitchers were throwing into the low 90s.

Of course I went to the game knowing that there were going to be some pretty good pitchers throwing. I was hoping to see the webster's son throw but wasn't smart enough to go watch him throw in the pen and the game ended before he got a chance to come in.

CADAD, similar thing here. Our 5A championship featured one of the top 2007 arms in the country. I've seen him as high as 93 but on Saturday he was 88-89 and showed 90 at times.
The paper reported him as being 94 and made it sound like he sat there the whole game.

Most of the 14-15's in the area here in NH run in the high-60-low70. Occaisional mid-70

Here in Southern NH and we had 2 8th graders last year in the area that threw 80+.

One threw 78-81, the other 81-83. Have timed the first guy only once this year and he was 79-82. He told players that he has hit 87 but was no where near that when I timed him.

2nd player that threw 81-83 last year is now Freshman, he’s 15yrs 5-months at runs 82-85 and hit 86-87 few times per game. I have timed him many times this season.

Have only timed a few Upperclassman in NH Class-L (large school) that cruise over 80 this year.

quote:

Originally posted by rbinaz:
CADAD, similar thing here. Our 5A championship featured one of the top 2007 arms in the country. I've seen him as high as 93 but on Saturday he was 88-89 and showed 90 at times.
The paper reported him as being 94 and made it sound like he sat there the whole game.

I was at a game early in the season where a scout had that kid at 94 for a high and 91-92 on most fastballs. Perhaps he just wore down as the season went along.

quote:

I was at a game early in the season where a scout had that kid at 94 for a high and 91-92 on most fastballs. Perhaps he just wore down as the season went along.

I was probably at that game too as I've seen similar numbers on the kid. I've seen him 5 times this spring and a number of times last fall and summer as well. You have to understand that its not uncommon to see signinficant variation in velocity from outing to outing and at different times of the year.This particular pitcher is normally in the 88-90 cruising range which was consistently as high as anyone in the state (despite what you may read in the media).

quote:

Originally posted by rbinaz:

quote:

I was at a game early in the season where a scout had that kid at 94 for a high and 91-92 on most fastballs. Perhaps he just wore down as the season went along.

I was probably at that game too as I've seen similar numbers on the kid. I've seen him 5 times this spring and a number of times last fall and summer as well. You have to understand that its not uncommon to see signinficant variation in velocity from outing to outing and at different times of the year.This particular pitcher is normally in the 88-90 cruising range which was consistently as high as anyone in the state (despite what you may read in the media).

Agreed about the variance from start to start or week to week. In addition I agree that concern about lighting up the gun is overblown. The hitters will let you know if someone is throwing hard.

As it relates to this subject, average speed for a 14 or 15 year old, it makes even less sense to get hung up on. Pitchers at this stage should be concerned with perfecting mechanics, getting stronger, (actually more poerful), and staying healthy. That is the path to maximizing potential, whatever it is, as a HS player.

In our 1st Sectional game on wed. we came in as the top dog, with the other teams ace (either Ace or Number 2 guy) being sophmore shwowing 85-87 on the gun. The only problem was he couldn't hit his spots. This kid was VERY tall and muscular though. He walked the first batter then the next two got HR's and then we batted around and the Lead Off man got a Grand Slam. The pitcher on the other team left with only getting 2 outs. So i guess what im trying to say is it doesn't matter how fast you throw if you can't hit your spots. We won 14-3.


plp556