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Most of you know my oldest does a lot of pitching in travel and for his high school. He is a sophomore and just found out that they're going to pitch him at varsity for his sophomore year. He's the only soph that got pulled up to varsity, so I'm both excited for him, and also nervous for the likely adversity he'll face. He's currently 5'11-6'ish tall. Probably has 3 more inches to grow. I got my final growth spurt in the summer after my sophomore school year, where I went from 6' to 6'3". Hopefully he grows that last bit to gain some leverage and maybe a bit more velocity. Currently, he rides in a comfort zone of about 78-79 mph, but when the coach puts the radar on him and says to throw it his hardest, he's consistently 80-81. Curve is 70-72 and throws it for strikes on any count. Throws a splitter for his change up and has command and control of it. Throws all pitches from all arm angles, including sidearm. He has developed another pitch he calls his knuckle-change. Throws it like a palm ball but with the two fastball fingers tucked behind the ball. He throws it hard but it has no real spin rotation, so it sinks like a sumbitch and is hard to catch even when it's a strike. We're hoping that pitch will be a good "one pitch/one out" pitch for his repertoire. If guys can't hit it at all, then it'll become his strikeout pitch. We'll see if he can throw it for strikes. The best thing about that pitch is that doesn't need to be thrown to a certain spot. It moves enough that he can hang it and put it anywhere that will get swings and it should be hard to hit. I figure if it's hard to catch, it's equally hard to hit. Obviously will want to use it sparingly if men are on base, since it's hard to catch.
I'm only sharing this because we're pretty excited, but I'm not sure who to really tell about it, so figured I'd tell some of the biggest baseball fans I know. Perhaps I'll include a few updates during the season. We're pretty excited about putting the new pitch to use in games. We've been working on it since last fall. His coach seems to be a big fan of it. He's used to being a power pitcher that can blow guys away, but being a sophomore at varsity level, I figured he'd need a pitch that he can throw to contact and get some soft swings if he's going to succeed this season, since varsity kids can hit 80 mph all day and twice on Sunday.
I'm only sharing this because we're pretty excited, but I'm not sure who to really tell about it, so figured I'd tell some of the biggest baseball fans I know. Perhaps I'll include a few updates during the season. We're pretty excited about putting the new pitch to use in games. We've been working on it since last fall. His coach seems to be a big fan of it. He's used to being a power pitcher that can blow guys away, but being a sophomore at varsity level, I figured he'd need a pitch that he can throw to contact and get some soft swings if he's going to succeed this season, since varsity kids can hit 80 mph all day and twice on Sunday.
