Rick Pauly

Curious why MLB telecasts all show pitching speeds? Is it only baseball that cares about speed?

Everyone cares about speed---"it separates the men from the boys".

Also, curious how many on this site aren't impressed with a female throwing 70 MPH?

fivepotsogold

I personally feel that watching a truly fast pitcher is cool!
However, most of the fastest pitchers (12-16) in our area are not very accurate at all.

I'd prefer to take my chances that the ball will be hit and we have to field the ball.
A good pitcher is one who learns how to hits corners, adjusts speed enough to keep batters unsure of what is coming...stays really close to the plate and doesn't walk a lot of batters.
My opinion.

MY 12 DD doesn't walk many at all. Certainly far less stressful for her and her team!
MY 10 DD played on an All Star team where coaches kid walked 17 batters....miracle that we won...it was awful to sit through.

I would choose accuracy over speed any day.

Rick Pauly

Certainly won't get any disagreement from me relative to the importance of accuracy-----but I highly suggest that a young lady put some time component into her practice that just focuses on throwing for speed. Don't wait until they are 13/14 years old to try to generate speed---it may be to late.
I fully understand how difficult it is to watch a walk filled game with 12U girls---but it is equally difficult to see a pitcher get knocked off the mound at 16U because the hitters don't have to "gear up" for speed.
My memory isn't so great anymore, but the last pitcher in the College World Series that I remember throwing under 60 MPH was about 6 years ago.
Rick

fivepotsogold

Rick ..
Agreed ..
MY DD just turned 12 ... game average is 45-50 and we do focus on speed drills. She is definitely working on that a lot this summer.

We still have a little time.

HOW MANY WALKS DOES ONE TYPICALLY SEE IN A 12U GAME?