Pitchers

[mizunomp37]

Well yes - that is where the best ones are.

However I look at it differently - it goes back to 10U/12U.

Pitching is hard - it takes a lot of work to be just average. And softball teams in travel really only go for a 1-2 pitchers rotation - maybe 3 in pool games. So a lot of girls stop pitching for lack of circle time and either decide to concentrate on hitting/fielding or leave softball altogether. Especially in 10U/12U the best athletes/players tend to be on the better teams so a lot of potential pitchers are playing SS for that 10A or 12A team - I know on our 10UA team we had 3 girls who would have pitched and been #1 on any 10UB team but never threw an inning for our team. Already being a field player/hitter on a better team is more important to them than getting to pitch.

By the time you exit 12U the girls who are left pitching are where you are getting your pitchers from for 14U-18U until college. There are not that many pitchers who start later than 12U (yes there are exceptions but not many). Now have some of them stop playing softball because they don't want to put the work in/other sports/boys/school/other activity/sleeping/injury/stop playing for their parents and this pool of players gets smaller and smaller.

We also keep pushing this 'type' - you must be this tall, you must throw this hard, and so on - and if you don't then there is a pretty good chance you wont pitch.

And then there is the whole 'you need to be seen' so the college level pitchers end up in 16UA or 18U exposure teams the moment they hit high school eligible.

We kill the potential pitching pool in the younger age groups and then continue to do so with the way many coaches ride their #1 pitchers and minimal other pitcher development.

How many of the non prototypical pitchers made it after 12U. The too short, too skinny that hit a late growth spurt and became a force to be dealt with. My guess would be not many.

 

[marriard]

How many of the non prototypical pitchers made it after 12U. The too short, too skinny that hit a late growth spurt and became a force to be dealt with. My guess would be not many.

Some stick it out - but the reality is that most either transition into the field/hitting and abandon pitching and never go back to it even if they physically develop more.

A couple of years ago we had a girl who gave up pitching as a sophomore because she was on a TB and high school team with D1 talent pitcher and never got to pitch. In the last game before high school playoffs in their senior seasons the pitcher blew her knee going into first and she this girl had 1 week to get back into it. They finished third in state with her pitching every inning and she is now playing D1 ball as a pitcher... It happens - but this is pretty much the only example I can think of.

In my opinion we are getting pitching wrong in some way. Every travel baseball team I see seems to carry 5-6 or more kids who can pitch (perhaps because even if they are just throwing the ball it can still get in the strike zone). MLB and College Baseball teams carry as many pitchers as they do field players on their rosters. Don't know how to fix it (smaller ball, bigger seams, bigger fields, dead ball or something else) to keep different types of pitchers in the game better but depth is questionable and we are killing the arms of the top pitchers in college.

 

[abbygale]

You want to find more 16u pitchers? Provide quality catching, play-making, and opportunity. If you can provide that "for an entire tournament and not just until the girls are tired", quality pitchers will find you. Sunday night lights are where it's at.

 

[tmolina]

We are just getting started in recruiting, but from my experience with showcases, the majority of the D1 recruiters were at 16U for pitchers and catchers. The recruiting being done at 18U is D1 position players and D2, D3 and NAIA pitchers and catchers.

From what I seen last season, they are looking at freshman and some 8th graders for pitchers, catchers and middle infielders. The big D1 programs are trying to get verbals from 2017's asap in these postions. Its crazy.

 

[SoCalASABlue]

It might just be me, but if you're 14 or 15 playing up at that level for "exposure" you're insane. Unless you throw 60+ no great college is going to look at you. On top of that, unless you hound the coach relentlessly, unless you are a junior they cannot even contact you. I just don't see why you would sit on the bench for an older team when you could be playing at your own level.

So what's your point? That if a pitcher doesn't top 60 by the time she's 14 she should hang it up? If a pticher doesn't get a D1 offer she should hang up the cleats? I've watched the D1 college softball playoffs for many years and have seen many pitchers on national TV who topped out at 60. Not every girl can play for Alabama, Tennessee or UCLA. And it's still student-athlete, right?

Based on your statements and others I've seen on this site and other softball sites, DD should have moved permanently to the outfield when she was 11 because she wasn't throwing 60 at that age. Interestingly enough, she decided she loved pitching and stuck with it. And even more interesting, she has attracted college coaches to watch her pitch - even though she's not Jennie Finch or Keilani Ricketts - because she took the initiative to write those coaches emails and letters.

The girls will figure out when the circle is not for them anymore. We don't need to rush them out.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Couple thoughts here:

One - I would have thought pitching is on the decline until going to bigger D1 school camps across the nation last year and seeing the absolute slew of 60mph pitchers looking to impress the collection of coaches. I mean we were at the winter 2012-2013 Tennessee Tech camp combine and after they told all the non-pitchers to leave the indoor rodeo arena I gasped at the ~150 pitchers from 14-16 yrs old that were left. (and of these roughly 150 there were a couple standouts going to 65mph and a couple topping only 55 BUT the majority were right there in the big 60mph bucket)

Two - I am curious the number of TB teams that are in existence now versus 5-6 years ago. I am thinking that the pitchers are just getting spread too thin across too many TB teams.

 

[HollowMan]

I agree with marriard on this one. I've seen a number of girls who were pretty good pitchers in 10U/12U quit pitching. They were tired of spending so much time and effort on pitching lessons and practice, only to see the coach pitch #1 almost every inning of every game. So a lot of the other pitchers either quit the game completely, or take up other positions and stop pitching. Working that hard and rarely getting to play sucks.

Then around 14/16U, a couple of things happen. Some of your pitchers grow bored/tired of the game and quit, some break down because they've been ridden so hard, and some learn that while they're competent pitchers, they're better in the field - they stand a better chance of playing at the next level as a field player, and they stop pitching to concentrate on other things. So you're left with a handful of very good pitchers, and not much else. Then all the teams run around begging like the OP stated.

You reap what you sow.

A couple of years ago we had a girl who gave up pitching as a sophomore because she was on a TB and high school team with D1 talent pitcher and never got to pitch. In the last game before high school playoffs in their senior seasons the pitcher blew her knee going into first and she this girl had 1 week to get back into it. They finished third in state with her pitching every inning and she is now playing D1 ball as a pitcher... It happens - but this is pretty much the only example I can think of.

Much more common is that #1 goes down, backup who never gets to play takes over, walks in a dozen runs, and the team quickly exits the playoffs.

 

[Indiana]

Youth baseball has pitch counts, so a team needs a lot of pitchers to make it deep on Sundays. Perhaps the solution is as easy as installing mandatory pitch counts for fastpitch. Of course the likelihood of this happening in reality is slim, but it is an interesting proposition to consider. I know of a few pitchers out here who are missing the first part of their high school season (fall) due to summer pitching injuries.

 

[starsnuffer]

I'll sell you one, cheap. I'm about to ship her to Siberia for military school anyway.

-W

 

[Jackel2168]

It's not even that there are bad pitchers trying out...there are no pitchers. I know the 16U elite teams are struggling. I had one coach tell me he cut his #3, pitched 5 innings for him last year, didn't top out over 50, get an offer to pitch her first tryout for a good team in the area. Another girl who was in the mid 50's got an offer from a team south of me that's been around forever. It's not that there's no talent out there, there just seems to be no pitchers.