What are These Pitcher Parents Smoking??

[BuckeyeGuy]

She is never going to pitch with a walk an inning.

Going slightly OT, but what is a good WHIP at 14U then?

Disclaimer: I know there are better pitcher stats, but to me WHIP strikes a nice balance between full on Saber and ease of understanding.

 

[chinamigarden]

I can tell you that when you are near a kid who is throwing over 60, its not how it looks that tells you the difference, its how it sounds. If you aren't hearing seams cutting through the air, you aren't watching 60+

 

[CoogansBluff]

Going slightly OT, but what is a good WHIP at 14U then?

Disclaimer: I know there are better pitcher stats, but to me WHIP strikes a nice balance between full on Saber and ease of understanding.

Having researched scores last year, I found that 14U teams score about 1 run per half inning. So I'm going to guess a whip as high as 1.500 would still be pretty good, though far from dominant.

 

[Indiana]

Back when my DD was 12, people used to ask how fast she threw. I wanted to turn to them and ask, "How (explitive) fast do you think she is? She literally weighs 85 pounds". I mean really, who would ask such a question, and why would they care?

But anyway. DD is now 17 and it all evens out in the end. The best pitchers at 18U seem to be the ones who stuck with it and worked on their craft. I see some who I've known since they were 10, and some new pitchers who picked it up at age 14 or so and really worked at it. Some who were flame throwers at 12 and never got any faster or better, and some who were good at 12, improved along with their peers and are plenty good now.

I do have my suspicions regarding the ESPN radar gun - their numbers seem awfully high.

 

[Softball scholar]

She is never going to pitch with a walk an inning.

If she can't find the strike zone at her age, then she has some mechanical issues or some practice issue.



JAD--you're just padding your "thanks" stats.

Sluggers, I agree that her lack of control is killing her and is very frustrating to her and me. In practice she pitches much better and hits her spots consistently. I work a lot of target drills in practice where I move it up and down, criss cross and have her hit spots out of the zone. Its when she gets in the real game, she tightens up. Her mechananics are pretty solid and have had many people corrobrorate that, but I admit they do break down in live competition. We practice 3 time a week and she pitches in games on the weekend albeit not much because of her control issues. When she can get settled in the game and get past the first inning or even the second one, she does really well.

We just got another pitching coach, and he's giving us some concrete mental approaches to work on. Were focusing on consisent breathing, clearing her head after each pitch, staying relaxed and in the moment and finding a rhythm and nailing down consistency in mechanics. We're seeing improvement as the wild pitches are really coming down and last game the ump had a tight zone and was just missing. Im coming to realization she might not have the mental makeup to be a pitcher, but we always see signs of hope and her control was alright when she was 12. Her speed is improving also and when she throws harder is when she has better control.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

Going slightly OT, but what is a good WHIP at 14U then?

Disclaimer: I know there are better pitcher stats, but to me WHIP strikes a nice balance between full on Saber and ease of understanding.

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) is what you are looking for. If you use Game Changer it calculates it automagically.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) is what you are looking for. If you use Game Changer it calculates it automagically.

While I agree FIP is a better stat, it is too far to the Saber side to explain to people who don't Saber lol!

 

[Sweet Lou]

Had a 10U parent tell me just last week their 10 yr. old just hit 62.

Sigh.

Hey my 10 year old can HIT 62.




Pitch 62? LOL!!!! Maybe if I added 2 radar readings together.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Sluggers, I agree that her lack of control is killing her and is very frustrating to her and me. In practice she pitches much better and hits her spots consistently. I work a lot of target drills in practice where I move it up and down, criss cross and have her hit spots out of the zone. Its when she gets in the real game, she tightens up. Her mechananics are pretty solid and have had many people corrobrorate that, but I admit they do break down in live competition. We practice 3 time a week and she pitches in games on the weekend albeit not much because of her control issues. When she can get settled in the game and get past the first inning or even the second one, she does really well.

We just got another pitching coach, and he's giving us some concrete mental approaches to work on. Were focusing on consisent breathing, clearing her head after each pitch, staying relaxed and in the moment and finding a rhythm and nailing down consistency in mechanics. We're seeing improvement as the wild pitches are really coming down and last game the ump had a tight zone and was just missing. Im coming to realization she might not have the mental makeup to be a pitcher, but we always see signs of hope and her control was alright when she was 12. Her speed is improving also and when she throws harder is when she has better control.

This sounds almost exactly like my DD at that age. When she was 12 - 14 she was all over the place. She would strikeout 8 or 9 a game but walk 6 or 7. She was always one of the fastest pitchers around. However, she did not get too much of a chance to pitch in games when she was younger. When she was 14 heading to 15 it all came together almost overnight. The walks came down to 1 or 2 a game and the K's went to 9 or 10 on average. Her ERA dropped to about 1.00 and the batting average against was in the area of .150. By the time she was a junior in HS her ERA was .36 against the toughest teams in the toughest conference in the state. He TB ERA was in the 1.00 area. The one thing my DD became really good at was coming into a game and closing it out when she got older. It didn't take 2 or 3 batters to get comfortable.

So... Give it time. It sounds like she has the foundation to become a good pitcher. Just make sure you're honest with her with the feedback. If you don't the hitters will. I see too many parents BS'ing their kids about their performance.

From what you say about the new PC it sounds good. I'm guessing the PC figured out your DD had a 6" problem and not a mechanical issue. That 6 inches would be the space between her ears. I make sure my kids use the same routine prior to each pitch at a lesson that they will use in a game. I tell them to do that when they are working on their own. It helps "quiet" their brain letting them focus on the task in front of them. The next pitch.

 

[NorthMS]

I have to walk away from those parents. I can be very blunt, so to keep it civil, I generally smile and look for the 1st opportunity to run away.

I know one set of parents that CONSTANTLY told everyone their DD threw 65. Once I saw her throw, it was obvious that she wasn't. I have a radar gun, and so wanted to tell him I'll clock her, but I didn't. One of the coaches did put her on the gun this spring. It came in at 49. The gun was accurate, as it got the same reading as my gun on my DD.

You should have heard the excuses coming next.