What pitches should an average 14u pitcher have?

My DD also just moved up to 14u, she can spot her fb/drop and has a pretty good change. The ball needs to have some movement or it will get hit hard. She has a curve and a rise, but not her strong pitches. Keep the ball at the knees and if you can put it where you want 4 out of 5 times you are good to go

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riseball said:

FWIW - My DD just finished a pretty good college career in the SEC. Got the job done with 3 pitches, Fastball, Rise, Change Up. Sometimes less is more.

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Ya think? Dad is being humble.

jsoftballcoach said:

My DD also just moved up to 14u, she can spot her fb/drop and has a pretty good change. The ball needs to have some movement or it will get hit hard. She has a curve and a rise, but not her strong pitches. Keep the ball at the knees and if you can put it where you want 4 out of 5 times you are good to go

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Is she looking for a team? We could used a pitcher like that.

Classof2020 said:

Ya think? Dad is being humble.

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Dad is on the verge of being a flat-out liar!

Let's just say that neither she or I have any regrets how it turned out.

riseball said:

FWIW - My DD just finished a pretty good college career in the SEC. Got the job done with 3 pitches, Fastball, Rise, Change Up. Sometimes less is more.

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I agree with Riseball as well.

My DD had a pretty good career in D1 as well.

She threw a fastball and drop ball. She had a great off speed drop ball she threw in place of the changeup.

Successful D1 and D2 pitchers have tremendous control. What I mean is that pitchers have to be able to consistently move the location of their pitchers by inches to compensate for the umpire's strike zone.

E.g., the pitcher starts with a pitch that just catches the outside black of the plate. If she doesn't get the call, she starts moves the location of successive pitches toward the hitter until she finds what the ump is calling a strike. She then uses the outside strike as her "base". So, she moves inches either to or from what the ump is calling as a strike.

Classof2020 said:

Ya think? Dad is being humble.

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Ok, so who is riseball's daughter? Or am I breaking some rule by asking? ;-)

Bob516 said:

Ok, so who is riseball's daughter? Or am I breaking some rule by asking? ;-)

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Jessica "Jake" Elliot

She played for South Carolina.

sluggers said:

I agree with Riseball as well.

My DD had a pretty good career in D1 as well.

She threw a fastball and drop ball. She had a great off speed drop ball she threw in place of the changeup.

Successful D1 and D2 pitchers have tremendous control. What I mean is that pitchers have to be able to consistently move the location of their pitchers by inches to compensate for the umpire's strike zone.

E.g., the pitcher starts with a pitch that just catches the outside black of the plate. If she doesn't get the call, she starts moves the location of successive pitches toward the hitter until she finds what the ump is calling a strike. She then uses the outside strike as her "base". So, she moves inches either to or from what the ump is calling as a strike.

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Can't let this post go by without pointing out what may be hidden gems that [MENTION=332]sluggers[/MENTION] has provided that some may have missed.

"She threw a fastball and drop ball. She had a great off speed drop ball she threw in place of the changeup."

This means that she had 3 different pitches that to a hitter looked very similar, but in reality were quite different.

"She had a great off speed drop ball she threw in place of the changeup."

Sounds as though her off speed drop was by definition a changeup. The takeaway here is that she did not need to master a completely different pitch. She took a pitch that based on [MENTION=332]sluggers[/MENTION] previous posts she owned and was her go to pitch and through subtle changes made it her changeup. To the hitter it is going to be very difficult to pick up. Had she used a flip change which has a completely different axis of rotation it would not have been nearly as effective. Conversely my DD had a very good rise and a serviceable flip change that was made more effective because the axis of rotation was the same as her rise. Again two pitchers who had a changeup that looked very much like one of their other pitches.

The reason many pitchers struggle with their change is that it is a totally different pitch.
The very best way to develop a changeup is to take an existing pitch that a pitcher throws well and turn it into a changeup.

"Successful D1 and D2 pitchers have tremendous control. What I mean is that pitchers have to be able to consistently move the location of their pitchers by inches to compensate for the umpire's strike zone.

E.g., the pitcher starts with a pitch that just catches the outside black of the plate. If she doesn't get the call, she starts moves the location of successive pitches toward the hitter until she finds what the ump is calling a strike. She then uses the outside strike as her "base". So, she moves inches either to or from what the ump is calling as a strike."

This speaks for itself and is the hallmark of a truly elite pitcher. I remember watching my DD warming up in the bull pen at SC and they had those plastic batters on each side of the plate. From the front elbow they had tied a cord with a knot on the end that was suspended at the bottom edge of the strike zone. I watched as my DD consistently hit the knot at the end of the cord. Duly impressed I mentioned this to her after the game. She said that she was not throwing all that well as she was supposed to the hitting the knot with the inside edge of the ball causing it to move toward the plate not just hit the knot.

Bob516 said:

Thanks. My DD just started pitching 7 weeks ago. Within three weeks she became the 1st string pitcher on her 12u town team. Now she moved up to a 14u TB team and she is plenty nervous.

Her pitching instructor, who is an assistant coach on the 14u team, says she is faster than their 1st string pitcher, but doesn't have the accuracy. At practice last night, the other pitchers were talking about all the different pitches they have, and now my daughter is worried that all she has is her fastball and the beginnings of her change up. BTW, she is practices alternating her inside, outside, and change up, as her instructor told me to do, but she is not able to hit high and low on her inside and outside yet.

She will be glad to know that once she can hit high and low on her inside and outside pitches, she will be in good shape for now.

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As a batter DD loves pitchers that have a lot of pitches.

She will also learn being able to spot her pitches becomes not only important in getting the batter out but also for just getting strikes, some umpires can be annoying.