Lookin' for the STUDS!

This will be an ongoing thing throughout the summer because I'm bound and determined to find some kind of evidence that these "stud" pitchers who throw so hard are worth the powder to blow themselves to the devil or not.

This year, the son my team is playing on is 16U, and a good one to boot. Rumor has it that we're supposed to have 5 pitchers who throw in the mid 80's and we're supposed to be seeing lots of the same.

Today was our first foray into the tournament season and we played a double header. The worst of the two came from about 100 miles away and should have saved their gas money and the $500 for the tournament. Their #1 had no mechanics at all, nothing off speed he could get near the plate, and if he hit more than 77, I'll kiss his you know what in the middle of times square.

His relief was even worse and there's no way he went over 75. 52% strikes, 14-1 after 5 innings, gone!

The other team had nothing but 16s and 15's, and these guys were immense! #1 might have been throwing 80+, but certainly not on cruise control. may have cranked it up to 82-84, but not consistently. Their coach was a brain child. Left him in to throw into the bottom of the 7th when we won it after 2 batters. 122 pitches! Thanx for the gift idiot!

Better strike percentage, 59+ but only managed 6 k's. again, nothing off speed he could get consistently near the plate. Tried to throw the knuckler about 10 times, but it didn't knuckle and when he did get it near the plate it was ripped because everyone knew it was coming.

Now we get to our guys. Our #2 threw 108 in the 1st game, but to be honest, that was in 6 innings with 35 coming in the 1st. His dad is verrrrrry proud of him. Had 2 guns, a camcorder and a digital still camera going all the time. seemed stupid to me because I don't think he got to see a pitch!

I didn't bother looking, but dad says he was hitting 85. I say maybe on his best hump he was hitting 85. But, after the 1st, he did have decent command and flipped a pretty fair hook in there once in a while. 57% strikes and not too shabby overall.

When our "closer" came in, I was really expecting to see some heat. This kid had traveled almost 100 miles to get here and was on his HS V team. Hmmmm. Maybe, and that's a pretty slim maybe. Maybe he hit 80 on one or 2 throws, but I sure wouldn't stake my life on it. one inning, 2 hits, 1 walk, 0 k's. Luckily the other team didn't take advantage of the bases loaded an only 1 out! 63% strikes. No real hook, but lefties always have decent movement.

By the time we got ready to play the 2nd game, it was hitting 90 degrees. Since half of the team is still playing in the HS playoffs, we only had 9 kids show so the coach decided to only let the pitchers throw 2 innings because they'd all been in the field for 1 game and would be for another with no subs.

Our #1 threw the 1st 2. Now this boy was bringing some serious heat! There's no doubt in my mind that he threw a at least a few that were at or over 85. He was probably cruising at 81-82. Another lefty with a decent hook that he got near the plate enough to make the batter go for it, but when he cranked up the heat, there was no telling where it would go. Nothing wild mind you, but most of the heat was far enough off the plate that only the rotten hitters bit. 57% with 2 K's and 2 walks in 2 innings.

Next came mine. We've been there since 8:00 and now its almost 2:00 and everyone's about dead. He's hitting 77-79 tops, getting back door strikes with the hook and slider and getting them to fist or pound nearly everything into the dirt. only 1 K, got a kid looking for junk when the heat came and he was frozen.

If the SS wouldn't have made an error, he would have only thrown to 6 batters with 21 pitches. 63% with only 1 K. 1 walk and 1 hit after the error which would have been the 3rd out.

I won't bother talking about the kid who threw the last inning because the score was 14-1 and we only need 3 outs to mercy them so the coach put in a kid who hadn't pitched in 3 years.

Anyway, here's the way it shakes out to me, so far. Yeah, there are some kids who can throw heat, but when they do they can't control it, and they certainly aren't cruising at these ungodly 85+ numbers. Mechanically, they are poor to above average and seem to be working so hard to impress everyone with heat that they ten to lob the off speed stuff so it doesn't really fool anyone.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we're supposed to play a team from Seattle that supposedly won some kind of western US tourney last year as 15 U's. You see, I really do appreciate the pitchers who throw the heat, but only if they can control it and are consistent.