Expert: John Priest - 6/24/2008

Question
Hi,
My 11 yo son pitches for his AAU team.  He has great movement on his ball, and low ERA - forces the batter to hit grounders and occassional pop flies.

From reading this forum, it sounds like this is called a "location pitcher"?  

The other starting pitchers on his team are physically much bigger than he and throw noticeably faster.  I was always happy for him with his pitching, but recently notice the coach is giving more "positive attention" to the faster throwers, regardless of my son's consistent performance.

For his future as a pitcher, does my son need to be concerned at this point with velocity?  I didn't worry about it up to now, and figured the marked velocity improvement would come when he matures physically.


Answer
Jack,
You and your son shouldn't need to be concerned at this point with velocity.  Your son is only 11 years old and he has plenty of time ahead of him.  Everyone can hit a fastball, maybe not at the age your son is, but when they get older everyone can hit a fastball.  Your son will get stronger as he grows and with some more workouts he will get the velocity he needs.  What sets most pitchers apart is location.  If he can hit his spots with 3 pitches (now only 2 because he shouldn't throw a breaking ball yet) and get a lot of groundouts he is doing a great job and should get more attention from his coach.

Good luck,
John Priest