re: The Quality of Pitching in College Baseball Today

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Why did they collapse the strike zone.

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Because the SEC decided implement a grading scale using trackman tech. All the umpires decided to shite their pants about it and squeeze the zone instead of calling it normal and seeing how it played on the grades.

ETA: But instead of grading them specifically on in or out of zone, they should grade them on consistency.

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I can attest to this being true. My son is 6 and a decent amount of kids in his grade are already on Travel teams that play both a summer and winter season.

While these kids do still play the other sports, I fear that it will be short lived and they will be forced to choose baseball over everything within a year or two.

As a parent I feel kind of trapped. right now my son only plays baseball in the summer for his local playground. He is a decent little player but by no means does it feel like baseball is his definite calling. On the flip side, I also don't feel like baseball is out of the cards for him either.

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Here is how it works by us. Now, note, travel ball seems to vary greatly from place to place.

By 7 years old, a lot of families put their kids in crappy AA travel ball. After 3 or 4 years of this, traveling, expenses, etc, it's clear that on a team of 13 kids, maybe 2-3 have any decent talent. The rest of them are back in rec ball for 11/12. Also remember, not all kids who play travel do so because they think they are good. Some want to avoid the "rec" stigma, others don't want to be subject to a draft.

Those two or three combine with two or three from the other area teams and the area ends up with 1 or 2 decent travel teams at the 11/12/13/14 level. These teams are often the same kids on the middle school teams who consolidate further for high school ball.

Point is... you don't need to push your 6 year old into travel and specialization, but the sad, sad reality is, by the time the kid is 10 or 11, he probably does need to specialize in order to play HS ball.

I don't agree with that system but that is what it is right now.

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Because the SEC decided implement a grading scale using trackman tech. All the umpires decided to shite their pants about it and squeeze the zone instead of calling it normal and seeing how it played on the grades.

ETA: But instead of grading them specifically on in or out of zone, they should grade them on consistency.

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But, they should also get downgraded if they call a pitch a ball, that should be a strike.

That's the issue. The zone hasn't changed... so I don't understand why the umps are scared. Call a strike a strike aned call a ball a ball, and calling too tight a zone is just as bad as calling too loose a zone.

Secondairly, I think it is a lack of proper training / stretching at the lower levels.


99% yea

Vertical Release Angle, Horizontal Movement is measured different in the MLB.

Trackman is like Tron!! Can't be trusted!!

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Trackman IS NOT RAY GUN LIKE THE MLB.

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MLB uses Hawkeye, an optical system developed for tennis. Yes, it's materially different than Trackman, a doppler radar based system developed for golf.

Neither of the measuring tools impact a pitcher or his arsenal.

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this site hates human umps and wants to see them replaced by robots

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Yeah. The horror of having a game played where the actual rules matter; scary stuff.

I mean, who needs all those words in a rulebook about what makes a pitch a "ball" or a "strike" or when a runner is "out"? At the end of the day, the game of baseball -- from the fans' perspective, of course -- is all about the umps. I mean, that's who we are all tuning in or buying tickets to see, right? Who cares about those pesky batters or pitchers or whatnot? It's the boys in blue that REALLY matter. So if they decide that THIS ball in the dirt is a strike, even though the waist high pitch over the middle of the plate was a ball in to last half inning, that's what's best for the sport.

Having the plays decided by whether or not the players actually did what the rules say they are supposed to do to make the play; who would want that? What kind of dummy would want the game decided by players actually making plays when we could have it decided entirely by the umps opinion of whether or not they make plays?

And besides, if they are ever in doubt, they've always got "Uncle Vegas" to tell them how to call the game anyway.



Sorry, I don't see the button for the sarcasm font, so I'll just have to trust y'all to get it.

As far as pitch counts/rest for high school pitchers, as well as travel ball overuse, that's entirely within the control of the parents. Too many parents are trying to turn Little Johnny into college and major league stars, when their primary responsibility is to protect their child, sometimes even from himself.

Encourage him to play other sports if he wishes, which most talented, competitive kids want to do. If you look at stars in college and professional sports, you'll find that most played multiple sports in high school. Encourage him, get him the help he needs, but understand he's a kid who isn't wise enough to look out for himself.

I played football, baseball, and ran track in high school. I loved all three, but played football in college. I think the other sports helped me, and also kept me from burning out over just one sport.

Letting kids overuse their arms isn't the fault of travel ball coaches or high school coaches, or the kid himself. It's on the parents. If Little Johnny has the ability to play college or pro sports (and many parents think their kids way better than he actually is), it will come out without 10 months of training/playing one sport.

Hey, variety is the spice of life.

It’s not really an overuse issue though. That has always been the low hanging fruit.

Listen to lsu777. He nails it. The new training methods are great for tangible velocity increase, but if you aren’t doing the correct supplemental strength and agility building, you are going to be prone to arm injuries.

It’s almost like a steroid. You see quick results, but if you abuse it the wrong way, the side effects are not good.

The ball is juiced!