Started off the season with a sweep over eastern Michigan. H2P!
Pitt baseball 2025
- Thread starter ThePanthers
- Start date
Some crazy scores:
Indiana State 36
Wagner 6
Rhode Island 36
William & Mary 22 in 7 innings
Probably shouldn't judge the national baseball scene by 2 games but is there enough pitching in this country? Kids are playing 100-150 games per year starting at 8,9 years old and someone has to be pitching those games. Are they throwing out their arms before college? Here's another question: should a kid even pitch before MS or HS? In an extreme example, you see a late bloomer like Paul Skenes, who didn't start pitching until 11th grade.
Indiana State 36
Wagner 6
Rhode Island 36
William & Mary 22 in 7 innings
Probably shouldn't judge the national baseball scene by 2 games but is there enough pitching in this country? Kids are playing 100-150 games per year starting at 8,9 years old and someone has to be pitching those games. Are they throwing out their arms before college? Here's another question: should a kid even pitch before MS or HS? In an extreme example, you see a late bloomer like Paul Skenes, who didn't start pitching until 11th grade.
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As a former Little League umpire, I have said for years that it’s not starting to pitch too early that ruins arms, it’s starting to throw anything other than a fastball too early.
When I was umpiring in Santa Monica, both Max Fried and Lucas Giolito were pitching for Little League teams. Both unhittable when they stuck to their fastballs but both of whom threw a lot of breaking stuff for no good reason. I think throwing curves and sliders at that age is asking for later Tommy John surgery.
The best pitcher in the league IMO was Josh Rosen, who threw nothing but fastballs. Unhittable fastballs. But, baseball was only his #3 sport. He was a top junior tennis player and a football QB who played at UCLA and in the NFL when tennis didn’t work out. I think if he had focused on baseball and developed breaking pitches when his arm was stronger, he would have been in The Show.
Rosen stuck to fastballs because his dad, a former college tennis player and orthopedist, thought throwing breaking balls would be bad for his arm from a tennis standpoint, but I think throwing them at 11-12 years of age is bad for any young pitcher’s arm.
When I was umpiring in Santa Monica, both Max Fried and Lucas Giolito were pitching for Little League teams. Both unhittable when they stuck to their fastballs but both of whom threw a lot of breaking stuff for no good reason. I think throwing curves and sliders at that age is asking for later Tommy John surgery.
The best pitcher in the league IMO was Josh Rosen, who threw nothing but fastballs. Unhittable fastballs. But, baseball was only his #3 sport. He was a top junior tennis player and a football QB who played at UCLA and in the NFL when tennis didn’t work out. I think if he had focused on baseball and developed breaking pitches when his arm was stronger, he would have been in The Show.
Rosen stuck to fastballs because his dad, a former college tennis player and orthopedist, thought throwing breaking balls would be bad for his arm from a tennis standpoint, but I think throwing them at 11-12 years of age is bad for any young pitcher’s arm.
My dad wouldn't let me throw anything but fastballs until Pony League because of this. I guess the downside in doing this is I never developed a good curve ball and my pitching career ended as I got into HS. I dont disagree with what you are saying but there are some who say that 99.9999% of these youth travel baseball players won't make the majors and 99.999% won't play D1 so there's no harm in ruining their arms as they won't need in their plumbing, engineering, or accountant careers.
I remember reading an article about former Pirates’ first round pick Bobby Bradley, who was renowned for having one of the best curveballs anyone had ever seen. The problem was that his curveball was so good because his dad taught him the pitch at 9 years old. Sure enough, he had arm problems and never pitched above Double-A.
Back those many, many years ago when I played Little League it was a league rule that pitchers were only allowed to throw fastballs. If the umpire saw someone throwing breaking pitches they got a warning, and if they did it again they got thrown out. Which I never saw personally or heard of happening in other games in the league.
In our Little League, ions ago, I got warned for throwing sidearmed. I am a lefty and the other team had one lefthanded batter. I threw him a roundhouse sidearm fastball which scared the hell out of him even though it never came close to hitting him. The umpire said any sidearm pitch you throw from now on is an automatic ball.
This might be the first Ive ever agreed with you.
I coach high school ball in Colorado.
A changeup should be the only offspeed pitch a kid learns if any. 4 seam FB, 2 seam FB, changeup, and maybe a cutter is all a kid needs before high school.
All are thrown with a fastball motion.
Saves arms and gets outs
Looking back, It seems that younger kids did not practice circle changes or palm balls until after they tried to throw a curve or slider.
It's only one game, but we are beating UNC-Greensboro today 8-4 in the 9th inning.
That may matter because UNC-G beat Wake Forest 4-0 last week, and then went 1-2 at Virginia Tech last weekend.
I see the team better than last year.
Good enough lineup. Tweaks possible at CF and 2B/SS
Pitching looks marginally better. More usable arms.
Defense has been good save a game or two. Pitching not giving away near as many freebies (save one game)
We actually brought in some decent transfers. We'll see how it goes when we get to ACC play, but I think so far so good.
Just beat nc state for the first time since 1941
Should have beaten them on Friday too, but they blew that one.
Two run lead with two out and no one on in the 8th and they are pitching around a guy. And after they walked him they couldn't get an out.
Is this really true? We always joke about never beating NC State in anything but have broken the bball curse (which has shifted to Clemson). But this is baseball and anyone can beat anyone on a given day. What's our ACC records vs them.
I didn’t realize the ACC reformatted the conference championship so now all 16 teams make it. So Pitt is in currently sitting at 12. Byes come into play if we can advance up a bit. We are currently 35 in the RPI so not out of ncaa playoffs quite yet even though 15-9
Yeah - our RPI should remain pretty high if we continue to avoid bad mid week losses ( like last year we took some terrible mid week losses )
I’d imagine 5-7 ACC teams make the NCAAs - so we could be in the mix .
Been the same story for a few years now: Decent position players, no pitching.
That is not enough to be in top 8.
