Advice for a 18 yr old pitcher.....

[Mannyortiz06]

I live in Ct and have played baseball my whole life , mostly concentrating on pitching , i was dominent through my 15 year old league where i developed major arm problems from over use and probabaly throwing a curve to early , im 18 now and have been playing on a senior babe ruth league for the past 2 summers , this year ive regained alot of arm speed and my curve has now become my bread and ubtter pitch ,( I thrown both a inside out and 12-6 curve , both of which have recently become very good) i only throw about 76-79 tops but i know how to pitch , i have good movement and a good psyce on the mound , my question is , when i go to college this fall what would be the best way to try to be a part of the baseball team..my idea was to approach the coach and offer to throw bp for the team and hope I can work from there , i wasnt able to play during high school alot due to arm problems and grades..... any advice would help ,also im now using my fastball off of my curveballs ( my slurve and 12-6) it seems to be working better thatn the opposite way around , last week in a complete game ( 7 in) i threw 106 pitches probabaly 65 of them being one of my 2 curveballs

[Jake Patterson]

Conatct the coach. Most schools offer an open tryout.

[Mannyortiz06]

Im not sure if im ready for a college baseball program workout quite yet though , i still have to baby my elbow , do you see any flaws in what i had planned?

[Jake Patterson]

Im not sure if im ready for a college baseball program workout quite yet though , i still have to baby my elbow , do you see any flaws in what i had planned?

Grades are the most important...
As far as your arm goes - see a physical therapist. They can test range of motion and strength. I would suspect that if you "feel" you are not ready you probably are not. There's nothing wrong with attending practices to get an idea of the expectations and tryout your sophomore year.

[Mannyortiz06]

Baby my elbow may not have been the best way to put it , i feel i need to get some more innings under my belt to strengthen it , as i feel actually puitching is the best way to strengthen it , thanks for the advice

[Mannyortiz06]

Also the grades situation is under control , but in my high school since i was nable to play junior year it put me on the coaches crap list , so it kind of blackballed me for senior year

[onbaseball]

As Jake mentioned, go see a physical therapist and/or doctor to find out how healthy your elbow is. If the elbow is OK, you can feel confident about going ahead with an accelerated throwing/conditioning regimen to get ready for fall baseball.

If you've been throwing all summer without issues, and a medical person says your elbow is sound, then you shouldn't need more than another 3-4 weeks to get ready for fall tryouts.

If your "plan" is to ask a college coach if you can be a BP pitcher, I'd say that's not a great plan. You're basically telling the coach that you want to show up and not compete. I'm not even sure he can let you on the field (for insurance purposes) unless you get a physical and fill out the same forms as the other players.

[Mannyortiz06]

Thanks for the input , its the end of summer run for my ball team , so i'l be able to put my arm to the test , since we have around 8 gaes in the next 2 weeks and we have 4 guys who throw , hey i threw another coplete game last time out... my duece is looking great...

[bosoxbb]

I went through a similar issue. I gave up pitching at the age of 14 because of arm/knee problems and parental politics. In the last couple of years I wanted to get back into the game. I'll be going into my Junior year in college, but I have spoken to the baseball coach about possibly trying out for this season or definitely my senior year. Most coaches are always on the lookout for pitching talent, especially bullpen help. That may be a way to get started at the college level if you are still unsure of your elbow. That was one of the first things the coach at my school said when I told him that I was interested in trying out after having some arm problems.