MLB Pitchers that Coaches Should Recommend Youth Players Watch

MLB Pitchers that Make it Look Easy

Some starting Major League Baseball pitchers have unbelievable stuff ( baseball term for repertoire of pitches) consistently plus ninety-three mile an hour fastballs and superb off speed pitches to complement those fastballs. Guys like David Price, Steven Strasburg and Chris Sale are simply nasty and guys who, when healthy, are in the Cy Young chase, year in and year out. Pitchers, as those mentioned, with dominant pitches force hitters out of their comfort zones and because of that, get outs in ways that other less dominant pitchers cannot get. Hitters facing the best can only hope for a major mistake that they might be able to take advantage of hitting. The great MLB pitchers are fun to watch for everyone, including youth players, but often make pitching look too easy.

However, as implied, those Cy Young candidates have unbelievable pitches that most pitchers do not possess. It is all relative to the ages of players, as dominant youth pitchers exist also. However, most youth pitchers are not and never will have dominant stuff.

With that in mind, it is best that youth pitchers watch other MLB pitchers that have less dominant pitches, those who throw 88 to 92 miles per hour and who are more similar to their own abilities. In this way, youth players learn more about pitching with just average stuff and that they can still be very effective pitchers with average pitches. Following are a number of things that young players may better learn from those less dominant pitchers.

What's Better to Learn from Average MLB Pitchers

1. The importance of developing movement on the ball this is not easy for young pitchers, but good coaches should help young players learn the two-seam fastball and the change-up and the times to use them, because of the extra movement and speed those pitches create.
2. Not only the ability to throw strikes, as pitches down the middle often get clobbered with just average stuff, but the necessity of hitting different locations in and out of the strike zone.
3. The ability to throw strike one pitching ahead of the hitters is crucial to the average pitcher.
4. The ability to throw strikes with all their pitches, so batters can never totally rely on getting fastballs in fastball counts.
5. How to not just "give in" to batters when behind in the count it is never good to have the mindset of easing up and just laying the ball in there, at least as players move up to advanced baseball levels.
6. How to set hitters up the ability to use various pitches in various counts, in and out of the strike zone, is crucial for learning to pitch at any level.
7. Knowing which batters they have a better chance of getting out, so that they do not get beat needlessly by the best hitters. This is known as carefully pitching to some batters by only throwing pitches they cannot hit solidly, obviously and advance pitching method.

Of course, one can make the point that no MLB pitcher is average, but it is relative, of course. Every major league team has a pitcher or two that fit the above mold and that coaches should have players watch to learn the above criteria, with aging veterans as Mark Buerhle and Andy Pettitte the first ones to come to mind.