<p>What do Ivy league coaches look for when scouting pitchers i.e velocity threshold, size, repetoire of pitches, etc?</p>
<p>7Steps,</p>
<p>Welcome to CC. You look familiar? ;-)</p>
<p>Any baseball coach anywhere is going to look at velocity first. Period. End of story. That is a fact. I think the rest in subjective in terms of order, but I’ll take a shot.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Velocity fastball should be 87mph or better coming out of high school. Ivy pitching is more important than ever with the new bats.</p></li>
<li><p>Control - Can you spot 2 or 3 different pitch types in the strike zone where you want it.</p></li>
<li><p>Movement & Mechanics - release point, what kind of pitcher are you ie 3/4, over the top, sidearm, submarine. Are your mechanics “coachable”, and will they stand up for 4 years? Does your pitch have moverment or late break? Are your pitches deceptive? If so how?</p></li>
<li><p>Variety of pitches -Do the pitches you possess have the ability to get people out. What is your best pitch to get people out. Can your 2nd and 3rd pitches get people out? These are the questions pitching coaches are asking themselves. Are you a fly ball or ground ball pitcher…does that fit with the home ballpark? Are you equally effective with righties or lefties? Are you projected as a starter, or reliever.</p></li>
<li><p>Experience - have you pitched in big games, how do you handle pressure? What is the biggest game you’ve pitched in outside of HS?</p></li>
<li><p>Attitude, work ethic and willingness to learn - nuf said there, but very important.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If they like all of this, then the next step is to see if you can be admitted into the school. That is a seperate discussion. Obviously, you’ll need to be an excellent student to get into any Ivy or top school. However, I’m going to continue to focus on Ivy baseball pitching. Each Ivy team is roughly 30-35 players, so each school recruits 8 baseball players per year on average. 50% of the roster is pitchers, so it recruits 4 baseball pitchers per year. There are 8 Ivy teams x 4 pitchers equals 32 Ivy pitchers per year give or take a few. That is not very many, but I think it would be best if you contacted every Ivy to see their interest level… If there is interest, get yourself to one of their camps so they can get a good look at you and you can develop a relationship with the recruiter or head coach. Remember, they have a tough job finding the best pitchers they can find while get them admitted into the school. It is no easy task for them.</p>
<p>There are others on this board with Ivy pitching knowledge. It would be great if you can read what they write and formulate your own opinion. As always, if you have questions, please ask the board or PM me. Good luck and keep the good questions coming.</p>
<p>Hi fenwaysouth, nice to “see” you here.</p>
<p>I decided to pull out of the Stanford camp and officially enrolled in the first Headfirst camp on Long Island in August. The schools there seem to be a better “fit” for me and are more feasable options at the moment. </p>
<p>As far as velocity goes, I’m very pleased to have been increasing steadily in all of my throwing drills. I know for sure I’ll be at least 87 at Headfirst, in fact, hitting 90 seems more realistic than ever. Given the caliber of schools attending I’m sure hitting 87-90 would alone probably garner me some offers, but I’m targeting a few specific schools at the showcase (I’m sure you can guess which ones) that I really want to play for. That’s why learning the intangibles of “pitching” has come to the forefront of my focus for the moment.</p>
<p>On a side note, the summer team I’m playing for isn’t going to the Perfect Game events. I know the 17u tournament is huge and my coach has already said that he’d be willing to let me pick up with another team for the week. However, Cornell’s only camp date (one of my top choices) is the exact same time and I’m unsure about what to do. What do you think?</p>
<p>Once again, thanks for your thoughts.</p>
<p>7Steps,</p>
<p>Based upon what I remember about your goals, I think HeadFirst makes more sense for you than Stanford. I also think you will stand out more at HeadFirst than Stanford. With the exception of a few East coast teams, the Stanford camp is mostly West coast teams and West coast kids. There is a high supply/low demand thing going on in the West coast for baseball players. Have you noticed many East coast nationally recruited teams have a lot of CA & AZ players? That is kind of my point.</p>
<p>I would try to get a dialogue going with many of the D1 and Ivy schools now, because 2012 and 2011 baseball recruiting time is about to swing into high gear. You have eight Ivy schools, but you only need one to need you and want you. Send them an intro letter or email, and follow up every other week with an update on your progress and schedule. Look at the rosters and figure out who needs pitching. For example, a certain Ivy that I’m very familiar with lost 5 pitchers to graduation this year. If all goes well, you’ll get some D1 or Ivy responses and offers before your HeadFirst camp. If not, then your HeadFirst camp is the place you’ll make it happen.</p>
<p>To answer your question about PG or Cornell camp, I would find out if Cornell is genuinely interested first before committiing to their camp. The only way I would advise someone to not attend an event like PG is if the other event is a sure thing. By sure thing, I mean Cornell has told you they want you to come to their camp so they can have the whole baseball staff look at you , tour campus, etc. In other words, you have established communication and you are on their recruiting short list. Cornell camp gives you exposure to one school. PG gives you exposure to a hundred schools.</p>
<p>My son went to the Cornell camp AFTER a bunch of PG events junior & senior year, and HeadFirst (July between junior & senior year). So, they knew who he was, and they had an idea of what he could do. His attendence at the Cornell camp was a way to close the deal, as he had other offers he was considering. Cornell offered him at the camp, and he accepted. He really wanted to go there after just spending 48 hours on campus. He just knew. Hopefully, you can get attention at another event and get an invitation to specific select camp to close the deal as well.</p>
<p>Some schools recruit differently, and they put all of their eggs in one basket with HeadFirst for example. So it is very, very possible you may get a lot of interest from the HeadFirst schools, and they may request that you come to their specific camp as well. Each school is different, and you need to find out how & where each one gets their players. Ask the coach directly “where do you recruit most of your players?”. They’ll tell you. </p>
<p>Best of luck, and let me know if I can help.</p>
<p>Is velocity that important for the Ivies? Michael Roth just captained his South Carolina team to three College World Series finals and won two National Championships with an average pitch speed of about 77. He occasionally hit 87, but rarely.</p>
<p>I would think that the Ivies of all schools would recognize that there are pitchers like Roth, Josh Spence and Jamie Moyer who can get outs without “breaking windows.” They will have the fewest chances of D-1 schools to select radar gun pitchers given their academic standards.</p>
<p>Do you know the percentage of pitchers who hit 87 when your son went to Headfirst?</p>
<p>armynavy,</p>
<p>Welcome to CC.</p>
<p>My two cents…As a rule, velocity is the first thing that ANY college baseball pitching recruiter will look at. That is a fact of life. Yes, it is important for the Ivies or any pitching recruiter. Greater velocity gives you a greater margin for error. Roth CAN throw in the low 90s, but he is more effective his movement and control pitches. He also has one heck of an offense behind him. Roth and Moyer are left handed and very much the exception to the rule.</p>
<p>Most college pitchers that I know could blow it by folks in high school. They can;t get away with that approach in college. They will get hit and hit hard. College pitching coaches will teach their pitchers new pitches, and teach them how to avoid the hitter’s barrel with movement, location and deception. Again, velocity gives you a greater margin for error. Soft throwers typically come from the left side such as Moyer or Roth. </p>
<p>My son went to HF 3 years ago. I have no idea how many kids were throwing over 87, but it wasn’t many. We also went to East Cobb for the Perfect Game World Wood Bat in 2009, and there were a bunch of kids throwing over 90. D1 scouts everywhere. One kid in particular was over 100mph. I saw him pitch against the Florida Bombers and he got hit pretty well because his location and movement weren’t there that day. But, how many of those dozens of pitchers throwing 90mph were over 2100 on their SATS…I’m going to guess not many. This is one of the reasons we selected HeadFirst or showcases like HF, it was a way for my son to stand out.</p>
<p>There is no hard and fast rule about velocity and the various levels of college baseball. However, if you go to enough games you will notice it. For Ivys it is going be about velocity to get noticed, and SAT/ACT scores to keep you in the conversation.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have any questions.</p>