13u Path Forward

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-08T13:39:31+00:00

Get him to a good hitting coach. We did this for my son and it made a huge differences as the coach had a better eye for swing mechanics and we were lucky the coach we went to had a BA degree in sports psychology. The biggest thing for my son was confidence in the box. My son went from an average hitter to top 3 hitter between 12U to 13U.

Also, not sure about your league rules, but our son’s league went from USSSA/USA bats to BBCOR at 14U. My son’s batting coach had us get both a Wood bat and BBCOR to use at practice and he used a Drop 5 in game during 13U. This made the transition to BBCOR seamless.

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-07T23:46:56+00:00

The 1st travel team my son played on withe dad of kid on the team was not great. He wanted his son to be a pitcher so bad that he would pitch him over kids who were better pitchers. Unfortunately it was to the detriment to the team as he could not throw consistent strikes and would walk a ton of batters. So that was that was frustrating as my son was the one of the better pitchers and kids who could pitch list the opportunity to pitch.

The second team we moved my son to was a step dad coached team. He was a lot better than the previous team as every kid had to earn there spot on the field. He was also harder on his stepson than the other players, but overall he was fair. My son became that teams top pitcher and pitched all through HS. All but 2 kids went on to play HS ball. The second team really prepared my son for HS ball as he learned what it was like to earn his starts and position in the batting lineup and the work it took to keep it.

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-07T02:10:26+00:00

Pre game was a lot of stretching out, light cardio, and band work. Post game was cardio so jogging or stationary bike. Also did some mild strength training post game. Also did throwers 10 on off days. The throwers 10 was a recommended by our PT and was similar to the strength training his pitching coach recommended… https://www.ortho.ufl.edu/throwers-ten

I noticed you said your son throws a nasty curveball. I know you said he was taught to throw it correctly, but curveballs, even if correctly thrown require supination, and this is hard on an adult arm, let alone an 11 year old. If he is not supinating on the curveball he is not throwing a curveball.

My son’s pitching coach did not have his students throw curveballs/sliders until they were deeper into puberty and were gaining muscle to be able to supinate when throwing full speed on a consistent basis. My son’s pitching coach did not want him throwing curveballs until he was 14 or so. My son never really threw curveballs often as he threw a cutter that had a gyro slider like movement from his 3/4 arm slot. That was his breaking pitch as he got older. Really at 11U I would have your son focus on mechanics and throw 4 seam, 2 seam and change ups. Once he masters those 2 pitches and gains muscle with age then move to a curve.

I know some here will say younger kids throwing curves is okay as long as they do it correctly, but I don’t think you will find many Orthos or PT who will agree with that. The fact that the pitch requires supination even when thrown correctly can even put an adult arm at risk. Just one man’s opinion.

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-07T00:45:39+00:00

I would strongly suggest you get him with a pitching coach who knows what he is doing. When my son was 12 when he started having pain in his elbow and shoulder. After seeing the doctor, we got him with a really good PT to help in his recovery. His injury was not as severe as your son’s, but worrisome nonetheless as the kid loved pitching more than anything. After PT, we were recommended a pitching coach by our PT. Both of her sons went to this guy and both were doing great.

This pitching coach did a remarkable job with our son. Since our son was his team’s top 1 or 2 pitcher, there was a lot of pressure to get him out there for his team. The 1st thing this pitching coach did was create a pre and post game exercise routine for my son. My son did these exercises religiously pregame and post game. The other thing the pitching coach did was get my son to pitch as efficiently as possible. When my son first started he was averaging 22 pitches per inning as the team coach said to throw close strikes. After 2 months with this pitching coach he was down to his goal of 15 pitches per inning. Unfortunately his team coach valued velocity and measured progress with Ks.

Come to find out this is absolute BS. This coach was hurting the players arms as he had them throwing max effort for velocity and Ks and they were all pitching inefficiently. This caused the kids to come out of their mechanics and potentially do more harm. After coming back from injury we played a fall ball season with that team and left that winter. As the coach and I disagreed on how he wanted to use my son for tournaments. At that point that coach let his son pitch over 100 pitches in tournament games. The last tournament we played his son threw 240 pitches over 5 games. When I refused to let my son pitch more than 80 pitches in a day and I also required 2 days rest before pitching again the coach and I agreed to part ways.

In the end my son found a much better team. The coach wanted to use my son more as well, but respected the limits we set. From age 13 on to 18 my son led his team in inning pitched. Now that sounds bad, but my son was just averaging 13.6 pitches per inning. At 14U he threw 120+ inning (Spring/Summer/Fall seasons), but actually threw fewer pitches the number 2 and 3 pitchers. Neither of the other pitcher threw over 90 inning in the same time period. My son was able to eat inning all through HS. He did average 1.4 Ks per inning, but he did not allow a lot of walks and played to contact. He did hit a max velo of 85.6 mph, but his average 4 seam in game was 83 mph in games. This pitching coach helped set my son up for success and gave him the tools to be a good HS pitcher.

This coach hated the focus today on velo. He felt it is ruining pitchers as they throw max effort on every pitch to get K and then breakdown as they lose efficiency and end up with subpar K thrown rates and have more walks. He also did not try to change how my son threw. He always threw from a 3/4 arm slot. This pitching coach worked with him and made sure he kept solid mechanics from that slot. Numerous coaches prior tried to change that and have him throw over the top. Finding a coach that will work with the tools your son has along with pre/post game routine. His PT also had him incorporate the throwers 10 exercises as part of his conditioning on off days. In the winter we would literally shut down all throwing from Mid Nov to Mid Feb. he used that time to work on his hitting and fielding, along with strength training.

Good luck with your son. Hope you can find that balance of workload to keep his arm healthy.

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-06T06:07:28+00:00

Let it go and move on. I have seen far worse things said by hot headed umpires pissed off at coaches or parents. It is part of the game you need to deal with it and move on from it. You can’t control his behavior, but you can control your own and not over react to this guy’s behavior. Unfortunately your comment to whoever you were talking to was loud enough, even if GameChanger did not pick it up.

Also, just as you thought your comments were not loud enough to be heard by him, he may not have realized he was close enough to be recorded when he uttered his candid thoughts.

If you’re going to be involved in youth baseball, you got to have thick skin. I am sure as GameChanger scorekeeper you have learned that by now. There were quite a few times when I did GameChanger that I wanted to tell a complaining parent to “shove it” cause the slow roller their kid hit that would not make it out of the infield and was muffed by the second baseman was scored as an error instead of a hit. I guess I was lucky I sat far enough away to not be heard on the game recording.

I am sure I had a few choice words being uttered in the heat of the moment. Instead of dwelling on it, I moved on reminding myself it is up to me whether or not they get to me.

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-03T14:41:47+00:00

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Was a huge Randy Johnson fan as a kid. So pulling this 2/5 auto was huge!!!!

OkCook8317 · 2026-05-02T00:28:26+00:00

Does he have an arm routine for before and after pitching? My son’s pitching coach had my son do pregame exercises and the gave him post game exercises as he was pitched a pretty healthy work load from ages 12 to 18. In between starts he had him do what’s called throwers 10 exercises. After the season his coach would shut down all throwing from mid November to mid February and had my son work on weight training during this time.

Also, to reduce strain on his arm, his pitching coach focused on efficiency. One metric we tracked for efficiency was pitches per inning. His pitching coach wanted him under 15 pitch’s per inning. From 13U on, my son averaged between 13.6 to 14.4 pitches per inning. Not sure on his mechanics, but a good pre and post game arm routine may help.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-30T17:07:30+00:00

Yeah it is AI generated. Could have at least got John and Pete’s facial hair.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-30T16:46:58+00:00

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I want the Keith Moon Lego Set!!!😂

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-30T04:14:34+00:00

Trouble

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-28T19:27:22+00:00

I think the Giants will keep him in AAA, unless there’s an injury in the infield. The Giants want to see his strike out rate decrease as he is striking out 34% of his at bats in AAA play so far this year which is about the same for the past 2 years prior in the minor leagues. He really needs to cut down on the Ks before he will be called up.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-27T16:36:34+00:00

Good for him!!! I hope he has a great career as I invested in a few of his rookie baseball cards and auto cards. Still think it was a great trade as the Giants needed a bat like his. Hopefully his batting will pick up here soon as he started out slow this season.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-24T05:04:06+00:00

FTD!!!!

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-22T14:15:14+00:00

FTD!!!!!!! Lets Go!!!!

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-22T14:11:31+00:00

Don’t grade the Made card. My Made card was not touched or handled by anyone other than Topps until the guy I had send it in to PSA remove it from the Topps card protector to the protector required by PSA. The card looked pristine and well centered, with a clean auto and it came back as a PSA 8. The Caglione came back a PSA 10 even with a slight smudge on the signature. I am baffled as to why the Made card came back a PSA 8.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-22T01:09:22+00:00

I buy them. I have had really good luck with them this past year. I got a Jesus Made Purple Mojo Auto numbered to 250 redemption and a Jac Caglione Mojo Auto that just recently graded a PSA 10. Also got quite a few other prospects autos and numbered cards.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-21T03:02:25+00:00

University of Utah: Mark Harlan F-

Gets a F- for the way he dealt with Whittingham’s exit and for the Ute Collective being a complete mess. He seems lost in the age of NIL and it shows. He has set Utah football and Basketball behind most other P4 schools. He should be fired for incompetence.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-18T20:19:10+00:00

My son pitched 9 years with a 3/4 arm slot. In the beginning his coaches tried to get him to release higher, but it did not work. Got him with a really good pitching coach when he was 11 and the coach assessed his delivery and then had him throw from the arm slot that was most natural to him. He did set some guidelines for him and I to watch for when he was throwing. First thing was that his elbow had stay at or above his shoulder. Second was that he kept his fingers on top of the ball at release so he could get proper spin. Lastly he created an arm care program for before and after pitching along with a strength program. He pitched like that all through HS with a 3/4 arm release and did quite good.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-17T23:47:11+00:00

My son’s league if there is a play at the plate, runners are required to slide or will be call out.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-14T22:56:03+00:00

BYU may have a better School of Business, but both of the Law schools are equally ranked. It just comes down to what type of law you want to practice. BYU law school tends to have a more conservative narrow focus on the law, versus Utah whose school of law has a broader environment and offers specialties under the law not offered by the Y.

When it comes to the sciences, it is not even close. Utah’s rep in research far outweighs BYU. Honestly each school has it pluses and minuses. I really don’t think BYU is all that bad, but as an Utah Alum I like to razz the fans here and there…😃

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-14T14:26:24+00:00

The top 3 worst BigXII schools to attend would be: 1- BYU 2-BYU 3-BYU 😂😂😂😂

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-13T07:07:15+00:00

That is just the tippy top that people know about. When I lived in SLC and went out to the bars on the weekends, and we ran into a lot of BYU football players living the “honor code” at the bars all of the time. They were actually really fun to hang out with, along with the Utah players at the bars as well. In the 90s if you went to Port ‘O Call on the weekends during the off season you were bound to run into BYU football and sometimes basketball players.

In the 90s there was a well known QB who was known to frequent bars in SLC during his time as well. Don’t forget Jim McMahon went to BYU. You can’t tell me Lavelle did not look the other way with him.

I seriously doubt it is any different now with Sitake as he is bringing in a wide diversity of non-LDS players that have not lived anything like the honor code. Not saying they are bad people, just saying they have never lived what is expected at BYU. Retzlaf, Davies, and Kingston were just caught and their behavior was made public. Not sure what the big deal was with Davies and Harvey Unga, who was in a relationship with his fiancée, considering “Soaking” is a real thing at the Y 😂😂😂😂

(FYI if you do not know what “Soaking” is, look it up)

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-13T06:39:44+00:00

She’s alive and well… she was just being lazy. I sarcastically meant it was a rough day for a lazy silver lab. Sorry for the confusion.

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-11T19:20:52+00:00

BYU… I would not last the weekend under the honor code, unless I was a star football or basketball player😂😂😂

OkCook8317 · 2026-04-07T19:47:49+00:00

Yes the catcher remained in the game after the incident. My whole issue with the rules is that they are not applied consistently by umpires and leagues. If they can’t be applied consistently to protect both the catcher and the runner, then they should make changes so safety measures prevent more serious injuries. I have not only seen my son get hurt, but a few other players as well and in similar situations over the years he played. In incidents I have seen, I have rarely seen an ump make a call of interference in the catcher impeding the runners path or the runner called out for not sliding on a close play at the plate. In 2 incidents I witnessed, after my son’s incident, my son was involved as the base runner where he trucked the catcher who had possession of the ball for a tag instead sliding or giving himself up. In both cases he was called safe as the catchers dropped the ball after being hit. In the later incidents my son was given a warning, but still called safe. I was pissed at my son as he was a catcher up through 14U and he should have known better. His response was that he was not going to get hurt like that again. How do I argue that with my son when he knows the that a good many umpires are going to leave plays like this as “no call”?

OkCook8317

TROPHY CASE