Coach hasn't pitched me yet

#1

Ok, I am normally a position player anyways, I have been playing LF all season which I do like.

I want to pitch and I have been throwing to batters in practice but my coach hasn’t pitched me yet, even last week when all of our normal pitchers had been used in the round robin that weekend, the wind was blowing hard and the knuckleball was dancing like no other but even though he saw it and said I might get on the bump I didn’t. He even put me on the bench in case he needed me to pitch, we were getting clobbered and I still didn’t even get in to pitch.

Before I hear any cracks about the knuckleball being the reason, my coach has been talking to other people and me about how he would like to have a knuckleballer on the team but he just hasn’t put me in, nobody can hit it solidly in practice, heck half of the team can’t even catch it, my catcher can catch it but not anyone else.

#2

IDK you but it might be your attitude bud i dont know just hustle in practice and games and

#3

Does this coach have an agenda?

#4

Pustulio,

Glad to hear you want to be a pitcher. The knuckleball can be very effective pitch. There are a number of major leagues who have made a great living off of it: Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, Phil Niekro, and plenty others. Therefore, I would not worry about any criticism of that at all.

Now, based on what you have said about your pitching situation, it appears your coach has a genuine interest in seeing you pitch. It probably is just that he has some reservations about bringing in a new, untested pitcher in his mind. This shouldn’t bother you in any way as this would be the case with most coaches.

Now, since I know you really want to pitch. I would recommend you ask your coach to let you pitch in your next intersquad game. This would be a low risk event where he could see how you do in a game situation. This might alleviate any concerns he has. If the coach is not willing to consider this, you may want to directly ask him what concerns he has over your pitching. Essentially, you are letting the coach know you are truly interested in pitching. However, the one thing I would not do is being too pushy on this. Be diplomatic. If he is not willing to let you pitch, do not worry about it. If you are not a senior, you can always pitch for a summer league or fall league team. Then, the next year you will have a number of starts under your belt and you can state your case at that time with your coach. Basically, I am saying just keep practicing. Sooner or later, you will get your chance.

Hope this helps,
Jack Elliott

http://www.baseballtrainingtechniques.com/Baseball-Pitching/

#5

We don’t have enough people for scrimmaging or anything like that. We also don’t have HS ball in Wyoming so this is my summer league, we go from May to August. Our team sucks we’re like 4-11 and we have like 50 or so games left. Well I usually do hussle and my attitude well, not to be conceded I’m the most calm and positive guy on the team even though I’m not that great a player. I just ended my sophomore year. I have had compliments on my knuckleball from several teammates but also received criticism from others but those guys are the jerks on the team that have really bad attitudes.

Yesterday I started throwing a Gyro and it works really well with my knuckleball delivery so I think I may use that as my fastball like Bill Downs has been doing in the independent leagues. I have a pretty decent curve as well. I probably know more about pitching itself than some of the pitchers on my team, seriously one of them only throws curveballs and then complains that his arm hurts after his usually bad outings. We have two that walk everyone. Then we have two really good pitchers and those guys are awesome. Then our relief pitchers well one of them is good for only one inning and our other one hasn’t been to practice in a while and he may be quitting. I have some competition for getting on the mound though, my buddy is also taking up pitching and his velocity is greater than mine but my control and breaking stuff is greater than his. I’m pretty knowledgeable about the game in fact sometimes I feel like I know more on a certain topic than my coach but even though I know the game well I am not so great at executing.

Sorry for the wall of text but there it is.

#6

Pustillio old boy…train up a wolverine to attack on command and at the next practice…no…Buy a rabid pitbull…no…practice your marksmanship on a silloette with his picture on it…NOOOOOOO
All you can do in the situation at hand is continue with the good attitude and look for opportunities to show him your stuff. Attempt to talk to him (Before or after practice), let him know you can do the job for him (With 50 games left you may have a chance just because that is one heck of a bunch of games…and tends to be tough on pitching), let him know you can save a whole bunch of pitching because you can give him huge innings. Listen to what he says…if he has any hope, latch on to it and capitalize, if not I’m afraid you’ll have to attempt to find a new team. If you can’t find a new team then you just have to make the best of the bad situation and try to be happy you are playing ball at all.

#7

Pustulio,

Based on what you have said, I would have a talk with your coach and see if he will let you pitch. If he is unwilling, you will need to decide if you want to keep playing for this team if you can’t pitch. Regardless, I would look into other ways to develop your pitching: either thru joining another team that will let you pitch (as jdfromfla mentioned) or getting additional independent baseball pitching instruction and practicing your pitching on your own. You could even pitch in pickup games for the summer until next season. Just make darn sure you are developing into a good pitcher. Then, when next season comes around state that you can only pitch unless you still want to play other positions. Even if you have the same coach, you want to make it clear to him what it is you want to do. Also, I would recommend not getting caught up with working on too many pitches: 3 is plenty at the high school level and it takes most pitchers a long time to master those.

Best,
Jack Elliott
Baseball Training Tips
http://www.baseballtrainingtechniques.com

#8

Well there are no other teams unless I want to drive 2 and a half hours to Green River, WY and play on a team that already has like 20 or more players.

My coach said he wanted to get a session in with some batters to see if I can keep my knucklers in the strike zone. They were nasty yesterday so hopefully I get some attention from that. Nobody could catch them yesterday at practice, usually my catchers that I’ve worked with can but yesterday they weren’t there, I was hitting people in the chest a lot, it was hilarious. They were calling it the knuckleball from hell.

#9

You gettem boy!
If you are undeniable it won’t matter will it?
And if you love pitching 2.5 hrs is a small sacrifice…Looks like you may be getting in there so no worries.

#10

I won’t play at all if I go to Green River though they are a good team and they have tons of people on the team.

I’d rather play outfield than risk not playing at all.

Thanks for all the advice though.

#11

i suggest just asking him reasoning for not pitching you be nice work hard and practice hard show him what u have got … Godd luck pustilio

#12

Man my knuckler has been nasty the last couple of days I’ll try an see if I can pitch tomorrow if we start getting blown out again.

#13

keep asking your coach politely to pitch and NEVER quit

#14

Well, today we had a double-header, I didn’t pitch but I did get some real motivation from my coach.

He came over when I was warming up this morning and as usual I was throwing a few knucklers and he has talked to me before but today my coach just seemed different about it. He was talking to me about how he really would like to use me and he told me that tomorrow he would work with me on pickoff moves (well not literally to pickoff as I’m a righty but yeah) just to make sure I don’t balk at all when I do end up pitching. He sat with me for a while and told me specifically why he liked the knuckleball and why he thinks it’ll be useful so that was encouraging.

So I’m feeling pretty confident about me getting a shot at pitching sometime soon. Thanks for all the support guys.

#15

So actually talking to him worked :smiley:
Good for you…It’s always best to stick to it even when things don’t look so good :wink:

#16

I actually didn’t have to say much he came up to me and just sat down and had a chat with me about it and I was really encouraged by it. I didn’t get to work on it today because we spent so much time hitting today but hopefully next Monday when I see him at a practice again he’ll get me on there.