My son, Santi, is a Junior in High School. He is 5-10, 178 lbs, 17 years old, very athletic. He is somewhat strong —dead lift 350 lbs, front squat 210 lbs, 100 lbs bench press. He is also a smart kid, he scored 1400 in the SAT and 33 in the ACT, his GPA is 3.94. He is aiming at studying and playing baseball for a top academic university, Div II or Div III, in the West Coast or the New England area, may be Texas, Arizona or Florida. Here is the thing. Last autumn he took part of a couple of showcases for pitchers; his FB was clocked at 84 mph, however his FB ranged from 78 to 84 mph; that was a reason for concern, so we try during the off-season to work on closing the gap and being more consistent with his delivery. He lifted weights three times a week and worked with weighted and plyo baseballs. We just found out, during his HS tryout, that he is now throwing 76 to 80 Mph; he hit 80 mph just a couple of times. To be honest I’m kind of lost, don’t know what to do, how to help him. He is kind of frustrated because, on top of all this, he was told that he does not have the speed to pitch at Varsity level, so he most likely will be spending the year on JV. He thinks that he is losing the College baseball train. I told him that is early in the season, that he can regain some of the miles he lost, that summer ball is what really counts. Now Covid 19 happened and baseball has come to a complete halt. He replied to me saying that until we figure out the mechanics problem, regaining the speed won’t happen any time soon. I forgot to mention that he can throw the baseball end-zone to end-zone in a football field, that he can hit 87-89 when doing crow-hops. We want to stay positive, and think that summer ball will happen, that he will have a chance to show his best self to college coaches.
Again, in terms of what is going on with his fastball, I’m lost, this problem goes beyond my abilities. I would like to add that during his freshman season he consistently hit 80 mph and was dominant all season long. His sophomore season was a different story; he was injured and barely pitched during the season. Over the summer, he kind of made a come back, pitched more, but his fastball was again between 76 to 80 mph.
Below you will find a video to analyze. It was taken in October. He told me that during that bullpen he was clocked at 84 mph, although none of his fastballs hit the strike zone, all of them were high. On the other hand, most his off speed/breaking pitches hit the strike zone consistently and were clocked around 72 to 76 mph. What do you see? What is wrong with his mechanic? How it can be fixed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_FN92cx5WM
This second video was taken during the summer of 2019.
Thanks in advance for your comments and all your help.