Not so championship baseball...

[MJPhotos24]

Defending champs, almost all returned for this year, all-state player, 0-2 record blowing leads in both....was assist. coaching and got only a couple sequences to send into the local rag so not much choice.


#1 - All-State pitcher, recruited as a middle infielder though.
http://www.fourseamimages.com/Pav.War.01.JPG


#2 - fightin the wind...one of those hard winds that takes 5mph off your FB and makes the deuce hang there.
http://www.fourseamimages.com/Pav.War.02.JPG



#3 - over 100 pitches by the 5th...too many errors today.
http://www.fourseamimages.com/Pav.War.03.JPG



#4 - Sophomore reliever, workin with this kid the last few years - will be a stud!
http://www.fourseamimages.com/Pav.War.04.JPG



#5 - got that Pettite stride a bit...
http://www.fourseamimages.com/Pav.War.05.JPG


Next up: Girls Softball; AHL hockey, MILB Baseball, HS Baseball - all within 2 days.

[Lesmac]

Nice tight action shots with a lovely clean BG, No4 is my pick.

[DaveL]

yes, #4 is great...

[namasste]

yeah Mike, #4 and I like the lighting on #1 as well. nice shots. 100 pitches that early huh, kid's arm musta been meat.

[fslshooter]

#1's my favorite -- love that shooting position if the pitcher doesn't lollipop his warm ups.

[cstewart]

100 pitches by the 5th inning!!! :eek: ...as a baseball coach myself I am appalled! That is way too many pitches for a young high school arm this early in the season, no matter how many nights rest he gets before he pitches again. There are many pro pitchers who are limited to 90-100 pitches in a full GAME and then they are yanked. Does the coach not have any other pitchers on the team? Our league is starting this year to implement rigid pitch count limits for our pitchers and 80 in a game is about the max that anyone can go, with a further limit of 160 in a week. And then there are various "night's rest" rules related to the number of pitches thrown in a game.

[MJPhotos24]

Thanks...lighting was strange at times, mostly dark but then bright, overall good. The last two had the low weird light.

Jerry, our field is enclosed, but the door is right where I was shooting from proped open a bit, no way to get any other angles so good for pitchers but not anyone else.

I've been a pitching coach for awhile and work closely with SEVERAL professional coaches and pitchers during the season. This kid has a routine and only pitches once in 7 days, he makes the call when he's done as he will not lie to stay out there. The pitcher that opposed us went all 7 and at least 40 more pitches - we thought a few times he'd be yanked because of that but nope. It was pretty much the only choice and he was expected to have a complete game as usual. All other pitchers had gone over the last 2 days (3rd game in 3 days) and three players were supsended.

I don't agree with pitch counts one bit as a good pitching coach will know how to work and develop a pitcher. Maybe at the middle school and JV level pitch counts would be good but once on varsity that should be out the window. The fact is around here though MANY coaches don't know how to develop pitchers, in our last game I ran my team out there and realized my starter hit his limit (that we implement, not the league) and told the coach of the other team we had to make a change - he was confused telling me his starter for that day (3 innings) would be starting again the next day - those are idiot coaches. Pitch counts are for those people that dont know what they're doing, someone tries to implement them for our league I'll be the first to try and make it "suggestions" and not a rule because I know how to develop pitchers.

[jcpoulin]

Nice series of pictures...hard to change angles and coach at same time!! Nice job!
As for pitch counts...re-think that! Every major league team, top college team supports the use of pitch counts, particularly early in season. Name a professional team that doesn't. This is particularly important in anyone who is not fully skeletally mature (16-18 in boys) and younger.

[MJPhotos24]

We do use pitch counts, it's why he came out of the game - limiting them to x-number though is not a cure all. Kids differ, you can't blanket them. This kid starts pitching WAY before most kids in this area do so his count is up higher than most since he started earlier (no he doesn't pitch year round - that'd be stupid). My pitching program is developed WITH many of the pro coaches you're speaking of - sooooo....I'll stick with it :)

[cgross]

good series